eStudio34 presents Search Love London 2015 | Searching higher up the funnel by Jono Alderson

Searching higher up the funnel @jonoalderson

Searching Higher Up The FunnelJono Alderson, Head of Insight @ Linkdex

Jono Alderson

Head of Insight @ Linkdex@jonoalderson

https://twitter.com/jonoalderson


I my day job






“That sounds really boring, Jono.”- Will Critchlow

Distilled, 2015



This sounds familiar...


Getting stuff done

Marketing in your sleep

Cracking the SEO code of 2015

Behind Your Integrated Marketing Strategy

Existential Crisis Management

And it looks familiar...


?


Let’s do this.




28 types!



Everything we know about SEO is lies-to-children.


This oversimplification is why we sometimes feel a bit stuck.


It’s why we’re going through an identity crisis.


SEO IS DEAD! / LONG LIVE SEO!


Content Marketing?


Content MarketingInbound Marketing?


Content MarketingInbound MarketingSEO?


Content MarketingInbound MarketingSEOMarketing?


Content MarketingInbound MarketingSEOMarketingGrowth Hackers?


Content MarketingInbound MarketingSEOMarketingGrowth Hackers???


It’s why we struggle to achieve our ambitions.


It’s why we strugglein-house / in an agency / freelancing


It’s why we’re culpable.


It’s getting harder.


“Knowing SEO” is no longer enough.


Your success in 2015 and beyond depends on how you think about

(and beyond) SEO.


Today’s mission:1. Share my version of “the truth”2. Overcome the technical challenges3. Touch on the business challenges4. Consider the human challenges


Ready?


The first lie...

SEO is tactical.


> a trillion searches per year



34.7%

17.5%

10.3%

6.7%

4.7%


Keyword Search Vol Rank Competition Est Visits

Keyword 1 439 38 High 101

Keyword 2 7,500 7 High 1,950

Keyword 3 659 5 Medium 152

Keyword 4 7,827 44 High 1,644

Keyword 5 7,979 28 Low 2,075

Keyword 6 5,953 10 Low 1,251

Keyword 7 4,803 10 Medium 1,345

Keyword 8 4,270 15 Low 1,239

Keyword 9 5,480 32 High 1,096

Keyword 10 4,702 5 High 1,035

Keyword 11 3,906 47 Medium 1,172

Search volume / projected rank / average CTR= potential traffic / CR * AOV = potential revenue


“Find the most profitable niche!”



“So, where are my results?”


This creates reactive cultures

1. Everybody’s chasing rankings for the same keywords, rather than

chasing (or creating) their ideal customer.

2. Teams are KPI’d on the wrong behaviour; bad experiences all round.

3. All strategies, agencies, and priorities are transient and driven by fear.


The second lie...

SEO is strategic.



The Zero Moment of Truth


This positions content marketing and inbound marketing techniques as

powerful tools


The problem is…Not all searches have

obviously valuable outcomes “cheapest panasonic 32 inch tv”

“best new lcd tv”“lcd vs plasma tv guide”“fuzzy sound on TV”


The only brand in the mix!


Your content marketing isn’t clever, sexy or effective if you manage it like paid search.

You’re missing the point.


AttributionMarketing by moment


http://youtube.com/v/5GvA3aM17QI

http://youtube.com/v/5GvA3aM17QI



As a concept, this feels cheesy right....but how do we make this a useful framework?And if marketing is about Moments, how do I win?

death to the funnel


“Moments are behaviours or psychological states exhibited by

consumers as they interact with search engines.”

A better definition?


Can we infer and classify the moment from keywords/topics?

“best lcd tv” vs “compare cheap 32inch tvs”


You have to get all of the relevant keywords.

Moments [10’s]Topics [100’s]

Keywords [1000’s]


What about implicit / compound / natural language

complex queries?


“Young Drivers Insurance”keyword

6.6k search volume


“Young Drivers Insurance”top (266 keywords…)

65k search volume


Define topic rules“best lcd tvs”

Modifier - Quality

List refinement - Quality Product type refinement - LCD

Plural



[A shortcut]


http://labs.linkdex.com/term-tagger/

Early (discontinued) prototype, but good for proof of concept!

http://labs.linkdex.com/term-tagger/


Define topic rules“best lcd tvs”

Modifier - Quality


Plural


Define moment rules

Behaviour - Comparing

“best lcd tvs”Modifier - Quality


Plural

Evaluating


What if we turn this inwards to look at site performance and

share of market?


Tiny market share of huge opportunity!


To win, you need to engage with (lots of) different keywords moments

To be visible, to influence, to win hearts and minds, at scale


● This is high-level strategy; beyond your pay-grade, and the scale of it is terrifying.

● The commercial and resource models don’t allow for this level of research.

● Retailer & brands can’t compete with publishers on research-level content

● Where does responsibility start or stop? Who owns ‘success’?

Your SEO team can’t impact performance


The third lie...SEO is integrated digital marketing.



Imagine you’re responsible for SEO at Argos.


*click*

*click*

*think*

*search*




“I’m not the expert”For all considered purchases, manage how the

user becomes an expert.


You win by managing the ecosystem and the perceptions

which searchers developChange the way you think about SEO


To do this, you have to understand what they want, and

match (exceed!) their expectations.


Let’s get practical.


Imagine you’re responsible for SEO at Samsung.

You’re tasked with selling more televisions


The UK TVs Market

● Over 8,600 distinct keywords, which collectively

represent ~3.5 million searches per month, with

a media value of ~£1 million per month.

● 95 topic groups representing brands, product

attributes (e.g., screen size), types of phrasing

(e.g. questions) and TV-related concepts.

● Inferred behaviours and psychological states

spanning 9 moments.


In the TVs market, the List Building moment accounts for most searches

LED Large TVs Small TVs Smart TVs UHD Total

Broad Search 243,670

Knowledge Acquiring 270 510 4,940 1,570 16,680

List Building 49,650 368,610 48,070 209,270 127,130 1,571,446

Evaluating 2,640 6,840 710 3,930 2,610 133,200

Shopping 650 3,050 10 7,080 3,760 207,560

Cost Reducing 2,770 10,100 70 9,100 3,570 83,680

Monthly Searches by Moment / Topic


Samsung and its primary competitors attract only ~5%of visits within the market.

Total Monthly Searches:3,487,679

samsung.com, Est. Organic Visits: 71,617 (2%)

lg.com, Est. Organic Visits: 48,335 (1.4%)

sony.co.uk, Est. Organic Visits: 39,873 (1.1%)

philips.co.uk, Est. Organic Visits: 6,746 (0.2%)

The biggest brands’ domains account for very little market.


Let’s reflect on that for a moment.

Your own domain is only one small piece of the experience.


39% of total List Building market size


So how do we use this tactically?


Top Pages Est. Visits Media Value

Large Screen TVs (32" and over) 102,290 (6.5%) £22,209

Televisions - Smart LED, 4K, OLED TVs & Accessories 54,583 (3.5%) £12,099

TVs, DVD & Blu Ray, Home Cinema & Gaming 28,609 (1.8%) £7,133

Small Screen TVs (up to 32") Deals 14,951 (1.0%) £3,414

Large Screen TVs (32" and over) Deals 10,599 (0.7%) £3,833

4K Ultra HD TVs – Experience 4x Definition 9,097 (0.6%) £1,574

Samsung Smart TV Range 6,623 (0.4%) £81

Samsung U8500 UHD Curved TV 6,495 (0.4%) £592

LG OLED TV – Explore LG LED & OLED TV Range 6,371 (0.4%) £858

Total (282 Pages) 277,942 £171,220

So, which pages are most visible, visited, influential in the purchase decision?

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/televisions/large-screen-tvs-32-and-over/301_3002_30002_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/televisions-301-c.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray-31-u.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/televisions/small-screen-tvs-up-to-32/301_3915_31642_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/televisions/large-screen-tvs-32-and-over/301_3002_30002_xx_ba00004524-bv00298788/4_xx-criteria.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/4k-ultra-hd-1707-commercial.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-tv-technology-1888-commercial.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-curved-tv-692-commercial.html

http://currys.co.uk/gbuk/lg-oled-tv-445-commercial.html


Top Pages Est. Visits Media Value

4K TV and Ultra HD: Everything you need to know 18,435 (1.2%) £15,298

Best TV 2015: what TV should you buy? 11,676 (0.7%) £7,950

5 best UHD 4K TVs of 2015 11,227 (0.7%) £9,194

Cheap TVs: The best TV deals in June 2015 9,010 (0.6%) £9,059

10 best 60-65-inch TVs in the world today 7,837 (0.5%) £3,641

10 best 50 and 55-inch TVs in the world today 7,312 (0.5%) £4,175

12 best 40 and 42-inch TVs in the world today 5,893 (0.4%) £3,304

4 best Smart TVs in the world 2015 4,576 (0.3%) £3,538

13 best 32-inch TVs in the world today 3,108 (0.2%) £1,624

Total (93 Pages) 88,312 £64,559

And what about pages which are most visible for people who are researching technologies?

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/ultra-hd-everything-you-need-to-know-about-4k-tv-1048954

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/best-tv-2013-what-tv-should-you-buy-this-year-709255

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/tv/10-best-ultra-hd-4k-tvs-in-the-world-today-1198304

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/hdtv/cheap-tvs-and-tv-deals-1171772

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/tv/10-best-60-inch-tvs-in-the-world-today-1119177


http://www.techradar.com/news/television/tv/10-best-40-and-42-inch-tvs-in-the-world-today-657803

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/6-best-smart-tv-platforms-in-the-world-today-1120795



18k views per month for just one article - and he’s written over 4,000.

Where does all this content come from?


“What about me, my site, and directly transactional behaviour?”

The end of the funnel is still important.


When you understand moments, you can turbo-charge your

content strategies.Here’s the process...


Example (fake) data for ‘Ford’


Pro tip: the ‘Query’ function in Google Sheets is awesome.


Waaaaaaaaaaaait.This may be a trap.


What are we trying to achieve?“Right results, right content, right person, right moment”



http://bit.ly/linkdex-pageflow


[SHHH!]


Now what?Test. Do. Tailor. Improve.


This doesn’t just apply to ‘Enterprise SEO’

Visits don’t occur in isolation. People research.


Turn content marketing into a targeted,Tangible Thing.

This approach enables you to...


This approach enables you to...Stop talking and worrying about keyword

rankings, and start thinking about opportunity and market share


This approach enables you to...Capture consumers* higher up the funnel,

earlier in the decision-making process


This approach enables you to...Actively steal competitor market share by

targeting higher up the funnel


This approach enables you to...Tactically use partners & affiliates to be where

you can’t, or use paid media to fill gaps throughout the buying cycle


This approach enables you to...Make friends (and steal budget from) the PR

and brand guys.


This approach enables you to...Put forecasts and business cases against familiar metrics like ‘visibility’ and ‘share of

market’ in a meaningful way


The Truth?


The only thing that matters is that somebody has searched;

what did they see?


“Good SEO* is when you manage the experience and the opinions that users form when they search.”

digital marketing / growth hacking / whatever


People don’t do this because... their data is too shallow


People don’t do this because... it’s not SEO(?)


Actually, maybe, we’ve overcomplicated it, not

oversimplified it*?


This elevates SEO from a ‘channel’ to a sophisticated marketing &

business intelligence function......which gets budget, buy-in, and success.


Except… Does it?





The ‘business bit’ is really easyGetting buy-in in 60 seconds.

http://bit.ly/kpiframework


Use your data to build an awesome strategy

Don’t underestimate the power of your vision


A strategy must…Increase revenue, decrease costs, increase brand


Best Strategy != Right StrategyPragmatism > Perfectionism



Put your awesome, achievable strategy in a measurement

framework

Purpose < Objective < Goal < KPI > Segments > Performance


http://bit.ly/kpiframework




The ‘people bit’ is harderUnderstand motivationsAnticipate objections

Give yourself permission to be a rockstar


C-levelBe in control

“I can set a binding vision”

MarketingMinimise risk“I can change our

priorities”

FinanceMinimise cost

“I can agree to spend, to accumulate”

Third parties & other SEOs

Defend themselves“I can challenge the

status quo”Tech & Legal

Maintain status quo“I can veto anything”

bit.ly/linkdex-videos


And what about you?The T-shaped marketer is not enough.


That’s probably all we have time for.


Some thoughts, to leave you with.


This kind of thinking is quietly disrupting industries nowTelecoms | Travel | Finance | Insurance


This is a seismic, ideological shift for most organisations.

Take baby steps. Introduce concepts like Moments into things like campaign briefs. Grow it slowly.


We only work (and are measured) the way we work, because that’s

the way we work.And it only changes if we change it.


The only brand in the mix!

@jonoaldersonTurbo-charging your WordPress website (bit.ly/turbo-charge-wordpress)

WIN


http://bit.ly/turbo-charge-wordpress


Jono Alderson

Head of Insight @ Linkdex@jonoalderson
