Benchmark Search Marketing Magazine - Issue 2 (Summer 2018)

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GOING HYPERLOCAL
THE BIG INTERVIEW
BENCHMARK 2018
Is hyperlocal search
the next big thing?
Canon’s Senior
Technical SEO, Omi
Sido talks to the team
Mobile-First Indexing Is Here!
Look ahead at our
upcoming Benchmark
Search Marketing
Conference 2018
MOBILISING
THE MARKET
Summer 2018
SEARCH MARKETING MAGAZINE

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Hello and welcome back to the Benchmark Search Magazine,
a quarterly publication from the team here at Click Consult. We
bring you a mix of news, features and opinions from across the
search marketing industry.
Those with a keen eye will notice that the first issue was titled
Go Viral but we have taken the decision to bring all of our
offerings in-line and have tied the publishing of this magazine
in with our industry leading conference - Benchmark Search
Conference 2018 - which takes place in September, hence the
name.
Our industry is dynamic and we are delighted to be bringing
you this magazine as part of our commitment to driving search
marketing forward.
With that in mind, and coinciding with this issue coming hot on
the heels of Google’s announcement that ‘Mobile-First’ is now
a real, live thing, we thought that we’d launch with copy that
focuses on what to expect moving forward and how to prepare
your business accordingly.
We have features and infographics on the big trends ahead
as well as predictions and theories on what might make the
biggest impact over the coming months.
We discuss Mobile-First, how to check if you are ready to be
indexed and the rise of hyperlocal search. We also have a
packed news section in which we look at the most important
developments of the last 3 months.
I hope that you enjoy this issue and that you pick up on a few of
the valuable insights our writers have provided.
Until next time….
Features:
Mark McGonigle
John Warner
Scott Rumsey
Chloie Brandrick
Omi Sido
Nick Wilsdon
Vlog:
Jacob Booth
Stuart Jones
Design:
Dave Ashworth
Chloe Ridgway
Published By
Click Consult Ltd
Address:
Unit B1
Willow House
Oaklands Office Park
Hooton
Cheshire, CH66 7NZ
Phone:
0845 8671 752
Website:
www.click.co.uk
Matt Bullas, CEO & Founder
A WORD FROM THE CEO CONTRIBUTORS
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P 12 -13
Mobile-First INFOGRAPHIC
Following Google’s confirmation of
Mobile-First indexing we look at the
history of mobile search in this handy
infographic
P 20 - 21
FROM OUR EXPERTS
Our Head of Organic Search, Mark
McGonigle looks at how the industry
reacts to Google algorithm updates
and how you can prepare and adapt
to them
P 22 - 27
BENCHMARK SEARCH
CONFERENCE 2018
We preview the 4th Benchmark
Search Conference which takes
place in Manchester this September
P 28 - 37
THE RISE OF HYPERLOCAL
SEARCH
Scott Rumsey looks at one of
the most talked about topics in
the industry and explains why
businesses should be branching out
into this area of search
P 38 - 42
THE BIG INTERVIEW
Chloie Brandrick speaks to Canon
Europe’s Senior Technical SEO, Omi
Sido about balancing content led
SEO and the more technical side of
the industry
P 43
OUR RESOURCES
The chance to download on of our
free resources. In this issue we
showcase our ‘Making the move to
mobile’ boxset
P 44 - 45
SEARCH MARKETING 101
Relive all the action from Benchmark
2017 with Vodafone’s Nick Wilsdon
and his insightful talk on the Mobile-
First Index
P 46 - 51
KNOWLEDGE BASE
We hear from John Warner on some
of the search marketing factors that
are picking up traction in 2018
P 14 - 17
THIS QUARTER IN SOCIAL
Adam McKinley covers all of the
latest social media developments
and stories of the last 12 weeks
P 18
ON.CLICK VLOG
Senior Organic Search Strategist,
Stuart Jones discusses the SEO
factors that can have the greatest
impact on your organic rankings
P 5 - 11
INDUSTRY NEWS
A round up of everything search
marketing, bringing you the most
important updates of the last few
months
CONTENTS

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While it has been on the cards since 2016, Google has
recently announced that Mobile-First is in the process of
rolling out.
For anyone following the Click Consult blog, it will be no
shock to hear about the existence of Mobile-First – we’ve
been reporting on it since it was first announced, writing
our first article in May of 2016 and a second following the
official announcement in the November of the same year.
What may be surprising is that it’s taken so long. Google
even goes so far as to note the wait in their official
announcement on the Webmasters blog:
Fan Zhang, Software Engineer, Google
“Today we’re announcing that
after a year and a half of careful
experimentation and testing, we’ve
started migrating sites that follow the
best practices for Mobile-First indexing.”
There was also a statement about the potential sending
of confirmation messages through Google Search
Console to tell people when they have been switched
(though, to my knowledge, no one has received one).
While this may happen eventually, for the time being,
there is always another blog here which will help you spot
whether the switch has been made.
It remains to be seen how the rapid pace of change in
mobile technology drives search forward, with a recent
report from Searchmetrics highlighting the need for a
‘Universal Search’ approach, rather than a mobile or
desktop focus, but the first push has finally arrived and it
will certainly be interesting to participate in the evolution
of the industry.
Mobile-First FINALLY CONFIRMED BY
GOOGLE
GOOGLE REMOVES
‘VIEW IMAGE’ OPTION
Google has removed the ‘view image’ button from search
results – now people only have the option to see the
picture on the page that hosts it. The popular button’s
removal is part of a settlement that Google reached
with Getty Images after the stock photo provider filed a
complaint with the European Commission in 2016, which
accused the search giant of “creating captivating galleries
of high-resolution, copyrighted content” that fail to direct
users to an image’s original source site.
GOOGLE AD REVIEWER IN
‘CLICK FARM’ CLAIM
Moderators who have worked for Google say they were
put under pressure to label content as ‘family safe’ even
though they did not understand the language of the
material. A former Google employee told The Times the
Dublin-based team sometimes resembled a ‘click farm’,
such was the speed at which they were required to
approve content.
The team, part of an operation run by Accenture on
behalf of Google, review material on behalf of AdWords
and YouTube to ensure nothing illegal or inappropriate
is posted. Google promised to recruit 10,000 content
reviewers by the end of 2018 amid increasing concerns
from advertisers about the type of content posted on
platforms such as YouTube.
In response to the allegations, Google said it “demand[s]
high standards of our contractor companies and never
ask them to prioritise speed over careful review of ads.
“We continue working closely with Accenture to maintain
high standards,” a spokesperson said.
Keeping up to date with everything that the search marketing world
throws up can be difficult, but as you know by now, here at Click Consult
we are dedicated to keeping you informed and making the constant
updates easily digestible. With that in mind let’s look at what the industry
are talking about in this quarter in search…
INDUSTRY NEWS
INDUSTRY NEWS

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INDUSTRY NEWS
Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is
promoting a ‘Loyalty Prediction’ AI ad service tool that lets
advertisers target users based on predicted behaviours
versus past actions, according to a leaked document
seen by The Intercept.
FACEBOOK ADS IN FRESH
PRIVACY CLAIMS
FACEBOOK VS BELGIAN COURT
A Belgian court has ordered Facebook to stop tracking
people without their consent and to delete all the data on
non-Facebook users that it said was collected illegally,
the BBC has reported.
The social network could face fines of up to $311,000
a day — up to $125 million — if it does not comply. The
decision marks latest chapter in longstanding conflict
between the Belgian data privacy commission and the
social media giant.
However, there’s an extension for Chrome that brings
back the defunct button.
GOOGLE CHANGES REQUEST
RECRAWL LIMITS
Google has removed the quotas in the Search Console
interface for how many URLs you can resubmit to Google
from the Fetch as Google tool, reports Search Engine Land.
Now, Google has updated its help documentation page
to specify exactly what changes have occurred with these
recrawl limits and quotas. Google said:
For the “Crawl only this URL,” the limit is now “up to 10
individual URLs per day.” It used to be 500 individual
URLs within a 30-day period.
For the “Crawl this URL and its direct links,” the limit is
now “up to 2 of these site recrawl requests per day.” It
used to be “up to 10 requests of this kind within a 30-day
period.
Google has combined its two payment services, Google
Wallet and Android Pay, into a new app: Google Pay.
INFLUENCER ADVERTISING RULES
“CONFUSING AND UNCLEAR”
61% of the UK public believe influencers don’t have to
disclose that they have been paid to talk about a product,
research by competition agency Prizeology has found.
The regulations governing how social media influencers
advertise products online are confusing and unclear
with the UK public overwhelmingly believing the system
should be more transparent, new research reveals.
Sarah Burns, Managing Director of Prizeology and a
leading expert in compliance and regulation in the
promotional marketing sector said: “The results are
extremely interesting and overwhelmingly show a shocking
lack of knowledge and confusion amongst all age groups –
including teenagers – about the way that brands use social
media influencers to advertise their products.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has a tough
job on its hands, but more must be done to enforce the
rules and educate the public and influencers themselves
as to what is acceptable and what is not. In fact, our
survey revealed that 71% of those we questioned feel that
the ASA should be doing more to force disclosure.
DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING:
2018 DIGITAL TRENDS
Companies are continuing to focus on customer
experience (CX), as well as the content required
to facilitate this, according to recent research, and
organisations committed to CX are shown to outperform
their peers.
eConsultancy and Adobe’s annual global survey of 12,795
marketing, creative and technology professionals also
found:
• Data-driven marketing increasingly seen as exciting
opportunity.
• Investment in technology and related skills is paying
dividends, with integrated platforms fast becoming a
prerequisite for success.
• AI is set to play a growing role in helping marketers to
deliver more compelling real-time experiences.

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INDUSTRY NEWS
Google has announced that it’s embarking on a project to
convince the group in charge of web standards to adopt
technology inspired by its Accelerated Mobile Pages
(AMP) framework. If successful, this would mean that
virtually any webpage could gain the same benefits as
AMP: near-instantaneous loading, distribution on multiple
platforms, and (critically) more prominent placement on
Google properties.
It said in a blog post: “We are taking what we learned
from AMP, and are working on web standards that will
allow instant loading for non-AMP web content. We
hope this work will also unlock AMP-like embeddability
that powers Google Search features like the Top Stories
carousel. Meanwhile, AMP will be Google’s well-lit path
YouTube has announced that its updated YouTube Studio
channel management tool – previously called ‘Creator
Studio’ – will now become the default for all creators,
after being in beta testing for the last eight months.
YouTube Studio is designed to be your one-stop shop
for all your channel management needs – including
organising your channel, analytics, managing your videos
and interacting with fans.
The upgraded YouTube Studio merges more functionality
into one tool, with a particular focus on streamlining
communication between fans and other creators. And
as part of the expanded roll-out, YouTube has also
announced a set of new metrics to help creators better
understand their channel performance.
WIDER AMP ROLLOUT PLANNED
YOUTUBE ADS NEW ANALYTICS
The Intercept’s story notes the document does not define
the exact user information Facebook is indexing through
its prediction engine for the service, but it does list
location, device information, WiFi network details, video
usage, affinities and friendship details.
The Intercept reports: “One slide in the document touts
Facebook’s ability to ‘predict future behavior’, allowing
companies to target people on the basis of decisions they
haven’t even made yet.”
This would, potentially, give third parties the opportunity
to alter a consumer’s anticipated course. Here, Facebook
explains how it can comb through its entire user base of
over 2 billion individuals and produce millions of people
who are ‘at risk’ of jumping ship from one brand to a
competitor. These individuals could then be targeted
aggressively with advertising that could pre-empt and
change their decision entirely — something Facebook
calls ‘improved marketing efficiency’.
to creating great user experiences on the web. It will
be just one of many choices, but it will be the one we
recommend. We will continue to invest heavily in AMP.
A key example of how we continue to innovate on user
experience on the web are AMP Stories and we hope to
provide insights to future web standards along that way.”

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The team behind Google AMP has launched a new
feature called ‘Render on Idle’ now available for
publishers using the DoubleClick AMP ad tag, and any
ad network choosing to implement Fast Fetch can also
take advantage of it. With Render on Idle, ads load 12
viewports from the user’s scroll position (as opposed
to 3) when the browser is idle, no other page content
is being retrieved or rendered. This delivers better ad
performance by loading ads earlier in the page lifecycle.
Keith Wright, AMP Project’s Technical Lead, says:
“In early tests with publishers using
DoubleClick AMP ad tags, we’ve seen
a 13% increase in impressions per
page (giving Fast Fetch an overall
+18% increase compared to Delayed
Fetch) and 0.5% increase in clicks and
viewable queries from this feature.”
The pub chain took to Twitter to announce it would be
deleting its social media accounts, including Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter itself. The pub chain linked the
move to bad publicity surrounding social media including
the trolling of MPs.
The Google Home smart speaker has finally added voice
calls in the UK, catching up with its Amazon rivals. Google
announced the feature was coming to its smart speakers
last May with US customers being able to make hands-
free voice calls since August.
Search outstripped social in the percentage of overall
traffic that it delivered in 2017 – reversing a trend of
social dominance that began in 2014 – research has
shown.
Content marketing platform Shareable looked at
externally referred traffic from over 400 million internet
users and 250,000 mobile and desktop sites. A year
ago site visitors were more likely to be referred from
social networks, but search seems to have made a
comeback in 2017.
Chairman Tim Martin told the BBC
“We are going against conventional
wisdom that these platforms are a vital
component of a successful business.”
NEW AMP FEATURE TO TO LOAD ADS
FASTER WHEN BROWSERS SIT IDLE
WETHERSPOONS ABANDON
SOCIAL MEDIA
GOOGLE HOME ADDS CALLS
SEARCH TRUMPS SOCIAL FOR
CONTENT DISCOVERY
INDUSTRY NEWS

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Rolled out in October as a trial across six different
countries, the feature has been dropped after just a few
months.
The idea behind the Explore Feed was to show Facebook
users more content across the social network, beyond
posts from friends and Pages they already followed, such
as that similar to those they’d already liked, or those
popular among their network of friends, and included
posts, articles, photos and videos from sources like
Facebook Pages and other posts from publishers or news
organisations.
This basically split the feed into two, but Facebook
received complaints from users in the test countries
that this made it harder for people to access important
information, and that the social giant didn’t communicate
the test clearly.
The API enables you to pull Bing Knowledge Graph
information about people, places, things, and local
businesses into your sites and apps. It allows developers
and creators to programmatically pull in Bing Knowledge
Graph structured data on topics such as people, places,
things, and local businesses into their application, blog, or
website for a more engaging user experience, and is similar
to Google’s Knowledge Graph Search API. The Search
Entity API is now available in the UK, US, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, and Spain.
BING ROLES OUT SEARCH ENTITY
SEARCH API
FACEBOOK ENDS ITS EXPERIMENT
EXPLORE NEWSFEED
Search drove 35% of site visits in 2017 compared to 26%
from social. Shareaholic consider the changes to the
Facebook news feed algorithims to be a major factor
in the shift over the last 12 months. Another important
factor is that search engines are indexing more and
more social content and including it within their rankings
and results pages. This means that internet users are
increasingly finding social content being aggregated by
search engines, rather than only being accessible through
searches on individual social media networks.
On its blog, Facebook’s Adam Mosseri admitted:
“People don’t want two separate feeds.
In surveys, people told us they were
less satisfied with the posts they were
seeing, and having two separate feeds
didn’t actually help them connect more
with friends and family.”
He added that Facebook was acting on the feedback by
updating the way it evaluates where to test new products,
and how it communicates about them.
INDUSTRY NEWS

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Search Engine Land reports a coming war between Google
and Amazon as their advancement into new spheres finally
sees the two tech giants entering the other’s primary market,
with Amazon selling advertising and Google becoming a
retailer. In a blog that, amongst other things, deals with plans
to conscript every human in to a military force bearing the
logo of the tech company with which they have spent most
time, with family against family and brother against brother
in a bloody fight to the death to see which company gets to
use humanity as power cells in their future world spanning
machine intelligence, and also where you should spend your
advertising budget. A must read.
Another domino fell recently in what must be another step
to stem accusations of Facebook data mismanagement in
the wake of the Cambridge Analytica investigation as the
social media giant cut off API access to both Instagram and
Facebook. The news, seen here at Tech Crunch, which has
taken a lot of social media focused companies by surprise, will
likely cause ripples across the digital sphere that we’ve yet to
fully see. The Tech Crunch article has a lot useful information
on the move from Facebook, with a summary of the changes.
WORD WAR E
FACEBOOK APIPOCALYPSE
INDUSTRY NEWS
READ NOW

12
1984
1999
2007
The first
commercially
available
handheld
mobile.
Contributed heavily to
the rise of the modern
smartphone with its
large, touchscreen
interface.
The first WAP
(mobile internet
precursor)
enabled mobile
phone.
THE MOTOROLA DYNATAC 8000X
NOKIA 7110
IPHONE, 1ST GEN
Mobilegeddon
was the name given
to the April 2015
algorithm update
that pushed
webmasters to
implement better
mobile practices.
Siri became the first widely
available voice interface for
mobile.
In 2008 Google Play
App Store paved the
improved mobile exp
of the web.
An early mobile
webpage -
viewed with
Opera Mini
mobile web
browser.
The seco
Friendly u
time inclu
speed as
fac
The first smart speaker, Ama
Echo hit the market in 2014 a
now in more than 60 million h
in the US alone.
1984 - PRESEN

13
and the
e way for
perience
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages is
an open source initiative designed to
provide a positive and rapid mobile
experience.
In 2016, mobile
search exceeded
those performed
on desktop - a
trend that has
continued in the
interim.
As of 2017, 25% of all
searches were voice
searches. This is
predicted to reach
50% by 2020.
Announced in 2016, the Mobile First Index
took until 2018 to fully roll out, with Google
using the mobile version of a site ahead of
the desktop purposes of ranking.ond Mobile
update - this
uded load
s a ranking
ctor.
Launched 2017, the
Mobile Interstitial
Penalty devalued
sites that use
intertitial pages
(between SERPs and
the linked to content)
which negatively
impacted the mobile
experience.
azon
and is
homes
Google Assistant debuted
in 2016, it was intergrated
into various Google
products and sold almost 7
million devices over
Christmas in 2017.
1ST
With voice search likely to surpass standard search in the
early 2020s, and the processing power of handheld
devices growing all the time, wearable devices and
internet ready appliances (IOT) into our everyday life.
While this may spell the end of traditional SERPs, the
increase in screened voice devices and inevitable rise of
interrogative search will see SEO take on greater rather
than diminished importance.
NT: FROM BRICK TO QUICK

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Through all the news of Facebook’s algorithm changes, fake
news stories and privacy woes, it’s always the first when it
comes to new technologies for posts that can really benefit
brands and companies using the channel for its marketing
efforts.
The company recently introduced 3D posts, letting people
interact and see 3D models directly on their news feed, with
the likes of LEGO, Wayfair and Sony Mobile being the first to
showcase these. So how can brands use this feature? Well
instead of a simple picture of your product (a car for example),
the user can now click and spin the 3D image to analyse the
product in more detail. Artists using 3D authoring software
can directly drag/drop their 3D files to Facebook to create a
3D post. Expect to see this a lot more throughout next month,
and the first foray into their future plans of VR.
Every brand should be using Instagram’s ‘stories’ feature, and
with last month’s update on being able to feature stories on
a brand’s profile, it’s a great opportunity to be creative with
promoting your products and services, along with gaining an
insight into which followers are switched on and viewing your
posts.
Well now it’s easier than ever for companies to be ‘fun’ with
their posts with both Instagram and Snapchat introducing the
ability to add gifs to your pictures and videos. It’s as simple as
swiping up on your post, searching for a GIF topic and placing
this in the desired position, along with hashtags, location tags
and more text fonts than ever before. It’s time for brands to
get creative.
FACEBOOK ENTERS THE WORLD OF 3D SPRUCE UP YOUR INSTAGRAM AND
SNAPCHAT STORIES WITH GIFS
ABOUT OUR EXPERT - ADAM MCKINLEY
After studying Media Professional Studies & Television at Liverpool John
Moores University, Adam discovered an interest in social media and went
on to work for Cream/Creamfields as a digital executive, using his interest
in digital and skills learnt from his course to edit videos, create assets for
social purposes, and manage social accounts with a combined following of
over 1.5 million. Since joining Click, Adam has worked on several high profile
social media accounts.

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This is definitely something everyone has been crying out
for on Instagram, the ability to schedule posts through social
media management tools, in the same way as you would
for the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Gone are the days of
social media managers setting an alarm to make sure they’ve
posted on Instagram.
As you might know, Facebook = Instagram, and last year
they introduced business profiles on Instagram, where you
connect it to your Facebook business page for extra insights
on the app. Well now, if you’ve connected them up, you’re
able to schedule through Hootsuite and Sprout Social, with
rumours of more social media management tools offering this
service in the future.
If you’re a business on Instagram, you’ll know all about the
struggles when it comes to linking through to certain content
or sites, other than the one link available in the bio. Well, the
latest update from Instagram helps slightly, you can now
include clickable hashtags and profile @s in the bio, making it
easier for people to click through (and follow) your bespoke
campaign hashtag, or any sister profiles you might have.
So what’s an effective way of using this update? Create a
bespoke hashtag for your Instagram campaign, and use
this for every post on your timeline you upload. Once the
campaign is complete, or during campaign, prompt people to
see all the posts in one place by including it in your bio with
something like “View our launch at #_______”. This is an
effective way to promote your campaign in the same way you
would in the likes of Twitter. This works well with last year’s
Instagram update of following hashtags.
If it’s a profile page you’re including in your bio, then
Instagram send a notification to that account, letting them
know you’ve added this, they can then remove it if it isn’t
relevant. Time to edit your bio!
The second and most substantial update as far as Instagram
goes is the rolling out of a new shopping experience in the
platform to the UK market.
With shopping on Instagram, users are given a visual
shopfront to explore new products from businesses they
follow. With easy access to pricing and product details,
shoppers can tap on a tagged post within feed or through the
shop button on a business’s profile. Businesses in Australia,
Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK will
now have access to the tool.
With more than 200 million accounts visiting one or more
business profiles daily, shopping on Instagram offers more
opportunities for businesses to showcase their products, and
more time for people to explore the brands and products
they love.
SCHEDULE INSTAGRAM POSTS (FINALLY)HASHTAGS AND MENTIONS IN
INSTAGRAM BIOS PLUS NEW
‘SHOPPING EXPERIENCE’

16
LinkedIn is changing, and changing fast. Following on from
its recent mobile app update allowing users to upload native
video to profiles, it’s now introduced its joining Snapchat and
Instagram in letting you add text and video filters prior to
uploading.
Whether you’re an avid video creator or your standard
recruiter looking to stand out from the crowd on the platform,
this is a good move. We already know it’s a highly successful
feature on other platforms, and with the company itself
recently saying that video content is being shared 20 times
more than other content, it makes sense. There’s not many
filters and text styles to currently pick from but as it becomes
more popular this would change. Perfect for getting your
message across in a more creative way, and allowing people
to share the message directly with the text overlay.
When Facebook recently changed the way people see their
news feed, it also announced it will put more emphasis on
priorities local news on our timelines, and after being rolled
out in the United States, it’s now arriving in more locations,
including the UK.
In a statement, Facebook said: “Local news helps people
connect to their communities,” and with communities being
their main focus on changing the news feed in the first place,
this was an expected update. So what does this mean? Well,
there will be more posts on timelines from local news sources
from the city the user lives in, and any other locations the user
has noted down as previously living in, or a fan of visiting. For
publishers, this means that Facebook will automatically help
them reach audiences more effectively in the cities they want
to be viewed in, including surrounding areas.
LINKEDIN ADDS TEXT AND FILTERS
FOR VIDEO
FACEBOOK MAKES A SMALL CHANGE
TO PRIORITISE LOCAL NEWS

18
FROM OUR EXPERTS
How much of an impact do factors such as external
links, Page Quality Score and page speed have on
organic ranking? Click Consult’s Senior Organic
Search Strategist, Stuart Jones, explains all in this
vlog.
Stu walks through how to use regression analysis for
predicting ranking positions organically. If ‘regression
analysis’ sounds scary, don’t worry. In this case, it’s
a way of statistically analysing the impact of factors
such as external links, Page Quality Score and page
speed on organic ranking positions, enabling you to
make predictions about future performance.
Stu takes you through the process step-by-step with
screenshots, using an example data set for one of
our own clients. He also shares the Python script
he references in the tutorial to help you carry out
the process for your own website.
“Google tells us that there are over 200 ranking
factors”, explains Stu, “But the truth of it is nobody
knows exactly what they are so we have to play
with the data that we have at hand and that
we know to some degree affects the output of
Google’s search engine ranking pages (SERPs) and
where you sit for certain keywords.”
Stu is interested to explore this topic more and
welcomes any comments or other input you
might have!

19
FROM OUR EXPERTS
2 0 1 8
Apply Today!
Speakers include representatives from:
Hilton Manchester Deansgate
05/09/2018
To find out more - visit the Benchmark Website

20
FROM OUR EXPERTS
The ever so often cry of businesses, and business
owners, around the world when Google is either testing
or is in the process of rolling out an algorithmic update.
Search engines are constantly improving the search
experience and, as a result, search engine optimisation
is a continual transformation ranging from small daily
updates to more significant updates several times a year.
So it is unlikely that these cries are going to stop!
The latest update appears to be around content and
intent further, and pages that were previously under
rewarded have now been rewarded. This can only lead
to further speculation that this maybe in line with either
machine learning, optimisation for voice search or further
refining the user intent journey.
But the challenge for businesses is to play the SEO
game and it isn’t to understand the science behind the
algorithms but to understand their own strategies through
actual data in relation to competitors around them.
This will include plugging gaps in content through to
ensuring strong natural links are continually earned and
ensuring all SEO technical issues are in line with Google
webmaster guidelines. You also need to ensure that the
overall user experience on your site is of a high quality
for users, this will include page load speed, mobile
experience and a natural flowing site structure.
OH NO,
WHAT HAS
GOOGLE DONE
NOW?!
Over the past few years, it has been both exciting and
challenging for SEO’s, marked by a series of algorithm
updates, evolving techniques and fast-advancing tools.
To stay on top of the trends and changes businesses are
utilising SEO tools, and certainly SEO agencies, further as
to ensure they are prepared for the ever evolving shape
of search engine optimisation.
So where is SEO in 2018 taking us, now this is the big
crystal ball question, it is expected that machine learning,
voice search to the increasing role of RankBrain in
providing search results, we’re expecting bigger changes
on the horizon. We already know that mobile experience
is a factor, and is likely to be refined further.
In December 2017, John Mueller tweeted about
webmasters asking for voice search data in Google
Search Console, which gives us the insight that large
scale marketers are now starting to optimise for voice
searches – with Google obliging and providing the
relevant data.
More and more tech giants are investing in virtual
assistants and, by extension, voice search. Google have
launched Google Assistant and Google Home, Apple has
Siri, Microsoft has Cortana, Amazon has Alexa – these
investment are by no means coincidental and could be
the main route SEO is taking.
I still expect to hear “Oh no, what has Google done now!!”
many more times over the forthcoming year!!
ABOUT OUR EXPERT - MARK MCGONIGLE
Having worked previously in the public sector, Mark joined Click in 2014. Mark is
responsible for the performance of the Organic Search proposition which Click offers. He
provides support to the Account Management and Business Development teams, and
also manages the technical and strategy teams to find solutions to performance issues
and strategies.

22
The one-day event has been designed exclusively for
senior in-house marketing professionals and features
world-class speakers that cover all of the need-to-know
search marketing topics to develop and advance your
brand’s search engine presence, including:
Organic search (SEO) – how to achieve and maintain
your brand’s ranking in natural search engine results and
ensure your customers can easily find you
Paid search (PPC) – driving targeted traffic to your
website by showing ads in search engine results when
people search for related keywords
WHAT IS THE BENCHMARK SEARCH
CONFERENCE?
BENCHMARK 2018
Social media – enhancing brand awareness and
advocacy to support your search visibility; your social
authority is increasingly considered by Google as a
ranking factor
Content marketing – how to be smart with your content
campaigns to build trust and credibility by returning
relevant answers to search queries, and earning quality
backlinks
BENCHMARK SEARCH
CONFERENCE
Passionate about your brand’s online performance?
Looking to upskill and ramp your search marketing
knowledge up a notch?
Benchmark Search Conference is the North’s leading
search marketing event, offering an inspiring, engaging
and entertaining day where world-class experts discuss
the latest strategies and techniques, and share their own
success stories.
Now in its fourth year, Benchmark has established a
reputation for attracting the best search marketing
thinkers and speakers from a diverse range of global
brands covering subjects across SEO, PPC, content
marketing and social media.
Highlights of last year’s event include Canon Europe’s
Omi Sido discussing RankBrain and what it means for
the world of SEO in 2018, Bas van den Beld talk through
the power of storytelling within content marketing and
Vodafone’s SEO Lead, Nick Wilsdon, talk about Google’s
Mobile-First Index and what brands need to do to prepare
for this event.

23
BENCHMARK 2018
Benchmark is for you if:
- You’re a senior in-house marketing professional who’s
passionate about achieving search marketing success
- You want inspiration to become a better marketer
- You’ve got a desire to learn and get actionable insights
and practical advice from the best in the industry
- You want to meet other digital marketing professionals
who are on your wavelength
- You’re not satisfied with simply ‘adequate’ performance
when it comes to your brand’s online visibility
- You fancy spending a productive day out of the office in
a friendly and collaborative atmosphere
WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?
Benchmark Search Conference is a unique event which
provides an unparalleled opportunity to network with
over 200 of the UK’s senior in-house/client side SEO
and PPC marketing professionals – all this, throughout a
day of interactive activities and cutting-edge ideas. This
year, the conference takes place on 5th September at
Manchester’s Hilton Deansgate.
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:
To enquire, contact Click Consult on 0845 205 0292 or email hello@click.co.uk
Sponsorship of this event offers your business:
- High quality lead generation opportunities with highly
targeted delegate audience
- A chance to develop contacts with speakers who are
highly influential within the digital marketing industry
- Augmentation of your existing marketing and advertising
activities

24
BAS VAN DEN BELD
Digital Marketing Strategist
State of Digital
BEN IRONS
Digital Director
notonthehighstreet.com
KERSTIN REICHERT
SEO Team Lead
TSB Bank
JO TURNBULL
SEO & Online Marketing
Specialist, Search London
ELLIE ENGLAND
Sales Director
Bing Ads
DAVE KARELLEN
Head of Paid Search
Click Consult
JAMES ROWLAND
Search Manager
Thomson Reuters
JOHN WARNER
Marketing and Content
Executive, Click Consult
SABRINA GARUFI
Agency Development Manager
Google
JON MYERS
Chief Growth Officer
DeepCrawl
OMI SIDO
Senior Technical SEO
Canon Europe
NICK WILSDON
Search Product Owner
Vodafone Group
KRISTAL IRELAND
Head of Ecommerce& Retail,
Virgin Trains East Coast
SHYAM DATTANI
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Searchmetrics
VICTORIA OLSINA
Search & Acquisition Manager
Barclays
IRUM SULTANA
Head of Social
Deloitte UK
LUKASZ ZELEZNY
Head of Organic Acquistion
uSwitch.com
RUMYANA MITEVA
Head of Search
Secret Escapes
FILI WIESE
SEO Consultant
SearchBrothers.com
COLIN WOON
Global Head of SEO
William Hill
BENCHMARK 2018

25
PANEL SESSIONS
Our speakers have a breadth of search marketing wisdom
and experience to share, but how will you put theory into
practice when you get back to work?
Panel Session 1 (1 hour)
Succeeding in Google’s Mobile-First World
James Rowland
Search Manager, Financial & Risk, Thomson Reuters
Jo Turnbull
Strategic Account Manager, Searchmetrics
Omi Sido
Senior Technical SEO, Canon Europe
Colin Woon
Global head of SEO, William Hill
Panel Session 2 (1 hour)
Perfecting Your PPC in 2019
David Karellen
Head of Paid Search, Click Consult
Sabrina Garufi
Agency Development Manager, Google
Rumyana Miteva
Head of Search, Secret Escapes
BENCHMARK 2018

26
HILTON MANCHESTER DEANSGATE
05/09/2018
THE B
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PROFESSIONALS
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PERFECT FOR
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TOPICS COVERED:
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENSEO PPC CRO

27
The NORTH
Leading Search Marketing Conference
BENCHMARK, MANCHESTER
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ATTENDED BY THE
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28
FROM OUR EXPERTS
THE RISE OF HYPERLOCAL
SEARCH MARKETING
There are several topics in search marketing that come up over and over again and one such example is
personalisation. Users want to be targeted with the correct content at the correct time and, when it comes to the
results that are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs), they are no different.
Users want information that best serves a need and a
major part of this is to do with advanced local searches or
hyperlocal searches.
Imagine the scene – you are at home and want to head
out for dinner. Your search might appear similar to
the following:
ABOUT OUR EXPERT - SCOTT RUMSEY
Scott joined Click in late 2013 but has worked as a journalist and
copywriter for the last nine years, editing various publications and
working with large brands in the B2B sector. He is an avid reader
and diligent researcher.

29
FROM OUR EXPERTS
With the advancements in technology however and with
location services more accurate than ever there is now
a precedent for a hyperlocal search which means you
can look ‘on the go’ for businesses that best suit your
need and which are in your vicinity. We have covered
extensively the importance and indeed the shift towards
a Mobile-First environment and how this is perhaps the
most significant development in recent years. A search in
this format might display the following results, for example:
We have covered extensively the importance and indeed
the shift towards a Mobile-First environment and how this
is perhaps the most significant development in recent
years.
With the time poor, information rich nature of the users
searching habits it is no surprise that they are using both
mobile search and local search more frequently. Google
has adapted to this and over the last few years paid
particular attention to how searches with hyperlocal intent
are displayed and, indeed, ranked.
From a consumer perspective, the very reason that a
search is conducted is for research purposes. Buyers
want answers and access relating to where, how and
when they can purchase and that doesn’t change
whether they are buying a coffee or a car. According to
a report by Forbes Insights customers still like to do their
research online but make their purchase instore (NB this
is changing and will continue to do so). In their study “A
Split Screen: Online Information and a Human Touch,”
customers prefer to mix technology and in-store visits for
major purchases.
It also found that nearly 50% of retailers surveyed said
that their customers are looking for an ‘omnichannel’
shopping experience. In terms of those using a search
engine prior to buying and choosing where to buy from
the number is 82%, which shows the sheer power of
being at the top of SERPS for your most relevant and your
industry’s most competitive keywords.

30
FROM OUR EXPERTS
For businesses who are trying to gain local business with a local search strategy, Google Trends has identified the
importance of utilising the ‘near me’ suffix to searches as is displayed below:
This search for ‘coffee near me’ is on an upwardly mobile
curve and this directly correlates with the idea that mobile
search and local search have been given a greater level
of importance over the last five years. This phenomenon is
sure to continue and, in reality, I’d say it’s highly likely that
instead of being one way of conducting a search I feel it
will become ‘the way’ to search and with Mobile-First finally
being announced in March 2018, the shift will continue to
turn this from a mobile marvel to standard practise.
Google said:
“Across our client base we are still seeing
more than 50% of the traffic from these
queries coming from desktop — and more
than 80% of the clicks but there is a shift”.
Trying a different search, this time for ‘shoes near me’ the
results are very similar (see right) and simply looking for
‘near me’ also shows the upward trend.

31
FROM OUR EXPERTS
If we also go back to the search relating to ‘coffee near me’ you can pull some additional data and see related topics
and queries which can help you to build out your keywords strategy.
‘Near me’ queries as a whole are a relatively small
(but expanding) part of local search volume, but
these searches are clear signals of local intent and
consequently represent high-quality traffic for businesses
targeting locally.
In a statistic-led study of Google’s Local SEO Ranking
Factors report by Search Engine Land, they found
that when looking at ~600 searches, which included
WHAT ARE THE ‘NEAR ME’ RANKING
FACTORS?
~6,000 Google My Business (GMB) pages, as well as
the corresponding domains/pages that the GMB pages
linked to, the following factors had the strongest positive
correlations with ranking well in Google’s and ‘near me’
searches:
Google reviews
Total number of backlinks with searched city/region in the
anchor text
Percentage of backlinks with searched city/region in the
anchor text
They also found that link metrics were some of the strongest indicators of good rankings, so it’s not surprising that they
also matter for ‘near me’ queries. The example that they used was that TripAdvisor have an aggressive use of ‘near me’
in internal link anchor text may be one of the reasons those URLs rank so well for local queries:

32
FROM OUR EXPERTS
One area where there was a differing of opinion in terms of ranking factors was in relation to distance as a search
ranking. The search below shows a selection of coffee shops near to the searcher. These are sorted apparently by
distance. Yet when you expand the results in the second image the distance does not become the natural order proving
that although it is the primary factor for the users it is not the primary result that is displayed.

33
FROM OUR EXPERTS
Indeed it appears as though the GMB ranking carries more weight.
Moz, a respected authority on Google’s ranking criteria, collects data each year from industry experts about what they
believe are the main local search ranking factors and assigns each of them a weighting:

34
FROM OUR EXPERTS
Getting started with hyperlocal SEO is all about ensuring
it is easy for Google to know your business is relevant to
hyperlocal searches. The best way to ensure that you are
prepared is to follow these steps:
Set up your Google My Business profile
With a log in/sign-up page that promises to help you
‘Manage’, ‘Connect’ and ‘Understand’, Google My
Business seeks to be a hub for a number of Google’s
small business products including (but not limited to) local
listing info for maps, Google reviews, ‘Insights’ and the
latest addition ‘Website’. The platform (not to be confused
with Google Business Solutions) is a good starting point
for any start-up looking to hit the ground running.
By signing up to Google My Business you can tell Google
directly the name of your business, the exact location,
what it does, opening times, what it looks like (upload
your own images), and many more attributes.
It is of particular relevance to the map results and the
3-pack listings. For instance, Google smartly tells the
searcher whether the business is open or closed right
now and pulls out images to give users more of an idea of
what to expect.
In order to view performance in a hyperlocal environment
GMB also offers a huge amount of data in Google
Analytics, so you have the stats to back up the strategy.
Not only does Google My Business make it easier for it to
know what’s what about your business, it also improves
the search experience for your customer – giving more
‘at a glance’ information than the traditional SERPs listings
do. What’s more the service is free to use.
Reflect hyperlocal terms in your on-page content
An important aspect of local SEO is ensuring that the
copy across your website is high quality and extensive. In
the case of local SEO, this must be the case on all local
pages on your website.
Location-specific landing pages should ideally be 300
words in length and include information about the local
area. If you have multiple local pages on your website,
you have to ensure that each page has unique content.
Once you’re sure of your hyperlocal term, make sure it
is reflected in your titles, descriptions, body text, alt. text
of images etc. so when Google crawls this content – and
potential customers read it – both know your business is there.
A top tip from searchenginewatch on this is that if you are
located near a well-known place or landmark (university,
sports stadium, monuments etc)? It might be worth
reflecting this in your onsite content.
Please use schema markup
When optimising your website for local SEO, it’s critical
to optimise your website with semantic markup. For local
businesses, the markup of important information such
as the business address, telephone number, opening
hours and map data is important as it allows Google to
understand the context of the information shown on the page.
By including the relevant markup, you can make Google’s
job of displaying the necessary information and calls-to-
action about your business even easier.
HOW TO BE ‘HYPERLOCAL’ READY

35
FROM OUR EXPERTS
PPC impact of hyperlocal search marketing
Although there are many businesses that feel the reason
that their organic performance has improved is because it
is in line with their increase in PPC spend, we have to say
that this is a myth. The correlation is not proved but that
doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be a consideration in your
strategy especially in terms of Google Maps and branded pins.
Branded Pins are the next stage of mobile marketing,
incorporating Google’s highly used Google Maps.
Advertisers have the opportunity to display as a ‘pinned’
location on the map. This is perfect for such moments
as when a consumer looks up directions to a meeting,
allowing available coffee shops to advertise en route.
When touched, the pin expands to provide the user
with all the key information a mobile user would need:
directions, address, phone number, opening times, in
store promotions and product inventory searches.
This connection is the strongest so far made available
between the digital and the physical in terms of
marketing. By combining such features with the
developing ‘store visits’ metric, marketers will now be
able to begin to quantify the effect of these features.
When it comes to this form of geotargeting there are
also benefits in terms of PPC not just SEO Google, Bing
and most display networks support geomarketing and
are able to serve ads to the user based on their location.
If the search conducted is for an Italian restaurant then
future ads for similar restaurants can be served based on
where the device is connecting from.
Businesses can also use location as a type of
remarketing/retargeting strategy. To do this, businesses
can use indoor proximity systems. These devices use
Bluetooth technology to communicate with nearby
mobile devices.
This type of technology could benefit stores, events,
or any other kind of local business that wants to
communicate with its customers in real time. It allows
these businesses to gather insights while highly
personalising the content based on their shopping or
event-going experience.
To make the most of this kind of system, you can offer
incentives to customers who provide you with feedback.
Just send a quick message like, earn a voucher,’ or ‘earn
25% off your next purchase.’
Keeping the message focused on the incentive can
attract people and help to create loyal customers
in the process.
Currently Google accepts markup for (among other
things):
Opening Times. Even down to seasonal changes
Including latitude and longitude
Restaurant-specific properties. Such as food served, how
it can be delivered, how to reserve a table etc
Consider adding markup to the content pages on your
site as a best practice accompaniment to the information
in your Google My Business profile. It will ensure that
when Google is crawling your site, it will deliver the most
trustworthy, up-to-date and relevant information.
An example of local schema markup, using Schema.org,
and the corresponding local listing on Google can be
seen below:
It might also be worth noting that if you have multiple
locations then make sure that you make landing pages
for each of the sites. This will maximise your appearance
in search and allows you to optimise the content further.

36
FROM OUR EXPERTS
With nearly 3 billion social media users all over the world,
it’s a given that the social media marketing must not be
ignored by businesses. Hyperlocal marketing is the type
of marketing, which is aimed to reach potential customers
within certain areas but knowledge hut suggests that:
“Brands must think global and act local, and their social
media marketing strategy must be modified accordingly.”
There are five main reasons why a business particularly
in retail can benefit from this type of strategy and in the
latest study by Martech they picked up on the following
points:
SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT OF HYPERLOCAL
SEARCH MARKETING
Reach out while your prospect is attentive
Hyperlocal Social Monitors can act as both active and
passive method of communication. If a user posted a
Tweet online, there is a small time frame (approximately
2-3 minutes) where the user is expecting a response,
voice, or an opinion to that post. If retail firms respond
within that window, they’ll receive the full attention of the
customer. The response must provide a call to action, or
build a conversation.
Personal triumphs vague
Marketing is effective when it is more personalised and
relevant to the area in question. Build a more intimate
relationship between the brand and the customer.
Targeting social influencers
Hyperlocal Social Monitors provide necessary tools and
features that will provide deeper insight into the social
media user or customer. Rewarding influencers will be
the simplest and best way to reach out to new local
customers and empower the brand locally.
Point of sale is key
Customers use social media to reach out to the world
to receive an opinion of what they wish to purchase.
Encouraging purchase, through sharing the sales for that
day, or reward points received. Customers are not always
aware of great deals, and for them to be informed will
increase UX.
Measure success
Few Hyperlocal Social Media tools provide the
functionality that enables businesses to measure the
success of their social media strategy. Combining social
media data (sentiment, influence, reach) with retail
metrics, means it is now possible thanks to cross-platform
technology – such as APIs and cloud technology to get
the best results and adapt your strategy.

37
FROM OUR EXPERTS
When it comes to the impact of adopting this kind of
strategy has on your business is quite clear.
Smallbiztrends said:
“You already know that location is
paramount for local businesses. But
it isn’t just your storefront’s location
that can make a big difference to your
business’s success. Location can also
have a big impact when it comes to your
market research efforts.
For instance, the questions you would
ask someone who is in your store
would differ from the questions you’d
ask people who are just nearby. And
the questions you would ask people
nearby might be different from what
you would ask those outside your direct
neighbourhood or city.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
This sums it up nicely. You need to be an adopter if you
haven’t already, you need to be. Look and test different
strategies if you are to attract not only those who are
directly in your area but those who are passing by. These
impulse sales can mean big profits and the ROI of a
hyperlocal strategy is not to be sneered at.
With a Mobile-First, local search strategy you may also
intercept potential sales if you can target those in an
area close to a rival company. In the future I’ll look at
producing a whitepaper on this sort of strategy and will
look into the businesses that are best served by moving
forward with this approach.

38
THE BIG
INTERVIEW
Canon Europe’s Senior Technical SEO is a popular speaker at Click Consult’s annual
Benchmark Search Conference. Omi is passionate about SEO, especially the technical side.
Chloie Brandrick caught up with him to talk about getting technical vs content, the impact
on voice search and the worst technical errors he’s seen in the wild.
SEO: BALANCING TECHNICAL
AND CONTENT FACTORS

39
THE BIG INTERVIEW
WHAT IS TECHNICAL ORGANIC
SEARCH (SEO)?
The internet is a technical platform so, from an SEO point
of view, all the content in the world won’t help you without
correct set up. So, to me, technical SEO is about making
sure a website is fit for purpose. If content is king, then
technical website is the throne it sits on. Every king needs
a castle – and content needs a solid foundation.
Ask yourself the question: Can Google find your pages?
Can Googlebot render and index your pages? – these
all need to be considered as part of technical SEO. Page
load time, Java script, accessibility, structured data,
mobile, indexation, crawling, thin content on pages –
these are all technical issues. Content optimisation should
then follow.
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THE TECHNICAL
VS CONTENT DEBATE FOR SEO?
Some people think content SEO and content marketing
are two separate things. If I was interviewing someone
who defined themselves as either ‘a content SEO’, or ‘a
technical SEO’, I wouldn’t give them the job! A technically
well-optimised site without good content means nothing.
Good content that sits on an unoptimised website counts
for nothing.
Here’s an example: last year a company asked me to
carry out a technical audit of their website. They wanted
to know why their pages weren’t ranking well. When
I looked at it, I found almost 500,000 pages of good
content, yet only about 20,000 were generating traffic. I
then discovered a huge number of orphan pages (a page
on a website that’s not linked to by any other page on the
site) – out of 150,000 of these, only 3,000 were getting
traffic. This showed clear problems with the site structure,
even though they had amazing on-page content.
After we fixed the site structure, the company saw an
increase in online visibility of more than 60%. The point of
the story? There’s only one ‘SEO’!
“A technically well-optimised site
without good content means
nothing. Good content that sits on an
unoptimised website counts for nothing.
If content is king, then technical website
is the throne it sits on. Every king needs
a castle – and content needs a solid
foundation”

40
Take care of technical optimisation first. Content comes
next.
Every business exists for a reason. You need to know
your customers first before you do anything else. Then
start thinking about your website, then keyword research,
then inbound – then come the sales. The rules aren’t
much different from traditional, offline marketing.
SEO should never live in isolation – but I see this a lot.
SEO is not the only thing that will make you successful.
SEO should be at the heart of your business, but it’s not
the only thing you need to do to be successful online.
Despite getting a bit of a bad rep, building links is still an
important aspect of SEO.
Google is now using so-called RankBrain (Google’s
machine-learning technology) – I’m speculating a
little bit here – to apply the same logic as in PPC.
Historically, Google never needed backlinks to rank
an ad for relevance. Now we’re seeing the same trend
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST MAKE OR BREAK
FACTOR IN SEO?
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE
LINK BUILDING ASPECT OF SEO?
in SEO. Links are still important, but not everywhere.
I’d recommend people concentrate their attention on
customers rather than links. If you’re active on social
media, if you engage your audience, people will link back
to your site naturally.
Talking to your target audience – whether via social
media or email – is key. Don’t think about just RankBrain
or social media or whatever in isolation– you need to
take everything into account. It’s all about relevance: if
the relevant people don’t come to your site, they won’t
convert, so what’s the point?
THE BIG INTERVIEW

41
It will force us to understand our audience. Everything
starts with the end user. Website owners who value traffic
over relevance – people whose prioritise visits as a KPI –
just don’t understand the importance of having the right
people on your site.
RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm, it learns
from users’ behaviour. This has always been Google’s
objective: to return the best answer according to user
intent. Black hat tactics such as building irrelevant
backlinks were side doors that were bad SEO practice.
This has always been a challenge for Google, and why
they introduced RankBrain.
Talking to your target audience –
whether via social media or email – is
key. Don’t think about just RankBrain or
social media or whatever in isolation–
you need to take everything into
account. It’s all about relevance: if the
relevant people don’t come to your site,
they won’t convert, so what’s the point?
HOW IS VOICE SEARCH CHANGING THE
SEO LANDSCAPE?
On devices like Google Home and Alexa – there’s only
one answer, no search engine results pages (SERPs).
This will be the answer that the search engine thinks is
the most relevant. So we need to start thinking about
relevancy now – tomorrow is too late.
RankBrain, or a version of it, will be the main ranking
factor in the future.
WHAT SEO TECHNIQUES ARE PEOPLE
UNDERUTILISING?
Lots of SEOs come from marketing rather than technical
backgrounds like me. But the internet is a very technical
platform. So making sure your website is technically
sound is the number one priority for everybody. I see
more people who are struggling because their websites
are built the wrong way than people struggling because
they have bad content.
I see a lot of good content on line; we all know we need
good content. But this content needs to live in a good
place. You can have the best content in the world, but if
no one can find it there’s literally no point!
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE
OTHER IMPACTS OF RANKBRAIN ON SEO?
WHAT ARE THE TOP TECHNICAL ERRORS
YOU SEE THE MOST?
Here’s my biggest bugbear: you should never allow
Google to index internal search results (otherwise known
as doorway pages).
Here are some examples.
Shopstyle.co.uk lost almost 90% of their online visibility
because they forgot to tell Google not to index their
internal search results. Even when people were
discussing it in the media, they were still slow to fix the
problem. The way Google sees it, you click on the search
result link and you end up in another search engine – the
one on the site, which adds no value to the user.
The second most annoying thing for me is when people
build their website on a staging server, then when they
move it to a live site (a production server) and forget to
remove the code from the staging server. I come across
a lot of staging environments indexed online so that both
sites are indexed. This is madness!
Or people noindex the staging server pages, then
transfer all the code to the live site and forget to remove
the noindex.
Another example is Reference.com. Over two or three
years they lost almost 100% of their online visibility
because all of their content is noindexed – they’re literally
telling Google not to index it! I looked at this site last year.
These are big, famous websites making schoolboy errors.
Last year History.co.uk migrated their website, but forgot
to redirect old pages to the new pages, in many cases
using 302 or 301 redirect. Over four or five months they
lost almost 80% of their online visibility.
Another mistake is when people don’t understand how
RankBrain is ranking pages: no algorithm is the same for
every website. The way the algorithm sees your website
may not be the same as it sees my website. It depends on
sector and industry – and even your set of keywords. It’s
a machine learning system at end of day – it learns what
your customers like. For instance, if they like long form
articles, Google will recognise that this type of content is
the best for this industry.
I often go online to study the SERPs and when big
companies are going down, I want to find out why.
We learn from other people’s mistakes, plus Google’s
algorithm is constantly changing. What’s affecting other
people’s websites now my affect mine tomorrow.
THE BIG INTERVIEW

42
Click Consult brings you the on.click podcast, featuring news, best practice, how
to and discussions on the key aspects of search marketing - from paid search,
through content marketing, technical SEO and more: on.click wants to be your go
to audio for all things digital marketing.
You can subscribe to Click Consult’s podcast on Stitcher, or here for Apple users.
THE ON.CLICK PODCAST
PODCAST
LISTEN NOW

43
MAKING THE MOVE TO MOBILE BOXSET
DOWNLOAD NOW
BACK CATALOGUE
In the years since ‘Mobilegeddon’ was announced,
there have been numerous adjustments and updates
implemented with the express intention of improving
the mobile experience on the web. The Mobile-First
Index represents an acknowledgement that the mobile
experience isn’t just of equal importance, but the main
experience for consumers.
With this in mind, it is no longer enough to be ‘Mobile
Friendly’, brands must put ‘Mobile-First’ – which can lead
to issues regarding the slapdash approach to updating
m. sites that some brands have demonstrated and further
damage to brands that have yet to implement a mobile
reactive or responsive site.
The move to mobile is not only desirable, it’s vital for the future of
your brand, so ensure your readiness with the boxset – or share it
with someone who needs to know.
With the mobile versions of sites set to be crawled first
(prioritised over desktop versions and non mobile friendly
sites), there is every reason to ensure that you have
ticked all of the necessary boxes.
For this reason, Click Consult has compiled this group of
mobile resources to allow you to access everything you
need to succeed on the new, mobile web – all in one
place.
THE ‘MAKING THE MOVE TO MOBILE’ BOXSET INCLUDES:
DOWNLOAD NOW!

44
101
PREPARING FOR GOOGLE’S
Mobile-First INDEX –
NICK WILSDON’S BENCHMARK 2017 TALK
As we head towards the 4th Benchmark Search
Conference we thought it best to look back at some
of the stellar talks at last year’s conference. In 2017
we welcomed Nick Wilsdon, Search Product Owner at
Vodafone Group to discuss how brands could prepare
for the official launch of ‘Mobile-First’ which was finally
unveiled in March 2018.
With more time served in search marketing and digital
strategy than most agencies, Nick Wilsdon’s advice is
not to be ignored – and so pads and pens were in action
again as he discussed the impending arrival of Mobile-
First SERPs.
As we’ve reported on the Click Consult blog, it will be no
shock to hear about the existence of Mobile-First – we’ve
been reporting on it since it was first announced, writing
our first article in May of 2016 and a second following the
official announcement in the November of the same year.
What may be surprising is that it’s taken so long. Google
even goes so far as to note the wait in their official
announcement on the Webmasters blog:
“Today we’re announcing that
after a year and a half of careful
experimentation and testing, we’ve
started migrating sites that follow the
best practices for Mobile-First indexing.”
-Fan Zhang, Software Engineer, Google
With this in mind and the changes coming it was no
surprise that Wilsdon began by advising that immediate
action is key to avoiding a major drop in performance
once the roll out arrived – and that a responsive site,
unblocked JavaScript and good site-speed are the
absolute minimum expectation for brands to avoid such a drop.
Once this is achieved – treating mobile as the primary
journey for consumers – a brand can move on to the
merely urgent. Beginning with technical SEO, Wilsdon
then outlined four key areas to focus on achieving before
the end of 2017. Which include:
1. Site architecture – obviously, there is a lot of effort
involved in migration to HTTPS and it cannot be done
while there are issues with CMSs and other underlying
architectural features.
2. HTTPS – not only to prevent warnings, but also to
unlock access to HTTP2, push notifications and more.
3. Sitemaps/Shopping Feeds – these need to be
thoroughly inspected to ensure that there are no legacy
issues.
4. Fix crawling errors – there was a nudge toward
sponsors DeepCrawl with the recommendation that
crawling errors must be addressed.
ABOUT - NICK WILSDON
Nick started his online career in 1998, giving his first SEO
seminar two years later in Brighton. After moving to Moscow,
he became an expert on Russian search, working with
gaming clients across CIS markets. During this time he
was involved in the Russian start-up community, working
with Yandex, RF parliament members and the US State
Department.

45
101
Wilsdon then moved to the opportunities that will present
themselves with the move to Mobile-First as the primary
journey. This includes the demonstration of the improved
load speed of HTTP2 versus the last (1999) update to
HTTP, then a weighing of the pros and cons of AMP –
which, while not his first choice insofar as the future of the
web (he would prefer a more open, mature approach to
performance), is improving all the time and due to be first
indexed and the first port of call for featured snippets.
He then moves to the real future of search – that of the
conversion of the web into data streams – sources of
data that will enable service providers to seamlessly
exchange data in order to facilitate ease of purchase, the
ease of accessibility of all areas of the web from all areas
of your life.
Obviously this presents concerns for brands, as Google
seeks to provide all information from the SERPs and,
therefore, reducing the necessity for visiting individual
sites. Nevertheless, he says, it is necessary to follow the
trend, but to do so with our collective eyes open.
Whatever your opinions on the future, however, there can
be no doubting that Mobile-First is the present and, as
Wilsdon reiterates at the end of the talk, action needed
to be taken immediately – even if it was to just achieve
‘mobile friendly’ as a damage limitation exercise prior to
carrying out the rest of the work.

46
VOICE SEARCH AND SNIPPETS
AND RANKINGS, OH MY!
BY JOHN WARNER
I’m a voice search evangelist – odd for someone who
would literally rather die than speak to my phone in
public. Yet, I am, I see the future of search as one
completely integrated with our lives in the way I first saw
in the early 90’s on Star Trek – which reveals two more
things about me than I would like.
The reason I believe this is that I see it borne out every
day – in the generational shift to acceptance of voice
search. While many Gen-X and up may still feel ‘like
geeks’, 60% of all searches are now from mobile devices,
and 20% of those are now spoken (12% of all searches,
therefore, are both mobile and spoken) and it is rising
all the time. The improving ability and accuracy of voice
recognition software has doubtless played a part in
this upward trend, but doubtless too is the influence of
normalisation.
The most important part of the shift to voice for the
search industry, however, comes from the behaviour of
Google – whose quick answers are, I believe, at least
partially driven by a desire to cater to voice search.

47
The recent release by Ahrefs of a Rank Tracker tool
happened to happily coincide with an invitation to submit
to State of Digital and this, in turn, prompted me to
expand my constant ranting about voice search beyond
the walls of Click Consult (where I write articles and tinker
with the technical SEO and strategy and literally wrote the
book [a book] on SEO).
It is my belief (and doubtless that of numerous others),
that the push to provide quick answers in SERPs is part
and parcel of Google’s preparation for a future in which
voice search is as integral to our lives as search is now.
It is for this reason – my hypothesis runs – the position
zero ‘quick answer’ does not always come from the top
position in SERPs. While other SEO factors undoubtedly
play a part (the quick answer almost always comes from
one of the top five results, so mastery of other techniques
is required to even qualify for the race), there is a definite
correlation between voice search and position zero.
In an effort to prove this, and to take a first look at the
new Ahrefs tool, I decided to run an experiment.
The layout of Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker tool, showing (amongst other things) the absence or presence
of a snippet. Source: Ahref Rank Tracker

48
I chose ten of the industry specific long tail keywords for which Click Consult competes (which had a rich snippet quick
answer box) and began running some voice searches. Of the ten results, only one search resulted in my being directed
to read the SERP, only two quick answers were taken from the top result (none from below position three), four came
from Wikipedia and eight were paragraphs, with the other two featuring lists.
While the sample size of my research here is small (by
necessity rather than desire, there’s only so much time
I can devote to flights of fancy), there were a number of
surprising results of even such a small data set.
If there are two things you can be certain about in search
marketing, they are that the industry terms will be highly
competitive and that the companies competing will know
exactly how to compete. So why, then, were only 60%
of quick answers owned by companies working in the
industry?
The quick explanation from the Marketing Land ‘display advertising’ category page. Source: Marketing Land
Review of key aspects of pages featuring in the answer box. Source: Various
In my opinion this has a lot to do with Google’s desire to
make these quick answers voice search friendly. Take
the result for ‘display advertising’ for example, the first
position (at the time of writing) was held by a page with
great DA (86), featured a comprehensive near 1200 word
article which was well linked to and from, while the quick
answer came from Marketing Land, which ranked in third
position with a category page listing news features about
‘display advertising’.
While I’m sure a searcher could learn all they needed
to know from the host of display advertising articles on
offer there, it was instead the quick, punchy intro that was
chosen to feature in position zero.
KNOWLEDGE BASE

49
This, really, is the trend throughout the list of quick
answers I looked at. The answer is prominent on the
landing page, is short, keyword rich and informative (in all
but one case, which I’ll return to).
The definition from the first placed site for this keyword
was no lesser an explanation, but it did feature as the
third and fourth paragraph, was almost twice as long, less
keyword rich, beneath an h3 rather than h1 tag and refers
to a specific ‘display ad’ rather than ‘display advertising’
as a practice.
This is obviously something which should raise alarm
bells for SEOs and content writers throughout the industry
– especially those writing in industries which feature
quick answer boxes at present (though they’re only going
to become more prevalent).
The continuing roll out of position zero across numerous
The quick explanation from the Clickz.com website about what makes a display ad. Source: Clickz.com
services means that SEOs are going to need to
reconsider the way they present their content as Google
pushes ever onward to a ‘Mobile-First’ rather than
‘mobile-friendly’ strategy – and, as a result, toward a
search experience that caters to the ever increasing use
of voice.
Important ranking factors measured for position one pages versus rich answer pages. Source: Various
KNOWLEDGE BASE

50
Position zero will, in many sectors (particularly B2B)
simply replace position one as the ultimate aim of the
SEO campaign, which means that there will need to be
a number of items added to the list of what makes good
content for SEO (this in no way underplays the fact that
content should always be written with the consumer
at the forefront of the mind, but as an industry it would
be dishonest to say that SEO value is not of great
importance in content production).
That’s not to say the system is perfect as things stand –
and it reinforces the focus of voice search for these quick
answers – the one result which was not spoken when
searched for was that of ‘pay-per-click keyword strategy’.
One of the two answers that came from position one in
the SERP, the answer for this search as spoken by the
Google Assistant was simply ‘Here’s what I found for
pay-per-click keyword strategy’ – the fact that (despite
the answer coming from one of the kings of PPC) it did
not really address the search must surely have played a
part in the Google Assistant’s decision not to provide the
answer directly.
This is why, as things stand, Wikipedia occupies so
many of answer boxes – the short, descriptive answer
is exactly what they do (with thousands of volunteer
editors refining and updating answers all the time). While
search marketers and SEOs have developed techniques
which blend great content with great SEO, Wikipedia has
been unknowingly preparing for the answer box since its
inception.
This answer (trimmed though it is) is the featured snippet
for the keyword ‘email marketing’.
Email marketing description. Source: Wikipedia
Email marketing answer box. Source: Google
Pay-per-click keyword strategy answer box.
Source: Google
KNOWLEDGE BASE

51
While it is impossible to say for certain that the answer
box is driven by voice search, four of Google’s big
announcements at I/O 2017 involved Home and the
Google Assistant – predominately voice activated
technology – showing a clear commitment to the
development of voice interaction, as does their recently
announced partnership with Walmart on voice-based
search.
Voice search is, it seems to me, likely to become more
conversational – you are likely to be able to ask for
elucidation, or more detail on your searches or to refine
them using voice commands as various digital assistants
begin to recognise continuations of searches rather than
see each search as a distinct entity. However, at this
point, it’s all about providing the quick fix which requires:
Clarity – should be easily understood by the searcher.
Brevity – should provide a quick overview even if as part
of a longer explanation.
Relevance – should directly relate to the search term.
All of which are key components of the quick answer.
However, one aspect of my pet theory is: you don’t need
to believe in the driving force behind the proliferation of
quick answers.
While the consumer is the audience, it has to be
acknowledged that the audience is reached via a number
of algorithms and through technology. It would make
no more sense for the BBC to ignore the mark-up when
writing its recipes than it would for a guitarist to ignore
their guitar.
In this metaphor, the guitarless guitarist would still have
an audience, would still have the necessary expertise,
but would lack the means to reach one with the other,
no matter how wonderfully personalised and thought
provoking, emotional or shareable their riffs may be.
Producing great content for consumers should still be
the primary concern, but with studies showing that 42%
of professionally marketed blog posts receive fewer than
ten interactions, better visibility for your great content
must be a driving force behind your efforts.
Whether it’s due to voice search or not, let your content
speak for itself by ensuring you give it the best chance
with your markup and by being ‘clear, brief, and relevant’
with sections of your content you want to feature in
SERPs.
Html inspection of BBCs recipe ‘method’ for
sponge cake. Source: bbc.co.uk
Recipe for sponge cake as a quick answer.
Source: Google
At some point you will want to rank position zero for an
important industry term and whether or not it is voice
search that requires it, it is never too early to begin
preparing for the coming rush. Here’s how:
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Give Google what it wants!
There are numerous varieties of quick answer, whether
it’s lists, recipes descriptions, or answers to specific
questions. You’ll know which variety applies to your
brand, so look at industry terms, see what is presently
occupying those position zeroes and look to incorporate
the practices when you produce your content. This
includes things such as the position of key elements on
the page, their length, whether they feature a title and
which header tag they should fall between.
For the terms I searched for, the model is Wikipedia
but for recipes (in the UK at least) it could be BBC Food
whose recipe guides fall between headings with their
own sub class class=”recipe-method__heading” and
whose recipe pages are filled with recipe specific ‘div’s
and is structured according to ‘schema.org/recipe’ – so
that this:

52
C L I C K C O N S U LT LT D
U N I T B 1 , W I L L O W H O U S E ,
H O O T O N R O A D , H O O T O N ,
C H E S H I R E , C H 6 6 7 N Z
W W W . C L I C K . C O . U K
0 8 4 5 8 6 7 1 7 5 2
@ C L I C K C O N S U LT LT D | F A C E B O O K . C O M / C L I C K C O N S U LT
EXPERTS IN SEARCH.
SIMPLE.

Benchmark Search Marketing Magazine - Issue 2 (Summer 2018)

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Benchmark Search Marketing Magazine - Issue 2 (Summer 2018)