SEARCH MARKETING MAGAZINE
BINARY AND BEYOND Understanding the importance of natural language
TALKING TECH What are conversational query variants and how to use them?
STRUCTURED SEO Look back at the history of schema markup
TALKING TECH... Language, content & communication to give your search MARKETING strategy a boost Autumn 2018
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LET’S BEGIN
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A WORD FROM THE CEO
CONTRIBUTORS
Hello, and welcome back to the Benchmark Search Magazine; a quarterly publication from the team here at Click Consult looking at the search marketing industry and bringing you a mix of news, features and opinions from across the industry.
Features: Mark McGonigle John Warner Scott Rumsey Chloie Brandrick Jacob Booth Adam McKinley
This is the third issue of the magazine and, with our industry leading Benchmark Search Conference 2018 - just a few weeks away, it’s a busy time here at the office. Attendees will get the chance to listen to some of the most technically gifted search marketing experts in the industry. With that in mind, and coinciding with this issue coming just before Benchmark, we thought that we’d look at utilising technical SEO to boost your performance and shape your strategy.
Vlog: Jimmy Fernando Design: Chloe Ridgway Dave Ashworth
We have features and infographics on conversational query variants, the history of structured data and how best to use schema markup. We also look at metacognition and the best way to use natural language as a search tactic. 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….
Matt Bullas, CEO & Founder
Published By Click Consult Ltd Address: Unit B1 Willow House Oaklands Office Park Hooton Cheshire, CH66 7NZ Phone: 0845 322 5213 Website: www.click.co.uk
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CONTENTS
P 5 - 11
P 18
P 32 - 35
INDUSTRY NEWS
ON.CLICK VLOG
FROM OUR EXPERTS...
A round up of everything search marketing, bringing you the most important updates of the last few months
Key Account Manager, Jimmy Fernando discusses the importance of communication
Content and Marketing Executive, John Warner covers AI and its role in customer service
P 12 - 15
P 20 - 25
THIS QUARTER IN SOCIAL
CONVERSATIONAL SEARCH
Adam McKinley covers all of the latest social media developments and stories of the last 12 weeks
AND QUERY VARIANTS Voice search is on the rise and as such the way search engines answer queries has changed
P 16 - 17
P 26 - 27
FROM OUR EXPERTS
INFOGRAPHIC
Our Head of Organic Search, Mark McGonigle looks at the mobile revolution
Find out more about the history of structured data and schema markup
OUR RESOURCES The chance to download one of our free resources. In this issue we showcase our ‘Technical SEO’ eBook P 38 - 45 SEARCH MARKETING 101 Understand the importance of using natural language to form an effective search marketing strategy P 46 - 51
P 28 - 31 THE HISTORY OF STRUCTURED DATA AND SCHEMA MARKUP Following on from our infographic we cover the topic in more detail
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P 37
KNOWLEDGE BASE Thinking about thinking – can metacognition help us develop better marketing strategies?
INDUSTRY NEWS
INDUSTRY NEWS 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 is talking about in this quarter in search…
BRANDS MUST INNOVATE OR FACE DISRUPTION UK CMOs are falling behind their international counterparts when it comes to their role in creating disruptive innovation, raising concerns over the health and future growth for brands. According to research by Dentsu Aegis, just 25% of UK marketers identify “leading disruptive innovation” as a core functional priority. This is well behind the international average of 35% and puts it bottom of the list in the survey of 1,000 chief marketing officers and seniorlevel marketers across 10 countries. It also means the UK is significantly adrift of CMOs in the US, where 46% see innovation as key to their roles.
The report said:
“The marketers who think and act disruptively will be critical to keeping pace with the consumers of tomorrow. Companies which don’t reorient themselves around the consumer will be overtaken by those which do.” BING ADS LAUNCHES NEW AUTOMATED BIDDING Bing Ads has announced that automated bidding strategies, Target CPA and Maximize Conversions are now generally available for campaigns targeting Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom or the United States. Both strategies have been in testing for more than a year.
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INDUSTRY NEWS DIGITAL MARKETERS NOT ADDRESSING VOICE SEARCH When it comes to voice search, 29% of digital marketers are not actively addressing how it will impact their industry and the way they market products and services. Another 36% of marketers are aware of the changes brought by voice search and 25% believe they can incorporate it into their marketing strategy. Meanwhile, just 43% confess to investing into advertising with Amazon’s voice search. The most popular tactic marketers are adopting to address the change is reassessing product names to reflect how users speak (32%). Andreas Pouros, CEO of Greenlight Digital, who published the research, said: “Voice assistants aren’t a gimmick. It is here to stay and is going to change the way brands reach consumers. Marketers must put their money where their mouth is when it comes to addressing these changes. To get to a point of investing, brands first need to be armed with the audience insight that can inform how and where their customers are purchasing. Only then can marketers accurately assess whether they need to adjust their marketing strategy to maximise the growth in use of voice assistants.
“This is one area that many sites fall down on. They might have an ‘About Us’ page, but the bios of their authors are sorely lacking. It also means that those accepting contributions from those not working for the site in question need to keep an eye on the reputation of their contributors as well.
“If content is created by someone with a great reputation, it makes sense for Google to rank that content higher than from someone with a bad reputation since it is generally a better user experience for the searcher.”
Assessing keywords and product names, and optimising websites for voice search is action that needs to be invested in – both in terms of time and money. The brands who see the value of investing now will be the ones who reap the benefits of this increasingly popular technology INFLUENCER ADVERTISING RULES “CONFUSING AND UNCLEAR”
CHROME STARTS TELLING USERS HTTP SITES ARE NOT SECURE
Google has published a revised version of the 164-page set of search quality rater guidelines used to help human ‘quality raters’ evaluate online content and provide feedback to Google.
Google is releasing Chrome 68 that will begin marking pages not using HTTPS URLs as not secure.
The raters are given actual searches to conduct, drawn from real searches on Google. They then rate the quality of pages that appear in the top results. According to search engine land and Jennifer Slegg a speaker at SMX Advanced highlighted that there are several new notable areas Google wants raters to focus on. She said: “The most noticeable for content creators is that Google wants their raters to not only look at the reputation of the website itself, but also the content creators themselves. 6
Instead of the small “i” icon for HTTP URLs, Chrome will add a “Not secure” label of text to that. Note, most of those who download Chrome are set for automatic browser updates and thus will be upgraded to Chrome 68 automatically in the future. According to Barry Schwartz it is strongly recommended to upgrade your website to HTTPS URLs and be secure, even if your site does not ask for payment information, logins or other private information.
INDUSTRY NEWS GOOGLE MY BUSINESS TO NOTIFY BUSINESSES WHEN THEY GO LIVE ON SERVICES Google has announced it’s in the process of launching a new notification that informs you when your business goes live on Google services, like Search and Maps. You’ll only receive live listing notifications if your business accounts are fewer than 100 listings and your userlanguage preference is set to “en-US.” Bulk verification accounts currently don’t receive this messaging.
UK MARKETING BUDGETS SEE “RELENTLESS” GROWTH Marketers displayed a “noticeable drive towards digitalbased advertising” in Q2 2018, while spending plans for search/SEO marketing also shifted upwards, according to the latest IPA Bellwether report. However, although strengthened on the first quarter, budget growth overall remains “modest”, the report states. The IPA said the upward revisions to internet budgets have “positively impacted” the overall figures for UK companies’ marketing budgets. While 23% of panellists indicated higher spending plans for overall marketing activity during Q2 2018, just below 17% pointed to lower budgets.
PERSONAL FACEBOOK PROFILES DROPPED FROM SHARING PLATFORMS Facebook is taking away the ability to share posts on personal Facebook profiles using scheduling platforms, such ad Buffer and Hootsuite. This is as a result of Facebook’s announced API updates in April which impact how partners like Hootsuite use their data. In a message to users, Hootsuite said:
“We are actively working with Facebook to understand and mitigate these changes.” UPDATE TO SLOW DOWN CHROME
EC SLAPS GOOGLE WITH €4.3 BN FINE Google is to be fined a record €4.3 bn over its Android operating system, the BBC has reported. The European Commission’s action followed a three year probe into claims the firm’s mobile device strategy had unfairly strengthened its dominance of search. The penalty is set to be confirmed at a press conference in Brussels later. It will be the largest fine imposed by the regulator against a single firm. However, Google may challenge the ruling.
The latest version of Google’s browser, Chrome (which has 60% market share), includes a new always-on feature to keep hackers out, but it will make PCs and laptops slower. In a blog post, Google has admitted the newest version of Chrome rolling out to customers worldwide is going to consume up to 13% more of system memory. Chrome software engineer Charlie Reis says his team “continues to work hard to optimize this behavior to keep Chrome both fast and secure”. Google also confirmed this is a cross-platform change and will apply to Chrome on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS.
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FACEBOOK ENDS ITS EXPERIMENT EXPLORE NEWSFEED Facebook’s content-cleansing bots have flagged the United States Declaration of Independence as hate speech, proving that there can be difficulties in AI and machine learning. One Texas newspaper, posted “small bites” from the Declaration on its Facebook page in the lead-up to the USA’s July 4th Independence Day, “To make it a little easier to digest that short but formidable historic document”. But as the paper detailed on July 2nd, “The first nine parts posted as scheduled, but part 10, consisting of paragraphs 27-31 of the Declaration, did not appear. Instead, the paper received a notice from Facebook saying that the post ‘goes against our standards on hate speech’.”
The offending paragraphs were as follows:
“He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. “He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilised nation. “He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” It’ll be interesting to see, with the advancement of technology, how historical documents and books are transcribed, sorted and displayed in the future.
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INDUSTRY NEWS GOOGLE MY BUSINESS INSIGHTS ADDS QUERIES USED TO FIND YOUR BUSINESS Google My Business is rolling out a new report in the Insights section of the console that is designed to show businesses how people are searching within Google Maps or Google Search to find your local listings. It is called the “queries used to find your business” report, and it shows the most popular queries for your business by unique users within a time frame.
FACEBOOK ISSUES WARNING TO BRANDS OVER THEIR USE OF ‘POLITICALLY-FUELLED’ ADS Under new rules aiming to clean up political advertising on the site, Facebook has stated that ads must carry the ‘paid for by’ label if they are clearly leaning towards a political debate or are indeed funded by a political group/ party. Only this week two US giants, Walmart and Procter & Gamble fell foul of the social media platform, which stopped running ads which did not meet the new regulations. According to Marketing Week:
“Non-political ads only have to run with a ‘sponsored’ label, but Facebook believes the ads from the major brands crossed the threshold into political speech. “The Walmart ad features a message about bringing jobs back to the US, while P&G’s was an LGBTQ pride ad. Walmart has since had its ad reinstalled, and P&G said: ‘this is not a political ad’ and it will be working with Facebook to understand the new policy.” GOOGLE LAUNCH SMART CAMPAIGNS Following on from the news last week that Google was retiring the DoubleClick and AdWords brands to streamline entry points for advertisers and ad sellers, the search engine has announced their first major roll-out under the Google Ads brand.
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Google wants to help simplify their products for the businesses that operate on a smaller scale and as such has launched Smart Campaigns. Smart Campaigns will be the default campaign type for new advertisers in Google Ads. The campaigns are almost entirely automated, from ad creatives to delivery optimisation, based on the product or service being advertised and the goal the advertiser sets. Smart Campaigns are designed to work with Google My Business for both ad creation — images, location addresses and so on — and soon, landing pages. For businesses that don’t have websites, Google will create and host auto-generated and optimised landing pages. The goals will include phone calls, website visits and requests for directions.
INDUSTRY NEWS UI REPORTING AND OPT-OUT AVAILABLE ON BING ADS AUTOMATED EXTENSIONS Bing Ads have announced this week that there are now ten Automated Extensions available on their platform formally known as Annotations. After renaming the platform, Bing will add reporting on all Automated Extensions in the web user interface (UI) and the ability for advertisers to opt out of them. The current Automated Extensions are available in Bing Ads: - Automated Location Extensions. - Consumer Ratings. - Dynamic Ad Enhancements. - Dynamic Callouts. - Dynamic Partner Data Enhancements. - Dynamic Sitelinks. - Dynamic Structured Snippets. - Longer Ad Headlines. - Previous Visits. - Seller Ratings.
According to Search Engine Land:
“The information Bing Ads shows in Automated Extensions gets pulled from a variety of sources, including website content, ad descriptions, search query, Shopping feeds, third-party consumer reviews, and even Twitter. “The idea is that automating the extensions saves advertisers the time of creating them on their own while providing the extra information in the ad and performance lift ad extensions can deliver.”
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THIS QUARTER IN SOCIAL 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. 12
THIS QUARTER IN SOCIAL BRAND NEW DESIGNS FOR LINKEDIN AND PINTEREST BUSINESS If you’re an avid user of LinkedIn for your personal profile, you’ll have noticed recently that they’ve updated the design (again) with more emphasis on your employment, education and contact information, which features right under the header. This makes no difference to any business profiles you are currently running but you will have to update your header to match the new design. Pinterest has joined in with the new design theme by updating their Business profiles, which is being rolled out across the next few months (so keep an eye out). So what to expect? Well, there’s going to be a new interactive header for your page, which is taken from recent pins uploaded, specific boards you want to highlight and most recent activity. To add to the design, business profiles will now show the total numbers of users who have viewed your pins.
There have been tons of updates in Instagram’s stories feature too, including the ability to add an emoji slider poll instead of the usual ‘yes no’ question. This is a great interactive way to get users engaging with your updates, asking the questions “how much”. This isn’t all for stories though, you can also share feed posts into Instagram stories. So if there’s a post that has inspired you on the timeline, or a post you are featured in and want to share to your followers, you can now add it to your story as a sticker, and are able to rotate, scale and position as you want. A great way to promote your business to those that are tagging you in their posts.
GROUP VIDEO CHAT AND MENTIONS IN SNAPCHAT STORIES This is quite a big one for Snapchat, and something that’s more relatable to users than businesses, but they’ve recently introduced the option to group video chat through the app with up to 16 people at one time. In true Snapchat style, the video chat is then never to be seen again, with their main reason behind the update being that it wants the app to be more like hanging out rather than texting. To coincide with the group video chat, Snapchat have also been busy updating the app with the ability to add mentions to your Snapchat stories, in the same way as you can on Instagram, allowing you to tag any friends or businesses in your images and videos for others to check out. This follows up with their previous updates of making it easier to find new accounts to follow and making updates public.
A BUSY MONTH FOR INSTAGRAM UPDATES The team at Instagram HQ have been busy updating the app with a variety of new updates than helps the running process for both users and businesses. Firstly, your existing organic Instagram posts can now be turned into ads, with a variety of objectives, such as engagement, reach, view views and brand awareness. The catch though? It’s only going to be available for posts that are single video and single photo, and is only available to business profiles.
NEW SAFETY FEATURES FOR FACEBOOK GROUP ADMINS Following on from the news that Facebook has taken down 1.3 billion fake accounts in the last six months, they have now improved their groups feature, to make the platform safer for admins. These updates include the ability to locate admin support, which is a dedicated place for admins of Facebook groups to report issues and get a personal response from Facebook within one working day. It is currently available to a limited number of group admins on iOS and Android, so keep an eye out if you run a group community. There’s also the newly introduced online admin education resources, to help with the community management, in particular keeping them engaged and safe whilst being a part of the Facebook group. This includes product demos, tutorials and case studies, which all came from feedback from group admins. Another update for group admins is the ability to pick and choose which members of the group do not have to have content approved and can post automatically, which is great if you have trusted members who post a lot, but do not wish for them to be an admin.
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THIS QUARTER IN SOCIAL
FACEBOOK LAUNCH TEXT ONLY UPDATES
UPDATES TO INSTAGRAM STORIES (INCLUDING SHOPPING)
It’s been a while since we’ve seen any major changes to Facebook profiles, but the recent test has an Instagram feel to it. It’s currently being rolled out throughout the globe, and gives users the option to view profiles in the normal timeline mode, or grid mode. What this means is that it will be a mosaic style page to highlight posts such as videos and images, in square thumbnails. Text only updates are also shown as images.
If you’re an avid user of Instagram’s ‘stories’ feature, which allows you to upload Snapchat style updates to your followers in a fun way, then you’ll have noticed a few new updates recently. One of the main updates is the ability to showcase other people’s Instagram posts, along with what you’re listening to on Spotify, as ‘stickers’ with the ability to move these about and add any gifs or text alongside this.
FACEBOOK’S ‘KEYWORD SNOOZE’ INCOMING…
Instagram is constantly improving the things you can do with Instagram stories, and they’ve added another new ‘poll’ feature, which is currently being tested. This allows a user to ask a question and receive open worded answers straight into their analytics for the post (along with who’s viewed it etc).
This one is still in testing, but it follows up Twitter’s recent feature of allowing users to snooze keywords, in the same way as you can profiles or certain pages, for a 30 day period. What it means for users is the ability to not seen any posts at all that include a certain keyword or phrase, which is great if you don’t like football during the World Cup, or are tired of seeing posts about politics, simply snooze the keywords and you’ll be happier on the platform. This won’t apply to ads however, just organic posts.
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And to conclude the quarter for Instagram, they are currently testing the option to expand your ‘shopping’ features into stories, in the same way businesses were using it for timeline posts, you will be able to include a shopping bag ‘sticker’ on your stories update for people to click on and view the product connected to Facebook shops.
THIS QUARTER IN SOCIAL
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION HAS NOT FULLY TAKEN OVER – YET! 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.
Back in March the world was informed by Google that sites will gradually be switched over to mobile-first indexing. Just to recap, this is not Google creating a separate index for searches on mobile, but more the fact that Google’s mobile bots will crawl sites instead of the desktop bots. Google is still using the same index for search engine results pages (SERPs) but a fully optimised mobile site is likely to improve your ranking positions versus nonoptimised mobile sites. Indeed this was the case, and Click Consult started to see emails arrive for our clients but only in batches. 16
It has recently been confirmed by John Mueller that this update is still in fact rolling out and there is “a *lot* to do until we get there”.
FROM OUR EXPERTS Although there has been a further update in July in relation to speed, we shouldn’t lose track of the fact that Mobile-First is still being rolled out and mobile optimisation should still pay a part of any SEO strategy. Just remember your site may not have been affected by the roll out yet. There are some basic aspects to check through in relation to the mobile experience, for example the mobile solution/ configuration which you have selected for your site; responsive, adaptive or dynamic. In Google’s Webmaster blog on the subject of the mobilefirst index, Google states that websites which;
“… have a responsive, (adaptive) or dynamic serving site where the primary content and markup is equivalent across mobile and desktop, you shouldn’t have to change anything”. That said; it is important to ensure that the mobile solution you have implemented is as fast and as friendly to mobile and tablet users as possible – so there is a tie in here with the latest speed update.
These may seem basic checks but once your site has been switched over and Google sees the mobile site for indexing and ranking, then these are critical checks to undertake. The simple answer is that you can expect to see performance issues if you have not untaken the critical checks. Speed It may seem an obvious point but the speed in which a mobile site loads can have an impact on whether a user continues their journey on your site or not. Google has many mobile and desktop speed tools which look at a variety of optimisations, looking at how resources are loaded through to un-optimised imagery which is a very easy amendment to make. There are other changes which need to be considered also such as the reduction of redirect chains and browser caching. Pagination This could be a serious issue, not necessarily for the user experience, but for the mobile bots which will be crawling your site.
If your site does not use any of the specified configurations, and instead has primary content and mark-up that is different across the mobile and desktop versions of your website,
Pagination relates to the number of pages that are linked to at the bottom of a page, but if this isn’t implemented correctly then Googlebot may not see beyond the first page.
Google recommends making some changes to your website.
If content cannot be crawled due to not directing the bots through pagination correctly then all pages may not be crawled and all pages past the first page could potentially not be indexed and therefore will not feature in SERPs..
In order to provide users with the best experience possible when using the web, it is most efficient and effective to have a responsive website which has been designed primarily for mobile devices for the benefit of SEO. In so doing, you are ensuring that mobile users are served your website in a format which is easy to use and read. The users’ experience will be key moving forward and something machine learning is likely to pick up on.
MORE TECHNICAL ASPECTS On Page
Bots Now as the mobile Googlebot crawls your site, which is likely to be at a greater rate than currently, you need to ensure that you have the right mobile robots file. So if your mobile solution is on an ‘m.clickhere.co.uk’ site which could be classed as being placed on a sub domain, then the subsequent robots.txt needs to be updated to have the same rules as your desktop.
As mentioned previously, if your site is responsive or adaptive then on page content will not really be an issue, as the same content will be used.
Should you come across performance issues once you have received your mobile-first email then the first step would be to see how the bots are interacting and engaging with your site from a mobile point of view.
But if you have adopted dynamic serving or different mobile URLs then you need to ensure that these are fully optimised as any desktop site would be.
Undertaking Log File Analysis should be able to assist in resolving the issue.
So for example, is the content serving the right purpose? Have the title tags, meta description tags and H tags been updated in line with the desktop site?
Overall don’t take focus away from the mobile optimisation of your site otherwise you will see a drop in performance, but these points are the starting points to work through. 17
FROM OUR EXPERTS
What are the most important things we consider as a search marketing agency when building and maintaining relationships with our clients? Key Account Manager Jimmy Fernando explains all in this vlog, which is summarised below One of most valuable parts of communication is simply to listen to your client and ask questions to make sure nothing is lost in translation when trying to understand their objectives and long-term strategies. This is a two-way street – you should make sure that your clients know they shouldn’t be afraid to ask any questions, and that you’ll be approachable and honest in your response.
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Jimmy’s top tips 1- Agree strategy 2- Tailor communications 3- Set agenda 4- Share minutes
FROM OUR EXPERTS
2018
Speakers include representatives from:
Hilton Manchester Deansgate 05/09/2018 Apply Today! Last 25 Tickets! Headline Sponsor:
Event Partners & Sponsors:
To find out more - visit the Benchmark Website 19
CONVERSATIONAL SEARCH AND QUERY VARIANTS
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WE’VE SAID IT BEFORE AND WE’LL SAY IT AGAIN: VOICE SEARCH IS GROWING AND IT IS NOW A CORNERSTONE OF FORWARD-THINKING SEARCH MARKETING STRATEGIES
As brands and businesses raise their game in terms of search performance, it is vital that they understand some of the nuances that really boost this type of search query. Over the coming article we’ll look at conversational search, compound queries and implicit queries, and see how these considerations can be the difference between high organic search performance and disappearing in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
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WHAT IS CONVERSATIONAL SEARCH?
FROM OUR EXPERTS
Conversational search is the bridge between human and computer interaction. It is the way in which a user searches for the answer to a query on a search engine using phrases more adept to the spoken word. This type of search can be in a written format or delivered orally to an assistant or other platform that allows voice search. The main principle is that a user can ask a question in sentence format, and that device can respond with a full sentence. One element of conversational search is that the technology can analyse all of the words in a conversational search query, rather than picking out specific keywords. An example of this would be a user typing in a search similar to this:
‘Volkswagen Golf top speed’, and having the following answer returned; ‘the top speed of a Volkswagen Golf is 120mph.’
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
WHAT ARE COMPOUND QUERIES?
A compound query is the process of submitting a search query and receiving an answer from Google before submitting another query which will correlate with the first and allow Google to learn from it to provide a better answer. Google will use cues and prompts from the initial search in a machine learning format to make sure that it is offering the best possible answer. The reason that this happens is that the latest generation of searchers are using both newer technologies and a longer, more conversational form of search. Conversational search as we mentioned earlier is the ability to use natural language to find a solution. With the invention of Google assistants and those on smartphones such as Siri, this is fast becoming the search norm. To help understand compound queries a little more and to ensure that they are being used to best effect, it is vital to break the topic into two distinct areas – intent revision queries and chained queries.
INTENT REVISION QUERIES This type of query reflect everything that we have mentioned in the past about machine learning. These types of search mean that in order to get the most comprehensive answer a user does not have to start a search again but can edit or revise their initial search. An example that is widely used when it comes to this type of search is as follows: A user starts by asking ‘show me cookbooks’, then revised the response with a second query of ‘show me the vegetarian ones’ which inherently refers back to the previous query thus preventing a second, entirely separate search. 23
FROM OUR EXPERTS
CHAINED QUERIES These searches work in a similar way, but instead of revising the initial query the user can instead run additional queries around the same topic. An example of this would be if a user first asked ‘on which continent does France sit?’, they could then follow that with a chained query, such as ‘what is the capital?’. This is not revising the query, but it is dependent upon having asked the first query.
WHAT ARE IMPLICIT QUERIES? 24
Initially, when a user typed a query into Google they expected that the search engine would match the words directly from one to the other. These matches represented and displayed the search results best placed to deliver an answer. This is very basic, early-format, search and as Google and others have gotten more refined implicit queries have become more prominent.
FROM OUR EXPERTS
A good example of this would be if a user was to conduct a basic or ‘explicit’ search and type in something like ‘restaurants’ they would have originally been shown the webpages and documents that ranked best for that term. Now however, it is possible to get an ‘implicit’ query that looks at other data and allows for a better result. The implicit aspects of the ‘restaurants’ query therefore can include: - Which device is being used? - The user’s location - The user’s language (of search) - The user’s search history - Which browser they are using
As we move forward hyperlocal search and other tools will also play a part offering the search engine to see: - The users method of transport - Which side of the road they are on - How fast they are moving - Other appointments – syncing to calendars etc
based on data and its wider knowledge, is vital. Over time we can expect the number of implicit searches to become the social norm as displayed below. Unlike text search, voice search is not just direct – but often colloquial. If businesses and brands can adapt for this and understand how people speak and search then they are without question heading in the right direction.
Understanding where Google pulls the answers from and the decisions that it makes in terms of what to display 25
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
STRUCTURED DATA AND SCHEMA EXTENSIONS WILL PLAY A VITAL ROLE IN THE FUTURE OF SEARCH FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT BY BING AT SMX ADVANCED THAT THEY WOULD BEGIN SUPPORT TO DEBUG AND VIEW JSON-LD MARKUP IN BING WEBMASTER TOOLS, BILL SLAWSKI HAS PUBLISHED HIS TALK FROM THE CONFERENCE AND PROVIDED ANOTHER PRICELESS DEEP DIVE INTO MARKUP
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
It’s a drum we beat regularly, but while Click has been emphasising the importance of structured data for search – both in the present and to its future, it is great to see our predictions borne out by developments in the industry. For anyone interested in structured data – and in search more generally – Bill Slawski is a must follow. One of the first and foremost writers and researchers of SEO, and his attention to detail is what makes the work he does on his site SEO by the Sea worth following. The reason I mention this is that at the same conference Bing was making their announcement about increased support for structured data, Slawski was giving a talk on schema markup and structured data which referenced a provisional patent filed by Google, titled: ‘Extracting Patterns and Relations from Scattered Databases such as the World Wide Web.’ The case Slawski makes in the text of the talk is that schema markup allows for the entire web to be treated
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as a scattered data-base – with algorithms mining data from all over the web and all over the world to return the best answers to any query through the construction of relationship ontologies. I’ve made the case before that schema markup is going to be the foundation of voice first search, but it is – as can be seen from recent developments and Slawski’s dissection of various Google patents – also directly involved in another of the trends that have presented themselves over the last few years, that of Google seeking to become an ‘answers engine’. By using schema markup to make an easily digestible scattered database of the web, constructing ever increasing and comprehensive ontologies, Google is not only ensuring that it will be able to answer most queries, but also that many website visits will be avoidable (furthering the work already done by in SERPs answers and rich results).
FROM OUR EXPERTS
How this shapes the future of search will take a while to find out, but with voice search set to account for 50% of all searches made by 2020, there has to be a push from Google and other search engines to increase the speed at which we are organising the information in this scattered database.
As we’ve said before, the search marketing industry needs to meet machine learning in the middle and invest more time and money in learning to speak the language of the algorithm as we wait for it to master ours (something brought a little closer this week by IBM).
It’s no surprise, therefore, to see Google and Bing double down on the use of existing schema and in the creation of extensions. Whether or not spoken queries lead to the necessity to use a screen as part of the follow up, or a visit to a site, Google as an answer engine is going to fundamentally alter the main function of many brand’s website. With all this in mind, there will be a need to upskill staff or hire more JavaScript knowledge at many in-house and agency teams to ensure that the correct and latest markup is being used – as well as to participate in the construction of industry specific extensions in the hope of being at the forefront of the coming changes, rather than having to react to every new extension.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IS THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER INTERACTION – BUT IT PROBABLY WON’T BE ZO The vast majority of interactive AIs (chatbots, conversational interfaces etcetera) operate on the principle of conversation trees – making them functional but uninspiring to interact with. In most cases, the programmer defines questions and a list of possible responses that the AI can return – in a similar way that Alexa Skills and Google Home Actions are built. These chatbot programs then use natural language processing to parse consumer responses, determine the nearest applicable answer they are programmed with and return this.
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However, the future of customer interaction will require AIs to rise above conversation trees and become, at least a little, more human. They will, in order to fulfil their apparent destiny and render the human staffed customer service department obsolete, need to be able to parse intent and emotion as well as meaning. After hearing an episode of Comedy Bang Bang which featured the latest AI from Microsoft – a social AI – and with all this in mind, I thought I’d ask it a few questions.
FROM OUR EXPERTS In one way, there is a definite feeling of cogs turning – the AI dissembles and deflects if it can’t understand a question, it makes corny jokes and posts gifs – but it’s an interface that quickly becomes tiresome.
It was a pretty short interaction, if I’m honest – but that was all it took to determine that Zo is some way from the finished article. Unlike Tay, the previous Microsoft chatbot I was aware of (which went from electronic ingénue to digital Nazi in under a year) Zo’s existence had passed me by. One of three currently operating AIs from Microsoft (including Xiaoice in China and Rinna in Japan), Zo has been operating since 2016, though it told me it had been running for only two weeks (one of the many odd answers I received). It seems I’ve become aware of Zo as a result of a third marketing push (in previous marketing efforts Microsoft has teamed up with a YouTube influencer that pretends to be an AI, some cats and the Jonas Brothers), but despite the time it has been running, the interface remains some way from achieving what, in 2017, Microsoft’s AI & Research Product Director told Polygon was its intention: to “achieve fluid conversation”.
However, it’s easy to see that such an interface has to be the future of customer interaction; it’s unlikely that Microsoft would be investing in such a project without believing in the potential commercial value of the project. The potential benefits to brands to have a bot that is better able to communicate fluidly are numerous – greater satisfaction with AI interactions, and cheap 24 hour customer service being just two of them – but, as Zo proves, the chatbots will need to be as close to perfect as possible (although recent research suggests we have reached a point of AI acceptance that has rendered us vulnerable to emotional blackmail by robots). At the moment, Zo feels both close to and a million miles from being human at the same time, and generates the odd uneasiness commonly caused by things that fail to bridge the uncanny valley. The place I risk accusations of unfairness, here, is that I am trying to infer business use from what Microsoft are positioning as a ‘social’ AI – it’s not built, as things stand, to handle interactions of that nature, thought that must surely be where it’s headed. Zo seems to be an exercise in the development of a unique personality, or, for fans of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Genuine People Personalities. The problem with that is we all know the inevitable result.
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“I have this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left hand side” What’s next for Zo? While I’m not privy to the conversations that will undoubtedly be happening at Microsoft, there are a few advances that must surely be on the list for integration as Microsoft looks to place itself at the forefront of technology. Microsoft already has its digital assistant Cortana and, which is recognised as one of the more accurate assistants on the market – with 2017 (the latest report I could find) seeing it reach its lowest error level of 5.1%, comparing favourably to humans and the neural net technology that powers it. It also has the impressive translation capabilities it currently powering Skype Translator and is leading the field, at present, in object recognition. If Microsoft can implement what it learns from developing Zo and use its neural net and Cortana infrastructure as a back end, then it has the beginnings of what could be a genuinely useful, human seeming AI for a host of commercial purposes – especially as the schema.org project continues to develop structured data – now an integral part of all search marketing endeavours at a technical level) that will make forming ontologies and parsing information easier for any eventual AI.
As voice search continues to expand, we will demand more from it, and Intel’s big push in AI chip technology should tell us all we need to know about how close coming AI revolution is – in fact, Deloitte, in a recent technology, media and telecommunications predictions report are predicting ubiquity for AI chips in mobile phones by 2023, while numerous futurists are predicting that mobile and wearable technology will merge in the same time period. In short, we are going to rely on AI for a substantial number of things – whether organisation, data retrieval and analysis or even conversation – and that is going to require AIs that are more approachable – making Zo a revealing experiment. However, it is going to mean that brands need to be ready either to be ready with their own AI, or that they are as accessible as possible to those on our mobiles - meaning webmasters need to ensure they are keeping up with the latest developments in structured data, making technical strategy vital to any brand’s online activities in the coming years.
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YOUR ADVANCED GUIDE TO ORGANIC SEARCH – TECHNICAL ON-PAGE SEO FEATURES: Important HTML elements – What you should be using and where you should use it for maximum impact.
Redirects – Which type of code your pages should show to search engines and how to avoid losing authority with redirects. Site structure – How to optimise your site structure and navigation to ensure the best results. And more, including descriptions of the most common URL mistakes and canonicalisation best practice The technical SEO eBook is not only desirable, it’s vital for the future of your brand, so ensure your readiness by downloading – or share it with someone who needs to know.
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BINA & BEYO
ARY & OND
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USING NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN A SUCCESSFUL SEO STRATEGY BY SCOTT RUMSEY Language, content, search marketing – the three go hand in hand and without one you can’t have the others. The search marketing aspect is the user generated query and in order to generate an answer search engines require content to link to.
This content, in turn, relies on language. Sounds simple right? In truth it’s pretty complicated and with natural language processing sure to be one of the most talked about items in the industry we thought we’d look a little deeper.
WHAT IS NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING (NLP)? Natural language processing (NLP) is an area of computer science and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages, in particular how to program computers to process and analyse large amounts of natural language data. Challenges in natural language processing frequently involve speech recognition, natural language understanding, and natural language generation. In its simplest form it is the act of asking a search engine a question in the manner you would ask a friend. It is conversational and a good example comes from the very header of this section. When trying to find out ‘what is natural language processing’ you would almost certainly type in that sentence not ‘natural language search explanation’.
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THE EVOLUTION OF NLP Whilst NLP is featuring more and more in search marketing and SEO, it isn’t exactly new. The way that computers process natural language has been around for a long time. I think the reason that it’s picking up speed is as a direct result of the advancement in technology and the way in which people search, with voice search in particular picking up traction. Other factors that make a difference as to the rate of progression in terms of NLP are: - Increased interest in human-to-machine communications - Availability of big data - More powerful computing - Enhanced algorithms. Search algorithms change greatly, they adapt and evolve in order to make sure that the user query is met with the best possible answer. Early adopters of the internet will have used program such as Ask Jeeves. They will have entered questions in the hope of gaining an answer which best suited their needs. Whilst this worked for a while, updates meant that Ask Jeeves (or similar tools) could no longer compete with the keyword based search engines such as Google. Natural language search does still have a place especially with the rise of voice search, this we know and it is one of the most hotly talked about topics in the industry, but why has there been a shift towards keyword searches? Well the answer is simple, as Google tinkered with their algorithm and brought out many updates, especially the hummingbird update; they did so knowing that there will be a focus on user intent and contextual relevance. They wanted to provide the user with an algorithm that tried to show results based on exactly what you mean not just by picking out the keywords within a query. The main reason that they did this so that they were able to understand longer more complex queries and so they can identify other possible searches which might be relevant for the user. 41
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UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE Without doubt this is the single most important thing for search engines today if they are to service a query with an answer. They must understand exactly what the audience are looking for in the same way that business must understand how to position their content for that users search. Businesses must conduct keyword research and competitor analysis to ensure that their content is relevant in the correct format and most importantly that it resonates with the end or target user. Businesses should be aware of all users no matter how well they are grouped in terms of their demographics. They are all different and for that reason it is essential that you take into consideration that they might search in a different way despite the fact that they are in your core user group. One example could be that a user types in ‘Buy shoes near me” and another could look for “local shop shops”. Natural language processing will help a business to display for both of these despite the difference. It is highly unlikely that two users will use exactly the same keywords or search in exactly the same order when they type a query out. This is especially true when it comes to voice search. Now one of the big point here is that it doesn’t mean keywords aren’t important but if you want to have the best chance of getting found by voice you have to make sure that you understand what your audience actually means not just what they are saying. One of the best ways to do this is to get a collective group of terms which a person may ask about your business if they were to meet you face-to-face i.e. this is the natural language style of search and offers you a chance to get conversation with the audience. One of the best tools that we have seen is answerthepublic.com, this is an interactive tool that lets the user or the person using the program should I say, the chance to create a word wheel. This wheel, at its centre has the key words with which you want to associate with your business. Branching out from this are numerous number of possible questions the majority of which will be conversational.
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If we are to do a quick search for one of our key terms (search marketing) we get the following word wheel. (See Below) You will notice that when you look from the centre of the wheel outwards the first set of words that you get to let
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you know the type of question with which the user may ask, these can be things like where, which, who, when, why, how etc. Once you have all of these questions it is worthless unless you actually implement the strategy with which they can be used.
Take your keywords and those associated with the word wheel and see how you can optimise pages on your website, blog, and on page content to include terms that will be picked up by these queries. Make sure that you incorporate all of your answers onto your webpage. These can be broken out across the site map making sure the correct information is on the correct pages. You can also group together questions and many businesses use a FAQ page to do this. This plays right into the hands of voice search and can give the user information they need quickly and efficiently. The beauty of FAQ pages is that there is little or no cost other than the initial investment in terms of research and producing the content. These pages answer the most commonly asked questions of your business and increasingly we’re seeing Google account things such as opening times all the address of the business within these brackets. For those businesses that want to improve their brand image and go into more detail about the products services they offer they can do this through means of a blog or through more long-form content. If this content is keyword rich that has a greater chance of being picked up. Keyword stuffing is something we’ve looked in the past and whilst many wouldn’t advise using the same keyword over and over again, this isn’t something to worry about so long as you are answering the question asked correctly. It is important that you create all of your content conversationally and a long-tail keywords are taken into account. Businesses should take an SEO style long-tail keyword and turn it into a natural sounding question. Previously businesses might’ve targeted the term ‘shoe shop Chester’. This will have given the user a list of businesses that sell shoes in Chester and therefore fits the brief. The problem with this is that as we move towards natural language searching this type of query could differ depending on if it is spoken or written.
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“In its simplest form this type of search query is the act of asking a search engine a question in the manner you would ask a friend.� 44
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The spoken search could be something like, ‘where can I buy shoes in Chester?’. Again this solves the query but actually opens up your business as the response it tells the user your location the products you sell and what you do. Typically as can be seen by the word wheel, the best sort of questions and long tail keywords of those that start with the who, what, where, when or why prefixes. One of the best ways to use natural language search is when it comes to the use of chat bots and follow on questions. Google recently announced that they were implementing a system by which conversations could be struck off with AI through the process of machine learning. This is such a breakthrough for the industry as it saves time and means that users can get right down to the heart of the problem or query by asking very few questions. If you think of the game 21 questions – where is possible to get to a solution through a series of yes and no questions in just 21 turns, then you’re on the right track. Again if we take the shoe shop analogy it would be possible for a user to ask a virtual, voice automated assistant the following question. ‘Where is my nearest shoe shop?’.
Google will then answer the query for the user and the user can then ask a secondary question in a conversational tone such as, ‘how do I get there?’. These questions will not only pull from resources such as Google, but will also use other tools such as maps and other visuals if the user is looking on a device. Something that we often look at here is the use of schema markup, this is where you allow Google to pull other information from your site telling the user what sort of products or services you may offer and additional business-related questions. It may be as a business that you don’t accept credit cards if you are a cash only or you can include opening times if you’re a restaurant as well as the type of cuisine or perhaps whether you offer delivery or not. Adding schema is a must as this markup could be the difference between winning or losing custom online and appearing for a query. Initial reports suggested that only 20% of all websites were using schema markup but this has picked up rapidly over the last few years. If you’re failing to use schema markup then you’re more likely to miss out on conversions later down the line. In essence this is probably the quickest way in to any business can have and is one of the easiest tasks to complete as it is essentially profile building. The vast majority of mobile and voice searches are likely to be location based so it is imperative the businesses optimise for Google my Business. Adding images, questions and reviews can also boost your position in SERPS, and is also worth listing your business on other directories so that Google can find it in as many places as possible. Implementing the points in this knowledge base will allow you to become fully optimised for voice and natural language and can propel your search performance.
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BACK CATALOGUE
THINKING ABOUT THINKING – CAN METACOGNITION HELP US DEVELOP BETTER MARKETING STRATEGIES? BY JOHN WARNER
The term ‘metacognition’ – or the process of thinking about one’s thinking – has been part of academic parlance since the 1970s (with thought on the general concept predating the coining of the term by centuries). It has informed various educational strategies and has become a primary component of some approaches to artificial intelligence (AI). I’ve been reading bits and pieces about metacognition for decades – it crops up in areas of interest to me, such as psychology, technology, philosophy and literature – but it has lately begun cropping up more and more often when I’m planning out various articles and resources (lately occurring to me during a conversation that will at some point be released in the on.click podcast feed). While Click Consult spends a lot of time on the resources and posts it hosts – and that one of the reasons for the existence of these resources is a genuine commitment to furthering the general knowledge of our
newsletter and blog subscribers and the industry as a whole – as a brand, Click Consult is best served by a wide range of topics, with a variety of unique keywords, within the reasonably narrow focus of search marketing. That’s great – it’s how that specific part of SEO works, you provide your consumers with useful knowledge, you allow Google’s various spiders and robots to infer the context and usefulness of your site to a particular niche, you earn links due to high relevance and usefulness, your rankings climb, your visibility improves, your traffic grows, your profitability multiplies. That’s great – and it works for everyone, in varying degrees. In addition to this, search marketing is almost unique in its decision to offer content that attempts to create a level of transparency around the industry’s best practices, new and emergent techniques – a sharing culture which almost certainly grew out of its origins on various fora and, until fairly recently, the lack of formal qualification in the subject.
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
Recently, marketing professor Mark Ritson lamented the lack of trained, qualified marketers in search marketing – giving examples of leading influencers who tended to be programmers, mathematicians and other non-marketing specialists. While anyone who has spoken to me on the subject will know that I see broad education to be more useful than narrow focus (in areas that don’t absolutely require narrow focus – medicine for example) – the reason, I feel, that the Renaissance saw such an explosion of innovation, was that there was little pressure for people to specialise – artists were scientists, poets were engineers, and Isaac Newton thought he could somehow practice magic. Search marketing, while beginning as a roiling mix of disparate disciplines, in order to claim its seat at the table alongside traditional advertising and PR, began to narrow its focus. It chose, I use this verb lightly as it’s been more of an evolution, the thing it could do well – it chose measurement, tracking and targeting. In the intervening years, search marketing got really good at this – it has pitched its stall on the basis that it can provide the best possible ROI with the greatest possible accountability. This has undoubtedly been a boon for digital marketing – the ability to accurately assess the return on investment, not just for paid advertising but for technical and creative endeavours, has no doubt been at least partially responsible for the incredible growth that the industry has seen over the last decade. 48
What led me to this article, however, was the concern that the wealth of tools and the accuracy of reporting led some sections of search to become two dimensional in their approach – following tried and tested techniques (though regularly tweaked and updated). In short, the concern that some sections of the industry have stopped thinking about our thinking.
FROM OUR EXPERTS Just as traditional marketing practices failed to fully embrace diversity, leading to a failure to reach certain demographics, and took too long to realise the potential in online marketing (leading to later surges in traditional marketing agencies adding or acquiring digital arms), search marketing has perhaps been hoist by its own petard. It may be an instance of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon – due to the fact I’ve been thinking about it, I begin to see it everywhere – but there seems to be an increasing number of agencies which prioritise artificial intelligence and machine learning in the decision making process. This has the potential to be an amazing leap, but as with past iterations of Google’s image search – which has historically returned racist results – artificial intelligence can be as biased as its creators. A human ability that AI – to my knowledge – has yet to master is the cognitive leap from insufficient data. While this can lead to all manner of errors (no machine, for example, could have created an ad that suggests a soft drink delivered by a Kardashian could resolve US race tensions), there has to be room for the leaps that the human brain can make – especially when it comes to strategy. While we may be able to earn great returns through full automation of paid search, while we can trust AI to iterate and test, and even to write articles (some, by this point, may well be wishing I had), I think there remains a need for human ideation in search marketing – something which traditional marketing has prided itself on since the inception of mass communication.
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FROM OUR EXPERTS
That is, however, going to require the industry to think about the way it thinks and for that reason we should be grateful for GDPR and the coming voice revolution, and for the moves by Google that suggest it is looking to be an answer engine rather than a search engine (looking increasingly to remove the need for a click to a website, instead seeking to answer queries directly in SERPs). There are major changes coming to the way search and other online marketing is going to be executed, but if the industry focuses on improving the offering it has presently, then it may be left behind by agencies yet to come. The answer, in my opinion, has to be a broadening rather than a narrowing of perspectives. While marketers should be up to date on the latest research and developments in their industry, we need to ensure that we are developing a breadth of cultural experience and academic expertise in the hope that we are responsible for and not caught out by the next big thing. This is by no means an ‘SEO is dead’ article – it has a long and healthy life ahead of it – but I do think that there is a change coming that we may not be ready for – while we have many successes to boast about as an industry, we need to find our flaws and broaden the talent pool we draw from rather than reduce it.
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The above diagram shows something referred to as the ‘Metacognition Cycle’ – something which, from my brief research tends only to be mentioned in relation to learning methods – and shows a much more reflective approach to development of strategy. This is something I came close to incorporating in to various search skills in two eBooks which sought to use the scientific method in planning and execution of strategy (The Science Behind Content Marketing and The Science Behind Link Building), but this would take things a step further if incorporated – in that not only do we need to research, plan, execute, measure and reevaluate the approach, we also need to reflect on the task and each of the subsequent phases. When we achieve success, it can be easy to assume success will continue – but without constant learning and reflection, it is easy to be overtaken by new developments. Search is an industry that has cemented itself as an industry which can be account for every pound spent – it needs to retain this, but it also needs to make sure it doesn’t doesn’t miss out on the next frontier. It can do this by embracing lifelong learning and, above all, by thinking about our thinking.
FROM OUR EXPERTS
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