The Evolution of SearchThe Merging of Search and Social

Gillian Muessig – Chennai Nov, 2011

The King is Dead! Long live the king!

2001: A Crazy Search Landscape

Via Bruce Clay’s classic search engine relationship chart: http://www.bruceclay.com/serc_histogram/histogram.htm

The Algorithm:

(Keyword Use + Anchor Text)

X

PageRank

Simpler times. Spammier times, too.

SERPs All Looked Like This:

Via Google’s 10th Birthday post: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-time-machine-web-in-2001.html

SEO Meant a Few Fundamentals

Make good content, make it accessible, target the right keywords… That was pretty much it!

And a Lot of Link Building

Links were pretty much everything once you got a crawlable, keyword-targeted page set up.

Hello Spam!

Even Rand bought some of these back in the day…

Fast Forward 7 Years

Google celebrated the year with a TCP/IP protocol reference: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-01-n53.html

Google’s Dominating

Via http://searchengineland.com/comscore-new-google-high-new-yahoo-microsoft-lows-though-both-rise-in-raw-searches-13784

Local/Maps is on the Rise

Matt McGee charted the astounding rise of Google Maps/Local starting in 2008: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/charting-the-undeniable-growth-of-google-maps/1046/

There’s a Few New Protocols

The Sitemaps.org homepage literally hasn’t changed since February of 2008!

But Not Much Else Has Changed

In early 2009, I wrote a post about the shift in importance of algorithmic factors at Google: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-rankings-algorithm-has-changed-over-time-

Jump Ahead… to 2011

It’s a Whole New World

Image via http://gizmodo.com/5478787/the-most-accurate-highest-resolution-earth-view-to-date (which is pretty cool, BTW)

SERPs Rarely Look Like This Anymore

It took me serious time to find a query this sparse

They Look Like This:

Google’s instant answers are getting more detailed and sophisticated, as illustrated by http://www.google.com/search?q=nfl+schedule+2011

And This:

News results, shopping results and video snippets + the new, shrunken sitelinks for the top result

And This:

Awesome!

And This:

Personalization and social sharing dominate the page because I’m logged in.

Rich Snippets & Schema.org

There’s a good post by Rich Baxter on Schema here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schemaorg-a-new-approach-to-structured-data-for-seo

Rel=Author

Good advice on how to get it set up here: http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/how-to-implement-rel-author

Video Results

Google on how to create video XML sitemaps and appear in these results: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472

And Social Annotations

Not only are the results annotated with the share / social data; they also outrank the top result

SERPs Are Almost Always Personalized

Search history, social networks, previous clicks and more impact personalization + rankings

And Geographically Biased, Too

Geography impacts both search result ordering and search suggestions/instant

Search Barely Requires Typing

BTW – I tried this same search from Portland vs. Yoder, and “Fox News” is not a top suggestion, but “Firefox “and “Fred Meyer” both are

Misspellings are a Thing of the Past

A few years back, there would be entire sessions at conferences on SEO for misspellings

Instant Answers are Everywhere

Google even offered instant answers as to the sexual orientation of celebrities: http://gawker.com/5844769/google-will-now-tell-you-which-celebrities-are-gay (but the feature appears to have been removed)

The Algorithm Has Changed

Check out Dr. Pete’s Algorithm History guide: http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

We Had Vince

Aaron Wall did some excellent analysis on Vince here: http://www.seobook.com/google-branding

And May Day

Barry Schwartz summarized the impact as described by Matt here: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/022293.html

And the Pandas

Some good analysis from Cyrus Shephard here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda

Brands Can Now Dominate Entire Pages

Nothing but Apple.com from top to bottom

Some are Dominated by Google Itself

http://www.seobook.com/google-eats-their-organic-search-results

Social is on the Rise Like Never Before

Via http://searchengineland.com/top-internet-activities-search-email-once-again-88964

Why Social Signals Trump Links

Via http://www.michael-jackson-photos.com/

We Know Who Rules the News That Day

And Google Pivoted

Social Is The Immediacy Signal

Social Signals Rose Again Yesterday

http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/

We Want News, Not Ancient History

http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/

We Want Today’s Reviews

http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/

It Means You’ve Got Work

http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/

• Websites need fresher content• Comment Marketing increases• Facebook, Orkut & Twitter increase

in power… again

Social Fragmentation Appears Certain

This growth is a big reason why I’ve changed my tune on social media marketing and now strongly endorse it for almost every business: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/everyone-should-hire-social-media-experts

Users: 50mm 750mm 200mm 120mm 10mm

Users: 14mm Millions 14mm 6.5mm

What’s More…

Search No Longer Works in a Vacuum

Earning a click in the SERPs is merely one step in a greater process.

It Lives in the Broader Inbound Funnel

Eloqua’s content grid does a great job exploring where content sits in the marketing funnel: http://media.eloqua.com/images/The-Content-Grid-v2.jpg

But is Nearly Useless By Itself

Via http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media

SEO from 2001-2008

Make the Site Search-Engine Friendly

Via http://www.seomoz.org/blog/4-essential-seo-infographics

Target Keywords

Via http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization

Build Links

Via http://opensiteexplorer.org

Good Enough

Yep; it really used to work.

That SEOis Dead.

You Might Rank

Before you even do that, make sure you’re choosing the right goals: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-6-goals-of-seo-choosing-the-right-ones-for-your-business

You Probably Won’t Convert Well

Unless the rest of the funnel rocks, SEO is in a rough spot: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/winning-the-seo-battle-at-every-step-of-the-purchase-path

The New Look of Search

http://www.indiazooms.com/?p=137846

Top Ten Tips for Chennai SEOs!

#10: New Heirarchy of Social Credibility

#9: Info-graphics Are the New Linkbait

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-a-reverse-proxy-and-how-can-it-help-my-seo

#8: Video Rules!

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-a-reverse-proxy-and-how-can-it-help-my-seo

#7: Branding is Baaaaa-ack!

#6: Leverage All the Social Networks

Users: 50mm 750mm 200mm 120mm 10mm

Users: 14mm Millions 14mm 6.5mm

#5: Recommend Sites to Searchers

#4:Build Links With Your Social Followers

#3: Play Games!

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-beach-soccer-game-between-ukraine-and-russia-image21025805

#2: Thought Leadership = CTR Bump

#1: Ask Rand; He’s Not Busy ;-)

+1!: Follow the Money Backwards

SEO is Bigger than SEO

And We Have the Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Adaptability to Win.

Long Live SEO!http://guide2chennai.blogspot.com/2009/04/marina-beach-is-beach-situated-along-12.html

Gillian MuessigFounding President of SEOmoz | @SEOmom | gillian@seomoz.org

Thank you!