Having seen the changes from Google and observed the changes in our own behaviour, you may now be trying to figure out what to do differently to prepare for the future. Will has you covered, from making the most of new ranking factors and understanding what place apps and deep linking have in your plans, to creating content for mobile. This session will focus on the real-world changes you should be making right now to your web presence and campaigns.

1. brought to you by...
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE
FUTURE OF SEARCH
WILL CRITCHLOW

2. Tactics to cope with change
Grouped into 4 strategies

3. Strategy: desktop is the
poor relation to mobile
1

4. We’ve been too focused on this:
vs.

5. -- old computer science saying
via Ben Evans
a computer should never ask
you a question that it should be
able to work out the answer to

6. While forgetting:
It can take
photos

7. While forgetting:
It knows
where it
isIt can take
photos

8. While forgetting:
It knows
where it
is
It knows who
your friends are
It can take
photos

9. While forgetting:
It knows
if you are
walking,
running,
etc
It knows
where it
is
It knows who
your friends are
It can take
photos

10. Never mind that...
It interacts
with the
world
(beacons,
pay, NFC)

11. Never mind that...
It’s personal,
signed-in, and
taken
everywhere
It interacts
with the
world
(beacons,
pay, NFC)

12. Never mind that...
It’s personal,
signed-in, and
taken
everywhere
It interacts
with the
world
(beacons,
pay, NFC)
It hasnaturalmulti-touch

13. Never mind that...
It’s personal,
signed-in, and
taken
everywhere
It interacts
with the
world
(beacons,
pay, NFC)
It has
notifications
It hasnaturalmulti-touch

14. -- mobile first
by Ben Evans
it's actually the PC that has the
limited, basic, cut-down version
of the internet … it only has the
web

15. LET’S TALK TACTICS

16. It knows
where it
is
How can these things help you?
It knows who
your friends are
It’s personal,
signed-in, and
taken
everywhere
It interacts
with the
world
(beacons,
pay, NFC)
It has
notifications
It hasnaturalmulti-touch
It knows
if you are
walking,
running,
etc
It can take
photos

17. I talked about mobile content marketing last year (link)

18. We have to do something
about download sizes

19. this article is 250 words
-- Amit Singhal
at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article

20. that's under 2kb
-- Amit Singhal
at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article

21. -- Amit Singhal
at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article
you know how many bytes
someone had to download from
recode's server to render this
article?

22. -- Amit Singhal
at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article
2.5 megabytes

23. For every byte of content

24. You have to download 1250 bytes

25. Not just re/code (see this NYT article)

26. Apple News and Facebook
Instant Articles are walled-
garden responses

27. Apple news within the walled-garden (dev resources)

28. Facebook instant articles very similar (dev resources)

29. Google’s response is AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

30. Launched with tons of publishers on board

31. What is AMP and how does
it work?

32. Try out Google’s vision by
going to:
g.co/ampdemo
on your phone

33. Click on
thumbnail

34. “Instant”
page load

35. Swipe
between
pages

36. What is an AMP page?
AMP HTML is a subset of HTML with only specific
JavaScript “components” available, and using a standard
JS toolkit.
Start here: Guide to creating an AMP page

37. Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively

38. Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Initially render only the
viewable area

39. Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Initially render only the
viewable area
amp-img replaces img
Loaded by JS

40. Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Initially render only the
viewable area
amp-img replaces img
Loaded by JS
Behind scenes, 100kb .js
file saved locally

41. Debug on the desktop by using
inspect element and opening the
mobile emulator

42. Canonical and amphtml links connect them
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro
Desktop
web

43. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro/amp
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
rel=“amphtml”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro
Hosted
amp

44. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro/amp
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
rel=“amphtml”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro
rel=“canonical”
Hosted
amp

45. https://amp.gstatic.com/v/s/www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet...
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
Cached
amp

46. https://amp.gstatic.com/v/s/www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet...
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
rel=“canonical”
Cached
amp

47. Try out AMP
The downsides are smaller than Instant Articles
Should be easy dev on a good CMS

48. You generally make things
on computers

49. Buzzfeed leads the way
With mobile-preview in the CMS by default
Preview

50. -- Jonah Peretti, founder of Buzzfeed
Talking about (among other things) their CMS - from his strategy note
We build the whole enchilada

51. Understand app search
2

52. Watch Amit Singhal on stage (link)
Mobile,
mobile, and
mobile

53. “App search” is really 3
things

54. 1. App Store Optimisation (ASO)

55. 2. Public index - searching app content

56. 3. Personal
index

57. “Hello Vipul”. From the personal index
3. Personal
index

58. 3 things

59. LET’S TALK TACTICS

60. ASO is the least interesting

61. ASO is the least interesting
App searches
are like
searches for
websites not
web pages

62. ASO is the least interesting
App searches
are like
searches for
websites not
web pages
It’s more like
Yahoo
directory than
Google - brand
names and
categories

63. ASO is the least interesting
You can’t
dominate
unless you are
very successful
and if you are
extremely
successful, the
upside’s small
App searches
are like
searches for
websites not
web pages
It’s more like
Yahoo
directory than
Google - brand
names and
categories

64. Still, you should do it (see this presentation)

65. The public index is the big opportunity
For all the usual “long tail” reasons.As well as typically being non-branded

66. At simplest, just extends web search
Note web URL

67. A note on information
architecture

68. www.
Too many used to think of websites like this
m.
(totally
different
URLs)

69. m.www.
Now most map or share URLs:
rel=alternate
mapping

70. m.www.
rel=alternate
mapping
app views
But we still too often think:

71. m. app viewswww.
rel=alternate
mapping
Which evolved to
Deep linking

72. Same URL works
on desktop,
mobile web, and
in your app
Now we should be thinking

73. Right now, Google search is
the most interesting
opportunity

74. Make sure your app can
open links
As of iOS9, the recommended approach is http links on both platforms
1

75. Register your app
iOS9 uses CocoaPods to add GoogleAppIndexing support
Android only needs to be associated via Search Console
(if http URLs map to web URLs)
2

76. Used to require
schema.org(*)
(*) or rel=alternate, or applinks, or sitemap

77. -- Vincent Wehren, Bing, May 2015
[Emphasis mine]
“we’ve already started analyzing
the web specifically for App
Links and actions markup”

78. Bing still needs markup

79. Introduction to app indexing
APIs

80. Reveal users’ activity in your app

81. Three good reasons to use
the indexing API:
1. App-only views
2. Personal index
3. Reveal app engagement
(4. add meta information)

82. It’s not really about Android M

83. ...or

84. On Android, it’s
the Google API
that’s interesting

85. // Define a title for your current page, shown in autocompletion UI
String title = "App Indexing API Title";
// Construct the Action performed by the user
Action viewAction = Action.newAction(Action.TYPE_VIEW, title, WEB_URL, APP_URI);
// Call the App Indexing API start method after the view has completely rendered
AppIndex.AppIndexApi.start(mClient, viewAction);
The API has changed since last year
Source: Google

86. Indexing actions rather than just views (docs)

87. This extends into voice actions and much more
(Did you know you can hear all your voice searches at history.google.com?)
OK, Google

88. Now on Tap cuts both ways
Driving people into and out of your apps
Source: Google
Yelp and OpenTable are here
because they have indexed
deep links to this entity

89. We expect there to be both a
Google & an Apple API on iOS

90. There are
actually two
Apple APIs

91. CoreSpotlight
(indexes content for
you alone)
NSUserActivity
(indexes “bookmarks”
public and private)

92. From personal index
CoreSpotlight
Personal index only - content-focused

93. Personal index: not just about mobile

94. NSUserActivity:
Closely related to
Handoff

95. a lightweight way to capture
app state so that it can be
restored later
Apple developer docs

96. eligibleForPublicIndexing Property
eligibleForSearch Property
Private by default

97. when users engage with your
app’s public activities in search
results, it indicates to Apple that
public information on your
website is popular
Apple developer docs

98. which can help increase your
ranking and potentially lead to
expanded indexing of your
website’s content
Apple developer docs

99. I think this mainly shows
that Apple hasn’t met any
blackhats yet

100. Watch out for these pitfalls
Ensure users can get
straight to app
content without
registering (first click
free)

101. Watch out for these pitfalls
Ensure users can get
straight to app
content without
registering (first click
free)
Enable the new iOS9
back button to allow
users to go back to
the SERP

102. Watch out for these pitfalls
Ensure all
appropriate app
view URLs are
allowed in robots.txt
Ensure users can get
straight to app
content without
registering (first click
free)
Enable the new iOS9
back button to allow
users to go back to
the SERP

103. Checklists

104. Must-have
Avoid pitfalls
Recommended
● Support deep-linking
● Use web URLs for app views where possible
● Register the app in your Search Console
● Allow appropriate URLs in robots.txt
● Ensure first click free in the app
● Add markup to pages or sitemaps
● Use app indexing API to:
○ Index personal user content
○ Add meta information to app views
○ Enable activities such as voice actions
○ Expose popularity of app views to Google
Checklist for Android app indexing

105. Watch this space
Avoid pitfalls
Must-have
● Support Universal Links
○ Add your domain(s) to associated-domains in app
○ Add URLs handled by the app to apple-app-site-association on domain
● Use web URLs for app views where possible
● Add GoogleAppIndexing registration to your app
● Ensure first click free in the app
● Enable the back button
● Watch out for Google announcing an iOS app indexing API
○ Enables indexing of personal content
○ Allows usage information to be sent to Google
○ Adds meta information
Checklist for iOS app indexing (Google)

106. Must-have
Recommended
● Support Universal Links
○ Add your domain(s) to associated-domains in app
○ Add URLs handled by the app to apple-app-site-association on domain
● Use web URLs for app views where possible
● Add markup to web pages and / or use NSUserActivity API
● Use CoreSpotlight API to index personal user content
● Use NSUserActivity to:
○ Add meta information to app views
○ Expose the popularity of app views to Apple
■ Designate public or private as appropriate
● Add Smart App Banners to your website
● Avoid interstitials in the app
Checklist for iOS app indexing (Apple)

107. How to perform app audits
We have a blog post coming. In the meantime, figure it out from this post

108. Bored of mobile now?

109. Strategy: optimize for what
would happen if you ranked
3

110. Anyone remember this chart?

111. How about now?
Moz 2009 ranking factors

112. In 2009 I was pumped to be surveyed

113. (I’m British so it was more like)

114. I was pumped because:
(a) yay, validation
(b) I knew the answers
I could be useful

115. More recently, it got hard

116. Which has a bigger effect on rankings?
“Uniqueness of content
across the whole site”
or
“Use of responsive design”

117. Too often, the answer was
“it depends”

118. That’s the bad news

119. The good news is this is less and less true
Feb 2012

120. As a result of all the machine learning

121. Optimize for what would happen if
you did rank
Do I click?
Do I like what
I see?
Do I get what
I want?

122. It’s possible Google is testing your site
directly by dropping it into SERPs
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#1
#2
Your site
#4
#5
A B
Which SERP makes users happier?

123. But even if it’s not that
direct, these are the user
signals that Google is
optimizing for

124. LET’S TALK TACTICS

126. Use techniques from CRO

129. You can mock up SERPs and do your own
split-testing on snippets
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#1
#2
Your site
#4
#5
A B
Which gets more clicks?

130. Or apply lessons from PPC

131. Hunt down “short clicks”- see Justin Cutroni’s post

132. Figure out how to track
“intent complete”
for as many intents as you
can

133. Use Qualaroo for “intent research”

134. There are some pitfalls

135. Google’s proxies for “quality” aren’t perfect
e.g. duplicated content can be a great user experience

136. Strategy: use testing to
figure out what Google
wants from your site
4

137. Check out this post from Pinterest’s
engineering blog about building an
experimental SEO framework

138. They found winners

139. And avoided bad ideas

140. Previously this might have found
exploits or loopholes
Like keyword repetition or hiding = better rankings

141. Now we are using Google as
an oracle
It really doesn’t matter if we’re pleasing algorithms
designed to please people or pleasing people directly

142. LET’S TALK TACTICS

144. Correlation doesn’t imply causation?
Further reading for those interested:
● Predicting the present with Bayesian
structural time series [PDF]
● Inferring causal impact using
Bayesian structural time series [PDF]
● CausalImpact R package
● Finding the ROI of title tag changes

145. Consider typical traffic data

146. Read Ben Estes’ blog post for more
We can extract:

147. Read Ben Estes' blog post for more
Seasonality...
We can extract:

148. Read Ben Estes’ blog post for more
...and trend
We can extract:

149. Then we can make forecasts
(Dotted line = forecast, blue area = confidence interval)

150. We can detect anomalies
We use this on our client-only ops platform to spot unexpected changes

151. Forecast is
correct Beats the
forecast

152. It’s not all roses

153. It’s hard to make these kinds of changes:

154. And we haven’t worked out how to
test internal linking
Where the effect propagates throughout the site

155. But it is powerful

156. Optimize for actual Google
preferences
(rather than guessing how Google will interpret user preferences)
1

157. Avoid wide scale losses
from unsuccessful tests
2

158. 1. Desktop is the poor relation to mobile
2. Understand app search
3. Optimize for what would happen if you ranked
4. Test to figure out what Google wants from your site
Round-up

159. Oh, and one more thing

160. It is possible to test changes with a proxy

161. And we’ve built one
We have an early private beta of a product
to do SEO split testing. Come see me
afterwards if you are interested

162. Speak to
TA for a
demo
@TomAnthonySEO
tom.anthony@distilled.net

163. Speaker
photo
goes
here
WILL CRITCHLOW
CEO and Co-Founder, Distilled
will.critchlow@distilled.net
@willcritchlow

164. Supreme court
Europe by night
Monitor
Phone in hand
Tim Henman
Nadal
Raised hands
Metadata
Hotel California
Pull ups
Axl Rose
Head in sand
Computer in warehouse
Tom Anthony - foliovision
App store
App indexing
Image attributions