Artificial Intelligence Optimisation - BrightonSEO April 2017
1. Richard Neill Horie
Home
SEO & Artificial Intelligence Optimisation
Twitter: @NeillHorie
Slideshare: http://bit.ly/europeanswallow
2. #brightonseo
Do you think you are
intelligent?
Don’t worry about
being perceived as a
narcissist.
Do you know the
airspeed of an unladen
European swallow?
SLIDESHARE VERSION
3. “Unladen European swallow’s airspeed
velocity is eleven metres per second.”
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131292477@N08/25219116374
Alexa can answer; Alexa knows the answer.
Alexa is an Artificial Intelligence Assistant.
SLIDESHARE VERSION
#brightonseo
5. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
OPTIMISATION
At Home, we have changed the way our business works, the way we think
around technology, because of AI. We have changed from talking about
Search Engine Optimisation to Artificial Intelligence Optimisation. And I think
you should too.
#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
7. Source: https://youtu.be/862r3XS2YB0?t=5m9s
But what do I mean when I saw AI? DO I mean Wall-E, or the Terminator, or
AI gods powered by Dyson Spheres? Do I mean the highly technical things
talked about by other speakers in the AI stream?
#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
8. Source: https://youtu.be/862r3XS2YB0?t=5m9s
To talk about it properly, I first need to talk about intelligence, which I see as
the ability to acquire knowledge and skills. To learn things like the airspeed
velocity of an unladen European swallow.
Based on this, AI is just a robot knowing things.
#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
9. “In the US, on our mobile app in Android,
one in five queries - 20% of our queries -
are voice queries and that share is
growing.”
Sundar Pichai,
I/O 2016 Keynote
Source: https://youtu.be/862r3XS2YB0?t=5m9s#brightonseo
14. The Amazon Echo was the best selling product on Amazon for 2016. A
colleague uses one to read bedtime stories to his children. Another has
given one to his elderly parents for Christmas.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131292477@N08/25219116374#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
15. Dozens of devices at CES 2017 came bundled with Alexa. These range
from fridges to televisions to phones. The next Motorola and Huawei
phones are rumoured to come with Alexa.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131292477@N08/25219116374#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
16. VOICE SEARCH IS AI
In terms of knowing things and answering questions, voice search is AI. But
when you start to consider it, it’s more than just voice search.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131292477@N08/25219116374#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
17. “[Google] would understand exactly what
you wanted, and it would give you the
right thing. That's obviously artificial
intelligence… and that is basically what
we work on.”
Larry Page,
October 2000
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20150323042808/http://achievement.org/autodoc/steps/vis?target=pag0-005#pag0-005#brightonseo
18. Google Assistant is the kind of AI they’ve been trying to develop. I could ask
it for places to eat and it will show me breakfast places in Brighton. In fact, I
don’t even need to ask – it will recommend some breakfast cafés
proactively.
SLIDESHARE VERSION
#brightonseo
19. 2017
But that’s now. Let’s take a step back.
#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
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20. 2017
2006
In 2006, Google was answering our needs – it’s just that our needs were
expressed as brute keywords. I would have typed ”breakfast café in
brighton” to get the result, but I still got it.#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
21. 2017
2006
1996
Further back still, we can see that search was answering questions. Was
Ask Jeeves bad at it? Yes, it was less sophisticated, but we also gave it very
little to work with.#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
22. 2017
2006
1996
We had scrolling text, no structured data and our café probably didn’t even
have a website. No wonder it struggled. Just because it wasn’t great, it
doesn’t mean it wasn’t AI.#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
23. Source: https://youtu.be/862r3XS2YB0?t=5m9s
My colleague was talking to someone at a conference recently, and AI came
up. This person said, “You know, sooner or later, we’ll be marketing towards
robots, not people.” To someone who has done SEO, it’s obvious that this
has long been the case, but outside our bubble, AI is something different
and new.#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
24. We are the gatekeepers of content.
From all of our work on SEO, we should know what content our users need,
and they’re trying to find out and what AI should tell them.
#brightonseo
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25. Don’t just rely on
keyword research – look
at live chat logs, call
centre logs, standard
question setups
customer services deal
with, user interviews,
etc.
#brightonseo
KNOW QUESTIONS
SLIDESHARE VERSION
26. Produce content, but
write it to answer the
questions being asked,
not just vaguely talk
about the same topic.
Consider the structure
of your answer, and look
into how content is
picked up by featured
snippets.
SLIDESHARE VERSION
#brightonseo
KNOW QUESTIONS
ANSWER QUESTIONS
27. Build Brand Assistants,
like Alexa Skills, Actions
on Google or Facebook
Messenger Bots. Don’t
just leave it to customer
services, or developers,
without our input.
Make sure whatever
you build is better than
Jeeves, if not than
Google Assistant itself.
SLIDESHARE VERSION
#brightonseo
KNOW QUESTIONS
ANSWER QUESTIONS
BUILD ASSISTANTS
28. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
IS OUR DOMAIN
And throughout all of this, we must remember that AI is not someone else’s
job. It’s our job. It’s our domain. We have owned it since Ask Jeeves, we
own it now, and we need to act accordingly.
#brightonseo
SLIDESHARE VERSION
30. RECOMMENDED READING
Actions on Google
https://developers.google.com/actions/
Alexa Skills
https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit
Facebook Messenger Bots
https://messengerplatform.fb.com/
API.AI
https://api.ai/
#brightonseo
AI Assistant Experiments
http://bit.ly/aioexperiments
Can Google Tell Us The Truth?
http://bit.ly/nonfacts
31. REFERENCES
http://searchengineland.com/google-now-handles-2-999-
trillion-searches-per-year-250247
Google now handles 2 trillion searches per year.
https://youtu.be/862r3XS2YB0?t=5m9s
Sundar Pichai keynote, over 50% of searches are mobile, and
20% of android mobile are voice.
https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Rankings/comScore-
Reports-January-2016-US-Smartphone-Subscriber-Market-
Share
At least 50% of mobile devices in the US are android.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/10/amazoncom-incs-
best-selling-product-in-2016.aspx
Echo was the best selling product on Amazon for 2016.
#brightonseo
Notas do Editor
Hands up in the audience if you think you’re intelligent? Don’t be worried about narcissism. Okay, hands up if you know the airspeed of an unladen European swallow?
<audio should play>. Alexa can answer our question, and Alexa is an Artificial Intelligence Assistant.
At Home, we have changed from talking about search engine optimisation to artificial intelligence optimisation. We have changed the way we think about technology across our entire business because of what I will discuss in these slides. And we think everyone else in the industry should do the same.
At Home, we have changed from talking about search engine optimisation to artificial intelligence optimisation. We have changed the way we think about technology across our entire business because of what I will discuss in these slides. And we think everyone else in the industry should do the same.
So what do I mean when I say AI? Do I meant robots like Wall-E, or the Terminator, or AI Gods powered by Dyson Spheres? First we need to talk about intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to acquire of knowledge and skills. Things like the airspeed velocity of an unlanded european swallow. AI is just a robot knowing things and being able answer questions about them. In terms of answering questions, it’s important to think about voice search.
So what do I mean when I say AI? Do I meant robots like Wall-E, or the Terminator, or AI Gods powered by Dyson Spheres? First we need to talk about intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to acquire of knowledge and skills. Things like the airspeed velocity of an unlanded european swallow. AI is just a robot knowing things and being able answer questions about them. In terms of answering questions, it’s important to think about voice search.
So what do I mean when I say AI? Do I meant robots like Wall-E, or the Terminator, or AI Gods powered by Dyson Spheres? First we need to talk about intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to acquire of knowledge and skills. Things like the airspeed velocity of an unlanded european swallow. AI is just a robot knowing things and being able answer questions about them. In terms of answering questions, it’s important to think about voice search.
This is all based on extrapolation from the US stats, so might not be exact. However, this is just android – so Google Home use isn’t countered in that. This also doesn’t include things like Allo. Finally, dubious about how they count searches – e.g. reminders.
The Amazon Echo was the best selling product on Amazon for 2016. Colleague uses one to read bedtime stories to his children. Another has give one to his elderly parents for Christmas and they took straight to it in a way they didn’t with tablets or smartphones.
Dozens of devices at CES 2017 came bundled with Alexa. These range from fridges to televisions to phones. The next Motorola and Huawei phones are rumoured to come with Alexa.
The Amazon Echo was the best selling product on Amazon for 2016. Colleague uses one to read bedtime stories to his children. Another has give one to his elderly parents for Christmas and they took straight to it in a way they didn’t with tablets or smartphones.
Dozens of devices at CES 2017 came bundled with Alexa. These range from fridges to televisions to phones. The next Motorola and Huawei phones are rumoured to come with Alexa.
In terms of knowing things and answering questions, voice search is AI. But it’s more than just voice search.
So that takes us to now. Google Assistant is the kind of AI they’ve been trying to develop. I can ask Google for places to eat, and it will show me breakfast places in Brighton. In fact, I don’t even need to ask – it will show me it proactively. It’s using information it knows and providing it to me without me even needing to ask.
But that’s 2017, let’s take a step back before now.
In 2006, in the days before material design and flat logos, Google was answering our needs. It’s just that our needs were expressed in the form of brute keywords. I would type in “breakfast places in brighton” to get the result, but it was still pretty similar.
If we go back further still, to Ask Jeeves, we can see that right back in 1996, search was about answering questions. Was Ask Jeeves AI? Yes, but it was an AI with great limitations of what it could figure out, and a bunch of webmasters not structuring what they were saying very clearly.
If we go back further still, to Ask Jeeves, we can see that right back in 1996, search was about answering questions. Was Ask Jeeves AI? Yes, but it was an AI with great limitations of what it could figure out, and a bunch of webmasters not structuring what they were saying very clearly.
Looking further into the future, I’ll share an anecdote which didn’t happen to me, but a colleague of mine. My colleague was at a conference and he was talking about AI to someone, and they said, “You know, sooner or later we’ll be marketing to robots!” It’s easy for us in this room to forget, but not everyone else realises that this is what SEO has long been – marketing to robots so that they will show it to our users. We take it for granted, but it’s basically the future as far as everyone else is concerned.
We are the gatekeepers of content. From all our work on SEO, we should know everything our users will ask; all the answers they want; all the content they’re trying to find.
Don’t just rely on keyword research – look at live chat logs, call logs, standard questions the customer services are used to dealing with, etc.
Write content, but write it to answer the question, not just respond to it like you might do with mentioning accurate keywords. Write the content in such a way that it will/would be picked up by featured snippets.
Don’t just leave it to customer services or developers, help build the assistants – like Alexa Skills or Actions on Google – so that they are the very least better than Jeeves, but preferably better than the standard Google Assistant itself.
We have to remember through all of this that AI is not someone else's job. It's our domain, we have owned it since Ask Jeeves and we own it now.