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SEO from a CGC PerspectiveCERTIFICATION COURSE

Michael DeHaven - @stormseo

THE NETWORK EFFECT

SECTION 1:

CGC Fundamentals

Confidential and Proprietary. © 2015 Bazaarvoice, Inc. 3

UX

Five investment themes:

• Content

• Markup

• Reputation (Authority)

• Freshness

• User IntentUser Experience

Machine Learning

THE NETWORK EFFECTConfidential and Proprietary. © 2017 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

Do we

and

Understand

User Intent

really ?

focus on❒❒❒


Focus On and Understand Intent

Define User Intent

BV: User intent is the expectation of how

a chosen technology will react to input.

Google: A user’s search intent is a concept

describing how [Google] algorithms

understand what the user really wants with

a specific query within a specific context.

❒❒❒



Read Google Inc. Patent Documents❒❒❒


❒❒❒



Your Micro-Moments, Your Expectations❒❒❒

orange heels




acura rdx




zombie games




mexico beach vacation


3029282726252423222120191817161514131211109876543210


Your Recent Searches❒❒❒


search phrase length

frequency /

rew

ard


Search Types

1. Homepage – I want to go to a known company’shomepage and I don’t feel like typing in .com, etc.

❒❒❒



2. Category – I have a problem and begin my searchwith only one or two words.

frequency /

rew

ard


Search Types❒❒❒



3. Branded Category – I have a problem and knowthe brand that will help me solve it.

frequency /

rew

ard





4. Category w/ Criteria – I have a problem and specifya small amount of criteria.

frequency /

rew

ard





5. Product / Location Name – I know the productname or store location that will solve my problem.

frequency /

rew

ard





6. Long Tail – I’m going to trust Google with all the details about my problem.

frequency /

rew

ard





frequency /

rew

ard

?





frequency /

rew

ard

User Intent Research – Holiday 2016

Search Types – Homepage Intent

16%84%

❒❒❒



frequency /

rew

ard

16%• Brand Marketing

• Monitor Bounce Rates

• Focus on Trust & Respect

• Don’t Try Too Hard


Search Types – Homepage Intent❒❒❒



78%22%

frequency /

rew

ard


Search Types – Non-Homepage Intent❒❒❒


Learn Machine

Learning

Clues

❒❒❒

!from


❒❒❒


There’s NoSuch Thing

Search Trafficas free

❒❒❒

!


❒❒❒Total US Spending for SEO

Forecast

2008-2020 in $ Billions

Source: Borrell, 2016

$1

1.4

4

$1

5.9

7

$2

2.1

0 $3

4.2

7

$4

2.3

5

$4

8.2

8

$5

5.1

1

$6

0.7

3

$6

5.2

6

$6

8.8

9

$7

2.0

2

$7

5.2

3

$7

9.2

7

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 (P) 2017 (F) 2018 (F) 2019 (F) 2020 (F)


❒❒❒Un-Optimized Acquisition Budget

SEO

Paid


SEO Paid

CPCeCPC

❒❒❒Optimized Acquisition Budget


❒❒❒Calculating eCPC

Expense

Incremental Traffic

eCPC =


Did you know

Google

2 Second Rule

that

has a secret ?

❒❒❒


❒❒❒

PageRequested

byBrowser

BrowserRequests

Rest of Page

Server-SideVersion

inBrowser

0 sec

Waiting for Some Items

IndexedVersion

Captured by

Googlebot

+2 sec

CompletePage inBrowserVisible toEnd Users

~5 sec

Google Indexes at +2 Seconds (Since 2015)

WebmasterTools

OperatorQueries


❒❒❒Google Indexes at +2 Seconds (Since 2015)

How do we

know?intext:bvseo_fps vs. intext:bvseo_cps

-or-

intext:bvseo_pps vs. intext:bvseo_lps



How do we

know? A trusted Google

insider confirmed it.



What should

you do?Test structured markup

twice using guidance at

http://bit.ly/testing-tool



What should

you do?Manage your page build.

• Stable rich content first

• Personalized elements next

• Ads last


What YouNeed to Know

Manual Actionsabout

?

❒❒❒


Understanding Manual Actions

Manual Actions

Site-wide matches

Partial matches

Some manual actions apply to entire site

Some manual actions apply specific pages, sections or links

❒❒❒

This site may not perform as well in Google search results because it appears to be in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines



Manual Actions

Site-wide matches

Unnatural links from your siteGoogle detected a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative outbound links on pages of this site. This may be the result of selling links that pass PageRank or participating in link schemes. Learn more.

REQUEST A REVIEW


!

❒❒❒




Manual Actions

Site-wide matches

Hacked siteSome pages on this site may have been hacked by a third party to display spammy content or links. You should take immediate action to clean your site and fix any security vulnerabilities. Learn more.

REQUEST A REVIEW


!

❒❒❒




Manual Actions

Partial matches

Spammy structured markupMarkup on some pages on this site appears to use techniques such as marking up content that is invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content and/or other manipulative behavior that violates Google’s Rich Snippet Quality guidelines. Learn more.

REQUEST A REVIEW


! Affectshttp://samp.le/c/

❒❒❒



Manual Action Reconsideration Requests

1. Follow this Formula

• Interpretation of the issue

• Cause of the issue

• Corrective actions taken

• Own it and provide contact information

2. Be Humble

3. Be Thorough

4. Don’t Miss an Opportunity

❒❒❒

5-Minute Break!

SECTION 2:

Structured Markup


What isStructured Markup

Why do we need it?

And, why is it so difficult to get right?

!?>

?


!?>


!?>

4.7

5

27

5itemprop=“logo”

itemprop=“image”

itemprop=“aggregateRating”

itemprop=“inventoryLevel”

itemprop=“reviewCount”

itemprop=“bestRating”


!?>

Schema.org launched on June 2, 2011 as a joint effort between Bing, Google and Yahoo and Yandex.

Their mission was to create a common labeling system (schemas) that would help search engines understand the contents of web pages.


!?>The Moving Target

Over the years, structured markup has been an

iterative part of SEO – a moving target with a

new, preferred format, every few years.

• Microformats (< 2011)

• Microdata (2011 - 2016)

• RDFa (supported but not preferred)

• JSON-LD (2016 >)


!?>Microformats

• Preferred by Google before 2011

• Implemented in ”class” tags

• Prefixed with the letter h

• class=“hCard”, class=“ hProduct”

• Commonly found in WordPress templates

• Still supported by Google

• Does not play nicely with other formats


!?>Microdata

• Preferred by Google from 2011 – 2016

• Well documented in schema.org

• Implemented with “itemscope” and “itemtype”

• Predictable – when you understand it

• Most common format

• Fragile – if developers don’t understand it


!?>RDFa

• Well documented in schema.org

• Implemented with “property” and “typeof”

• Predictable – when you understand it

• Less common format

• Fragile – if developers don’t understand it

• Legacy: references data-vocabulary.org

• Proper: references schema.org (rare)


!?>JSON-LD

• Preferred by Google as of 2016 (premature)

• Documented in schema.org

• Less predictable, less documented, less common

• Statistical data used for Rich Snippets

• Content may not be indexed by Google Web Search

• Thorough use increases page size

• Caution: JSON-LD may be a value detractor


<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product">

<span itemprop="name">Kenmore White 17" Microwave</span>

<img itemprop="image" src="kenmore-microwave-17in.jpg"

alt='Kenmore 17" Microwave' />

<div itemprop="aggregateRating” itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">

Rated <span itemprop="ratingValue">3.5</span>/5

based on <span itemprop="reviewCount">11</span> customer reviews

</div>

<div itemprop="offers" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Offer">

<span itemprop="priceCurrency" content="USD">$</span><span itemprop="price" content="1000.00">1,000.00</span>

<link itemprop="availability" href="http://schema.org/InStock" />In stock

</div>

Product description:

<span itemprop="description">0.7 cubic feet countertop microwave.

Has six preset cooking categories and convenience features like Child Lock.</span>

</div>

!?>Microdata Example


Spammy Structured Markup

Manual Actions

Partial matches


Spammy structured markupMarkup on some pages on this site appears to use techniques such as marking up content that is invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content and/or other manipulative behavior that violates Google’s Rich Snippet Quality guidelines. Learn more.

REQUEST A REVIEW


! Affectshttp://samp.le/c/

!?>


What are you,

Labeling!?> ?


!?>It’s not about the right order…


itemprop=“name”

itemprop=“review”


itemscope itemtype=“schema.org/Product”


!?>It’s about right hierarchy!

itemscope itemtype=“schema.org/Product”itemprop=“aggregateRating”

itemprop=“name”





Without Guidance,

Google assumptions

must make

!?>

!

clear

^


!?>Pick a product, any product!


itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”




Recommendations


!?>Pick a product, or is this a recipe page?


itemprop=“name”




Recipes


itemprop=“name”



itemscope itemtype=“schema.org/Recipes”


itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemscope itemtype=“schema.org/WebPage”

!?>Use mainEntity to focus Google’s attention.


itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”





itemprop=“name”



itemprop=“mainEntity” itemscope itemtype=“schema.org/Product”

Recipes


QuestionsAnswers

!?> !that still need

Format coexistence?

Order of operations?

Where does the data get used?

Does un-indexed data provide value?

SECTION 3:

Product / Detail-Page SEO



78%22%

frequency /

rew

ard


Search Types – Non-Homepage Intent/p//d/


Place Product Pages

/p/ Folder into a

/p//d/

!(use /d/ if detail page is a better description)


Product Pages and the 5 Investment Themes

Content

Markup

Reputation (Authority)

Freshness

User Intent (Experience)

★★★★☆

★★★★☆

★★★☆☆

★★★☆☆

★★★★☆

/p//d/


Focus onSatisfaction

/p//d/

!user intent


Test OptimizeReview

Count

and/p//d/

!^


Review Count by the Numbers./p//d/

378

30RPV / AOV

SERP Rank

Traffic

Bounce Rate



7 RPV / AOV

SERP Rank

Traffic

Bounce Rate

About 2012, Bazaarvoice research

determined that average consumers

need an average of 7 relevant

reviews to develop a sense of

satisfaction.



8 RPV / AOV

SERP Rank

Traffic

Bounce Rate

# of reviews recommended for

display on detail pages.



3 RPV / AOV

SERP Rank

Traffic

Bounce Rate

# of reviews displayed by Amazon

for most of their history.

Amazon tested review counts in

2016 and now displays 8 on most

detail pages.



30 RPV / AOV

SERP Rank

Traffic

Bounce Rate

# of reviews displayed by default

in most Bazaarvoice integrations

when paginating.

Testing found that 30 reviews

protected page speed while

satisfying deep-dive research

minded shoppers.


Test OptimizeSort

Order

and/p//d/

!^


What’s Your Optimal Sort Order?/p//d/

Relevance

Most Recent

Most Helpful

RPV / AOV

SERP Rank

Traffic

Bounce Rate


Maintain Thorough

Structured Markup

/p//d/

!and proper


Incomplete Structured Data?

/p//d/


Lower YourBounce Rate

Search

/p//d/

!from


2016 Holiday Bounce Rates/p//d/

1 Apple 55% 11 Walgreens 39%

2 Williams-Sonoma 48% 12 Macys 39%

3 Target 45% 13 Home Depot 38%

4 Staples 44% 14 Costco Wholesale 37%

5 Nordstrom 44% 15 Amazon 36%

6 Sears 43% 16 QVC 36%

7 Kohl's 42% 17 HSN 36%

8 Best Buy 42% 18 Lowes 35%

9 Groupon 41% 19 Wayfair 33%

10 Walmart 41% 20 Gap, Inc. 32%

5-Minute Break

SECTION 4:

Category / Brand-Page SEO



78%22%

frequency /

rew

ard


Search Types – Non-Homepage Intent/c//b/


Place Category Pages

/c/ Folder into a

/c//b/

!(use /b/ for brand pages)


Category Pages and the 5 Investment Themes

Content

Markup

Reputation (Authority)

Freshness

User Intent (Experience)

★☆☆☆☆

★★☆☆☆

★★★☆☆

★☆☆☆☆

★★☆☆☆

/c//b/


Category / list pages most commonly

match user intent. However, over

88% of these pages lack the

SEO-rich content needed

to rank well in search.

Optimize pages high in the funnel.

78%of Google searches

reflect that the user does

not know the product

they will purchase

to solve their

problem22%

infer that the user

wants more information

about a specific

product

/c//b/


Your pages will improve in search rank…

…for many phrases

you already target

…and others where

you don’t yet rank

/c//b/


…like this niche fashion brand in 2016.

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

11,000

12,000

13,000

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

Page 1 Keyword Footprint 69% growth

Dec 7,127

Jan 7,891

Feb 8,791

Mar 9,019

Apr 9,302

May 10,119

Jun 11,396

Jul 11,929

Aug 12,015

/c//b/


Deploy broadly for maximum effectiveness.

Top Categories

Secondary Categories

Facets & Filters

LandingPages

ThematicPages

Spotlights’ sitewide

license now provides the

flexibility to easily leverage

CGC across various page types.

/c//b/


What Controls Does Spotlights

for anSEO Professional

offer

/c//b/

?


Adjust the settings to optimize.

While the default algorithm configurations

Perform exceptionally well, some

SEO professionals appreciate

the ability to test, refine

and optimize.

Eligible

Products

Eligible

Categories

Minimum

Product Rating

Minimum

Review Rating

Minimum

Review Count

Keywords

Exact

(preferred)

Keywords

Excluded

(absolute)

Algorithm

Randomization

Main

Entity

Products

Displayed

Reviews

Displayed

/c//b/


Where: Spotlights Definitions File

Notes:

• Both fields allow a string input

• Multiple IDs supported

• Use forward slash (/) as the delimiter

/c//b/Spotlights Controls: Eligibility

Eligible

Products

Eligible

Categories


/c//b/

Minimum

Product Rating

Spotlights Controls: Eligibility

Where: Setting in BV Config Hub (Spotlights Section)

Minimum Product Rating: 1.0 – 5.0 stars (average)

Minimum Review Rating: 1 – 5 stars

Minimum Review Count: 1+

Minimum

Review Rating

Minimum

Review Count


/c//b/Spotlights Controls: Algorithm

Keywords

Exact

(preferred)

Keywords

Excluded

(absolute)

Where: Spotlights Definitions File

Notes:

• Both fields optional

• Both fields allow a string input

• Multiple words supported

• Use forward slash (/) as the delimiter

• Too many words will reduce effectiveness (use 6 – 10)



Randomization:

• High – all content is subject to randomization

• Medium – 1/3 of content is subject to randomization

• Low – 2/3 subject to randomization

• None – no randomization

Main Entity: enabled / disabled

/c//b/Spotlights Controls: Algorithm

Algorithm

Randomization

Main

Entity


/c//b/Spotlights Controls: Content Volume


Notes:

• Assume 100 words per average review

• Optimize settings to achieve > 1000 words

• Start with 8 – 12 products, then test other settings

• Choose a number that is divisible by what is visible in the

default/most common display.

Products

Displayed

Reviews

Displayed


How Do YouDetermine

SpotlightsIs Working

that

/c//b/

?


/c//b/Spotlights Testing: Substitute Experiment

SEO ContentNothing Changed Spotlights

-23%

50%

-1%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

-10%

-20%

-30%

0%

13%

50%

15%

0%

41%

Nov Dec Jan – Google Core Algorithm Update


/c//b/Spotlights Testing: Split Removal Experiment

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6

6.2

6.4

6.6

6.8

7

7.2

21-Aug 28-Aug 4-Sep 11-Sep 18-Sep

Value-Driving SERP Rank

55% affected

RemovedSpotlights

Re-EnabledSpotlights

Keywords affected 663

Avg. position change: -2.8

Traffic impact:

- Est. daily traffic loss -2,676

- Days / yr. x 365

- Est. annual traffic impact -976,740

Keywords tracked 1,215


/c//b/Spotlights Testing: Rich Snippet Coverage

5-Minute Break

Panel Discussion

Certification Exam

http://bit.ly/bv_seo_cert_201703

Thank You