SEO has changed, but how much? What's likely to be the next change we have to contend with? Search Engine Optimisation is getting harder. We live in a (not provided), post-penalty world - a world where Google's market dominance is under threat from companies like Amazon and Apple. But time and again the SEO industry has shown its ability to adapt and roll with the punches and as a consequence we're getting taken more seriously than ever before. How bright is the future for SEO?

1. What is the
StephenKenwright |HeadofSearchat | @stekenwright
Photo: gratisography.com

2. SEO is getting
harder
Photo: gratisography.com

3. We’ve lost our
data
Photo: gratisography.com

4. Links are harder
to get
Photo: Rayi Christian Wicaksono

5. Photo: Forbes
Google’s market share
is under threat

6. Photo: Forbes
“Many people think our main
competition is Bing or Yahoo. But,
really, our biggest search
competitor is Amazon.”
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

7. Source: Forrester

8. But the future is
bright for SEO
Photo: Liane Metzler

9. Google is investing
in search
Photo: Forbes

10. SEO is starting to be seen
as real marketing, not
Photo: gratisography.com
just nuts and bolts

11. The biggest challenge for CMOs?
Photo: gratisography.com / SapientNitro survey of 114 CMOs

12. Photo: Google/Connie Zhou
It’s hard to get more
disruptive

13. change that forces marketing organizations
to undergo signification transformations, as
opposed to incremental changes.
Source: McKinsey

14. Photo: gratisography.com
21st April

15. Photo: gratisography.com
“500+ algorithm launches a year…
…means 1-2 a day”
Matt Cutts (via Search Engine Land)

16. We take notice when Google
announces an update

17. …we should take notice when
consumer behaviour changes

19. Consumers now use
to make a purchase
Source: Marketing Magazine

20. Source: Google

21. Tablets and desktops use
the same ranking factors

22. Being “mobile friendly” doesn’t
mean you’re tablet friendly

23. Mobile is no longer a
second screen
Photo: Jonathan Velasquez

24. Sources: Jonathan Velasquez / Flurry
We spend 2 hours 57 minutes
each day on mobile devices*
*including tablets

25. There’s an app
for that
Photo: splitshire.com

26. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2013 2014
Time Spent on Apps vs. Mobile Web
Mobile Web
Apps
Source: Flurry Analytics

27. “Mobile users who search for content related
to your app can see an install button in search
results.”
Source: Google Developers

28. “When mobile users with your app installed
search for something relevant…Search results
can link directly to content in your app.”
Source: Google Developers

29. Google just purchased Agawi
an app ‘streaming’ startup
Photo: TechHive

30. Soon you’ll see content from apps
you haven’t installed

31. Apps are for life
not just for
Photo: 9to5mac.com
smartphones

33. Photo: gratisography.com
Google’s mission is to organise the
world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful.

34. My job is to provide information…
…and make it accessible and useful

35. Accessibility

36. SEO ≠ getting more visitors
SEO is about retention

38. Google may switch results depending
on where searchers click

39. Google may demote results if searchers
leave and search again

40. SEO has changed
already
Photo: Splitshire

41. What we need to do our
job has changed
Photo: Todd Quackenbush

43. SEO
Technical
optimisation
Keyword
research
Meta data
Reporting
Content
writing
Link
building
My job in
The important
bits
2010

44. Content and links
are still important
2015:

45. “Only focusing on links is probably going to
cause more problems for your website [than
it] actually helps”
John Mueller, Google
2015:

46. Some of our tactics
are outdated
Photo: Florian Klauer

47. Guest posting

48. Press releases

49. Blog comments

50. Infographics

51. Widgets

52. Giveaways

53. You have to be worth
talking about
Photo: gratisography.com

54. You have to be worth
talking about
Photo: gratisography.com
reading

55. You have to be worth
talking about
Photo: gratisography.com
reading
linking to

56. You have to be worth
talking about
Photo: gratisography.com
reading
linking to
sharing

57. Ultimately you have to
be worth searching for

58. Worth
searching for

59. SEO
Technical
optimisation
Keyword
research
Video
Structured
mark-up
Mobile
Local
So my job in
2015 is

60. Being technical is becoming
more important

62. Google doesn’t just disrupt
it facilitates disruption

63. Technical can
beat brand

64. Agile business will
win in search
Photo: gratisography.com

65. Businesses drown in silos

66. If your PR and SEO teams
don’t talk you won’t win
Photo: Matthew Wiebe

67. If you can’t change your
site prepare to lose
Photo: splitshire.com

68. Getting things done will be the single
biggest SEO challenge

69. Does Google still care
if you publish fresh
Photo: Glen Carrie
content everyday?

70. Photo: Glen Carrie
“It can be difficult to
assess how relevant
something is…then as
more information
becomes available, we
incorporate that.”
Matt Cutts, Google

71. Photo: Glen Carrie
“Some queries deserve
freshness (QDF)…some
are better served by
evergreen content.”
Matt Cutts, Google

72. Google will be able to assess quality
and relevance more quickly

73. Penguin and Panda are endangered
quality has to be constant

74. UK Travel Insurance Industry: April

75. UK Travel Insurance Industry: May

76. Future-proofing your
SEO strategy
Photo: Davide Ragusa

77. Where does Google want
to send traffic?
Photo: Israel Sundseth

78. Fast results
Photo: splitshire.com

79. 47% of consumers expect a website to
load in 2 seconds or less
Source: Relentless Technology

80. 40% of consumers will abandon a website
that takes more than 3 seconds to load
Source: Relentless Technology

81. A reminder

82. Local results
Photo: Sylwia Bartyzel

83. Source: Google

84. Only 8% of CMOs are happy that campaigns
are well executed on a local level
Source: CMO Council

85. Local pages are often the first experience a
customer will have with your business

86. Personal results
Photo: Caleb George

87. Photo: Caleb George
“Eventually you wouldn’t
have a search query at
all. You’d just have
information come to you
as you needed it.”
Sergey Brin via TED

88. Search has been personalised for signed-out
users since 2009
Source: Google

89. Google+ won’t work…
…but it didn’t have to

90. “Google doesn’t care about websites,
it cares about data.”
Marcus Tandler via Search Engine Land

91. Like Google, we have to obsess over
who our customers are

92. This is why social won’t
be a ranking factor
Photo: Dogancan Ozturan

93. Do you judge number of shares to be a
measure of success?

94. Neither does Google

95. What tactics will be
important?
Photo: Timothy Muza

96. User generated
content
Photo: gratisography.com

97. Sources: gratisography.com / Search Engine Land
88% of people say they trust online reviews
as much as personal recommendations

98. Reviews will be a ranking factor

99. User experience
Photo: Pawel Kadysz

100. Photo: Pawel Kadysz
“Long-term SEO = well-served users.”
Jakob Nielsen

101. We won’t just have to optimise for
conversion rate, but all interactions

102. Photo: splitshire.com
Knowledge vault

103. 19.5% of search queries
now return a rich answer
Sources: splitshire.com / StoneTemple Study

104. “[With the knowledge graph] we’re
at 1% of where we need to be.”
Larry Page via VentureBeat

105. PR
Photo: gratisography.com

106. Photo: gratisography.com
“Brands are the solution,
not the problem…brands
are how you sort out the
cesspool.”
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

107. Google won’t need links to
judge accuracy and popularity

108. Photo: gratisography.com
Google’s mission is to organise the
world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful.
A reminder

109. Thank you
stephen.kenwright@branded3.com @stekenwright Branded3.com