searchcon 2016 | 3 insights from a google engineer with david yarian

Making Good Turns in SEO: 3 Insights from a Google Engineer

o VP of Product & Strategy @ Volume Nine

o SEOo Marketero Skiero A guy often frustrated

with Google.

Hi, I’m David

I love tangible directions.

Google is vague.

I love tangible directions.

Meet Paul Haahr

How Google Works: A Ranking Engineer’s

Perspective:

http://www.stateofdigital.com/how-google-works

/

It’s not very often Google teaches us

new tricks.

Mobile isn’t the future. Mobile is now.

Insight #1

Mobile = Majority of Search Queries (Duh!)

But the gap is going to widen.

Ways Google is Going Mobile-Centric:

o SERP Experiments = Majority Mobile

o User’s Location = Different SERPs

o Mobile Site Speed = Crucial (i.e. AMP Pages)

o Google Quality Raters = Mobile First Focus

Google Quality Raters = Mobile First“Needs Met rating asks raters to focus on mobile

users needs and think about how helpful and satisfying the result is for the mobile users.”

- Google

Example:Satisfying Results

David’s Lesson Learned - Mobile

In everything we do, we need to start with mobile and work outwards.

Google cares deeply about the quality of content. Websites MUST nail ‘E-A-T’.

Insight #2

What is E-A-T?Expertise Authority

Trust

So, how good is your content?

Low Quality Pages

• Not much main content

• Author is not an authority or expert

• Negative site-wide reputation

• Is primarily text-based

• Secondary Content is distracting (i.e. Ads)

High Quality Pages

• A lot of main content

• Demonstrates E-A-T

• Good site-wide reputation

• Uses different mediums

• Has a “satisfying amount” of high quality content

The “Don’t Suck” Test The “Me” Test

Two Quality Tests

Be honest, is this content actually any good?

Would you engage with this content on your own time?

David’s Lesson Learned - Quality

SEOs need to think of better ways to tactically evaluate content quality. It is easy to see that

your content sucks but hard to convince a client their content sucks.

Google is obsessed with properly

matching search intent to search

results.

Insight #3

Google’s Needs Met Scale

Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2015/11/updating-our-search-quality-rating.html

“Does a page usefully answer a user’s query?”

The Future of Relevancy

Image Source: http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440

Queries, not Keywords

Customization, not quantity

Learning, not Algorithms

Lead with a relevancy story. We need to obsess over what the

user actually wants.

David’s Final Lesson Learned - Relevancy

Links & Resources:

‘How Google Works’ Talk: http://www.stateofdigital.com/how-google-works/

Google Quality Guidelines: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2015/11/updating-our-search-quality-rating.html

Email: Dyarian@v9seo.com