david yarian- volume 9
TRANSCRIPT
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.”
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: [email protected]