Cyrus will cover the latest updates and trends including Google’s Fred Update, AMP, Progressive Web Apps, and more. In this session, we’ll also cover how search behavior has evolved and how publishers can best stay ahead of the curve.

1. The State of SEO in 2017

2. A journey…

4. SEO: 2010-2016

5. SEO: Delivering exactly
what the user wants at
the exact moment they
seek it.
2016

7. 1) The Myth of
Vanishing Opportunities

8. Increased Ad Competition for Clicks

9. ~40% off Searches Result in No Click
https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed

10. Searches With Zero Clicks
I don’t give
a click

11. +200% User Growth Since 2009

12. Mobile Has Added Time, Not Replaced

13. https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed
2.6%
Only
of search
queries results
in an ad click
Ads Capture Only Fraction of Clicks

14. Data is scant, but suggest voice search volume is additive, not
subtractive

15. ~550% Increase in Search Queries Since 2009
http://searchengineland.com/google-now-handles-2-999-trillion-searches-per-year-250247

16. 2) The Link Paradox

17. Problem: Link Building, But No Rankings
https://moz.com/blog/what-link-building-success-really-looks-like

18. Truth #1: You Need Links to Rank
https://www.semrush.com/ranking-factors/

19. Truth #2: Google Ignores Your Links
https://moz.com/blog/state-of-links

20. Penguin 1-3
• Updates Pushed All At Once
• Steep Dives and Recovery
• +Manual Penalties

21. Penguin 4: Kinder, Gentler
• Real-time: Fewer Steep Dives
• More Links Ignored vs. Whole Site Penalized
• Fewer Manual Penalties

22. Strategies
1. Build Links, You Need Them
2. Double down on Relevancy+Intent
3. Pro Tip: Reavowing Links
https://www.blueglass.co.uk/blog/removing-disavow-file-seo-test

23. 3) Speed Needed

24. AMP Has Become an
Imperative

25. AMP = Not a Ranking Factor,
but Affords Additional Visibility
1. Regular Results
3. Carousels
2. Google Apps
900,000 Publishers Dominate Carousel + App Results

26. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficWinning Carousel = Additive Traffic
Barry Adams Case Study:
http://www.stateofdigital.com/google-amp-case-studies/

27. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficIncreased Traffic Without Carousel Links?

28. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficAMP + Rich Cards = Additive Opportunity

29. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficBeyond News: Content Types for AMP
• Recipes
• Blogs
• Product Pages
• Forums
• Social Sites
• Image Pages
http://blog.chartbeat.com/2017/06/05/the-new-speed-of-mobile-engagement/

30. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficProblem: Apps Dominate Mobile Usage
92% Apps
Only
8% Browser!

31. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficAnswer: Websites that Behave Like Apps

32. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficPWA Secret Sauce: Higher Engagement
• 65% increase in pages per session
• 75% increase in Tweets sent
• 20% decrease in bounce rate

33. Roll Your Own PWA
http://mz.cm/krum-pwa

34. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficCyrus Says:
“Any SEO audit that
doesn’t include SPEED
is an act of
malpractice”

35. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficFavorite Speed App: Lighthouse
bit.ly/lighthousetool – Available in Chrome v60

36. 4) Structured
Answers

37. Winning Carousels = Additive Traffic12.3% of Google Web Queries have Featured Snippets
https://ahrefs.com/blog/featured-snippets-study/

38. Winning Carousels = Additive Traffic71% of Featured Snippets Yield Voice Answers
https://moz.com/blog/lessons-from-1000-voice-searches
71%

39. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficDo Featured Snippets Earn More Traffic?
28.9%
14.3%
10.0%
CTR
https://www.advancedwebranking.com/cloud/ctrstudy/

40. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficYes! (but only if you win)
+8.6%
19.6%
6-8%
https://ahrefs.com/blog/featured-snippets-study/

41. Winning Carousels = Additive TrafficHacking Featured Snippets: The Easy Way
1. Featured snippet
matches regular snippet
90% of time!
2. 75% are at least 3 lines
3. Include the question
4. Answer in 40-60 words
https://www.stonetemple.com/featured-snippets-new-Insights-new-opportunities/

42. 4658+
Featured
Snippets!
https://ahrefs.com/blog/featured-snippets-study/

43. • 7 Lists
• 8 Subtitles (H2)
• Lists Within List
• Titles Contains the Query
• 40-50 Word Snippets
• High Authority
Don’t sweat
the
markup!

44. 5) Intent aka Mind Reading

45. What Users Type/Say What They MeanVs.

46. Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines Mention Intent 393 Times
http://mz.cm/search-quality

47. We Have:
• Limited Keyword Data
Google Has:
• Billions of Queries
• Machine Learning
• Quality Guidelines
• Hummingbird
• RankBrain
Google Quality Guidelines mention “Intent” 393 times!

48. Hacking Intent
via
Mindreading
Keywords

49. “Fenugreek for Men”
2009: Target 1-2
Keywords/Page
2017: 100-1000s of
Keywords/Page
Hacking Intent: Broader Keyword Coverage

50. Ranks #2
Hacking Intent: Broader Keyword Coverage

51. What’s the price? Where are they?
How do I get there?
Can I make reservations?
What’s the website?
Hacking Intent: Answer More Questions

52. Hacking Intent: Better (linking)
Out than Back
• Link to Authorative Resources
• Internal or external
• Going forward is better than
going back
• Several Patents+Case Studies
support this concept

53. “Give the user
zero excuse to hit
the back button”

54. Search
Console
= Google’s
Interpretation
of Intent

55. Pro Tip: Intent Matching
with CTAs

57. Use Google Search Console
for Intent Discovery

60. 1. Avoid Keyword Cannibalization
2. Alt Text for Improved Rankings
3. PageRank Sculpting = Not Effective
4. External Links = Not a Ranking Factor
4 Pillars of SEO Wisdom:

61. In the same way that Google trusts sites
less when they link to spammy sites or bad
neighborhoods, parts of our system
encourage links to good sites.
https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/
- Matt Cutts, June 15, 2009
External Links = A Ranking Factor?

62. https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/
- John Mueller, Sept 25, 2015
…links from your site to other people’s sites
isn’t specifically a ranking factor. But it can
bring value to your content and that in turn
can be relevant for us in search.
External Links = Not a Ranking Factor!?

64. Reboot Experiment: External Links
Keyword
Cannibalization

65. https://www.rebootonline.com/blog/long-term-outgoing-link-experiment/
Data: External Links Ranking Study – Feb 2016
• Links to High Authority Sites
• Keyword in Anchors
• Pages with External Links Ranked Higher

66. Clue? Phrased Based Indexing Patent
http://www.google.ch/patents/US9569505

67. alt=“FUD
”
Alt Text Improve Your Ranking

68. Alt Text Improves Your Rankings

69. https://www.slideshare.net/TomAnthony/3-new-techniques-for-the-modern-age-of-seo
Data: External Links Ranking Study – Feb 2016
• Links to High Authority Sites
• Keyword in Anchors
• Pages with External Links Ranked Higher
Alt Text Improve Your Ranking

70. Alt Text
Ext.
Links
Importance in SEO Site Audits

71. The Death of PageRank
1996: PageRank
2007: Link Juice
2012: Link
Equity

72. What Does Google Call It?

73. 2009: Google Kills Nofollow PageRank Sculpting

74. …you certainly can sculpt your PageRank. I wouldn’t necessarily do
it with the nofollow tag…
When people talk about PageRank sculpting, they tend to think
nofollow and all that sort of stuff, but in some sense the ways you
choose to create your site–your site architecture–and how you link
between your pages is a type of PageRank sculpting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4IE4WLPLZQ
- Matt Cutts, 2009
Site Architecture = PageRank Sculpting

75. https://www.getcredo.com/talk-website-architecture-seo/
Site Architecture FTW

76. Alex Stein – Wayfair - http://mz.cm/internal-links
Link Removal
wayfair.com
~150 Links Removed
+ 5-10% Search Traffic

77. Alex Stein – Wayfair - http://mz.cm/internal-links
Removing Links

78. <script>
function myFunction() {
window.open("https://
example.com");
}
</script>
Add Links Remove Links Consolidation
Positioning JavaScript? ???

79. F**K Giardia