The landscape of search has changed, and it will continue to do so -- radically. But Danny Sullivan doesn’t want you to panic.

1. The State of Search
Danny Sullivan
Founding Editor,
Search Engine Land

2. Let’s play a game:
“Who’s number one?”

7. Being “Number 1” &
“10 blue links” is dead

8. SEO is dead

9. Congrats, SEM!

10. Thank You!

11. SEO is NOT dead

12. Changing landscape
means
changing opportunities

13. What’s changing?....

14. Past: T-E-X-A-S
Today: Place connected
to people, things & facts
The age
of entities
&
entity
search

16. Entity search =
more direct answers

20. Will
direct
answers
kill
SEO?Was 28% a year ago, now 36%
Source: MozCast SERP FeaturesGraph

21. Weird
answers

22. Wrong
answers

23. Photo ofYgritte from HBO
Watch Game OfThrones!
YOU
KNOW
NOTHING,
GOOGLE!

24. Reasons
to
relax
• Google can’t turn everything into
direct answers
• Direct answers still minority of searches
• Many searches complex or multi-session
• Most publishers aren’t reporting major
traffic drops
• Some publishers actually want to be answers
because links drive traffic
• StayTuned: Concerns remain & people are
watching to see if Google keeps search engine
“balancing act”

25. Google Posts & rise of
distributed / hosted content

26. Special
section
for
select
companies
and
groups

27. Content
hosted
on
Google
itself

28. Worry?
Maybe
not,
given
hasn’t
been
success

29. Rise of AMP &
more hosted concerns

30. AMP
is
part
of
main
search
results

31. AMP
pages
effectively
hosted
by
Google

32. BTW
AMP
>
app links

33. Maybe hosted & distributed
is the new future…

34. And OK, if you can
achieve the same goals…

35. Or not.
Experiment.
Watch carefully.

36. The end of filters?

37. After
two-year
wait,
Penguin
goes
real-time

38. Panda
goes
“slow-time”
but
continuous
all the same

39. Hummingbird
was new
“engine”
designed
to better
process
signals,
filters &
things
to come

40. Enter machine learning
& RankBrain

41. There’s no
“SEO for RankBrain”

42. RankBrain
uses
machine
learning
to largely
refine
resuls

43. Match
uncommon
queries
to common
ones where
has more
confidence
in results

44. The “mobile-first”
world is now

46. But
“mobile-
friendly”
is
outdated
thinking

47. Mobile-first
not
mobile-friendly:
If it’s not
in mobile,
it might not
be in Google

48. Mobile
action
items
Mobile-first, not mobile-friendly, version of site
Click-to-call
App for repeat visitors?
Maybe progressive web app, watch & see

49. Bots, digital assistants
and hands-free search

50. Predictive
search
has grown

51. Google Assistant
is (supposedly)
“assistive search”

52. But future of
assistive
search
& bots
is less clear,
has long
way to go

53. Look ma: no hands!

57. Google
Home:
Google
comes
to life as a
companion…

58. What
about
credit?
There’s
some…

59. But we
deserve
better
metrics

60. I’ll leave you with…

61. What was true
20 years ago
remains true now…

62. Search is always changing

63. What doesn’t change is
people will always search

64. Search marketers
figure out
how people search
and increase visibility
from search venues

65. Visibility in print yellow pages:
search marketing!

66. Visibility with 25 words in Yahoo:
search marketing!

67. Visibility with web listings in Google:
search marketing!

68. Visibility with whatever is to come:
search marketing!

69. The names change.
The specifics change.
The successful curiosity skills
remain the same!

70. And the curious,
the questioning, the always-
exploring
search marketer
sees
change as opportunity

71. Thank You

72.  Google's Knowledge Graph
 Google Direct Answers / Featured
Snippets
 How to get Featured Snippets for your
site
 Google Posts
 How Trump & Clinton have failed to use
free space in Google
 Google: Accelerated Mobile Pages /
AMP
 Google: AMP will override app deep
links for the foreseeable future
 Google Firebase App Indexing
 Google updates Penguin, says it now
runs in real time within core search
algorithm
 Google Penguin Update
 Google Panda is now part of Google’s
core ranking signals
 SMX Advanced keynote: Google’s Gary
Illyes talks RankBrain, Penguin update
 Google Panda Update
 Google Hummingbird
 Google: RankBrain
 Mobilegeddon
 FAQ: All about the Google mobile-first
index
 Google and Progressive Web Apps: the
mobile experience and SEO
 Google Assistant
 For answering questions, Google Home
bests Amazon Echo & Alexa
 How Google Home turns voice answers
into clickable links
 10 big changes with search engines
over my 20 years of covering them
Further reading