future of search by duane forrester
DESCRIPTION
Search continues to evolve and grow even more competitive as organizations strive to stay on top of the search results for terms and topics that are important to their business. How can you keep one step ahead? With new developments in mobile, video, voice and even social media - what does the future of search hold? Hear Duane Forrester, the Senior Product Manager with Bing's Webmaster Program, share what the search landscape will look like - and most important, what lawyers can do to adapt to these changes and keep driving clients to their website or blog.TRANSCRIPT
The Now and Zen of Search
Duane ForresterSr. Product Manager- Bing
Who is that Canadian on stage?
Signals, signals, signals…
<title>
<meta description>
Social signals
Inbound links
Content
Likes# of followers
ReTweets
• Don’t try to extrapolate from this graph• Importance is relative• Use as a guide – no item is unimportant
Is there an order of importance to all this?
Content Social User Experience Link Building SEO
Search and Social
QUALITY TIMELINESSPOPULARITYTRUST
When optimizing your site for search, you invest in these major areas
ContentLinks
Appearance
AuthorityUsefulnessResource
TrafficRepeat VisitsLinks
CurrentFresh
Relevant
QUALITY TIMELINESSPOPULARITYTRUST
How social impacts search
YOUR SITE
Search Today is Not Solved
Imprecise Results Refinements Lengthy Tasks
1 in 4
delivers successful
results
44% of sessions lasting day
or more
42% of sessions
require refinements
ComScore and Microsoft Internal Analysis
Time Spent on Sessions by Length Queries Over Time
0-3 mins9%
3-10 mins12%
10-15 mins10%
15-30 mins23%
>30 mins46%
Almost
50%of all time spent searching is on sessions > 30
minutes
Almost
50%of queries are returning to
previous tasks
New Queries51%
Partial Repeats
30%
Exact Repeats19%
Moving Beyond Queries to SessionsIncreasing Use for More Complex Tasks
Search Sessions are Long and Repetitive…
Opportunity for a Decision Engine
Length of Sessions by Type
Complex task and decision sessions could be easier
Users Relying More on SearchQ. In the past six months have you used a search
engine to help inform your decisions for the following tasks?
Users need help with tasks and making
decisions
Decision Sessions are Lengthy
66%of people are using search
more frequently to
make decisions
Sources: Live Search Session Analysis; Microsoft Internal Research conducted by iPos 2008
Decision Engine?
Relevance
Speed
Index Quality
Multimedia
Reduce Anxiety
Pre Process Web
Information
» Ratings» Sentiment extraction
Wolfram» Price predictors
» Categorized search» Task Pages, Viz Search» Search history
» Relevance parity/leadership
» Faster time to first pixel
» Next-gen previews: hover, answers, DeepLinks
» Seamless multimedia
Core Search
Intelligent Organization
Decision Tools
Sessions not Queries
Reduce Overload
A Changing “Web of Objects”Real-Time Firehose Services
Devices MultimediaPlaces/Things
People
A Changing Web of Your Objects
Schema.org is your friend
Search - Evolved
Deliver knowledge by computationally understanding user intent.
“home gym”
• Purchase• Install• Sell• Set fire to• Impress friends
• Who• Where• Others• Semantic• Research
KnowledgeContentServicesMediaReal Time
+ UX
“Linda” Query Intent Detection
Task Derivation
Decision Engine?
Relevance
Speed
Index Quality
Multimedia
Reduce Anxiety
Pre Process Web
Information
» Ratings» Sentiment extraction
Wolfram» Price predictors
» Categorized search» Task Pages, Viz Search» Search history
» Relevance parity/leadership
» Faster time to first pixel
» Next-gen previews: hover, answers, DeepLinks
» Seamless multimedia
Core Search
Intelligent Organization
Decision Tools
Sessions not Queries
Reduce Overload
LO
GI
C
Decision Engine Evolved
Relevance
Speed
Index Quality
Multimedia
Reduce Anxiety
Pre Process Web
Information
Sessions not Queries
Reduce Overload
LO
GI
C
+
90% seek advice from family and friends before making a decision
80% of people delay making a purchase online before talking to someone
People use friends:2.5x more often than local
city guides, 4x more often than online sites/reviews, and
10x often more than social media check-in sites.
EM
OTIO
N
The Case for SocialDawn of Civilization - 2003
5 EXABYTES OF DATA
Humanity is leaving its traces…
25 Billion Tweets sent on Twitter in 2010
35 hours of video uploaded every minute to Youtube
3,000 photos uploaded to Flickrevery hour
30BB posts/month Facebook!
More than just traces, a collective convo…
http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/visualizing-friendships/469716398919
Trusted Friends Collective IQEnabling
Conversation
Bing: Power of People
Key BenefitBetter decisions
using your friends opinions
Better core search using
traces
Find the “expert”; move
search from passive to active
Bing FocusOpinion Infusion Interest Infusion
Shopping, Travel, People
Finder
Focus
10 things you should have covered nowSet up Webmaster
accounts w/Bing & GoogleSEO Review
Keyword research completeUnique titles on each pageMeta descriptionsAlt tags on imagesKeyword targeted in textSchema.org snippets
Social sharing enabledSocial management program in place
Work on developing inbound linksUser Experience is sorted
• You need to have a way to track success
• You need website analytics in place before you do anything else
• Free and paid options are available• Helps you track ROI on all investments
STOP! Before you start…
Resources:
http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/http://piwik.org/http://firestats.cc/http://awstats.sourceforge.net/http://www.onestat.com/
Top 5 SEO investments areas
I want to do SEO on my own! What topics do I need to know about?
CrawlabilityXml sitemapsNavigational structureRich media cautionsGraceful degradationURL structureRobots.txt
Site StructureLinksURL structure and keyword usageClean URLs – no extraneous parameters (sessions, tracking, etc.)HTML & XML sitemapsContent hierarchyGlobal navigation – springs from hierarchy planning + style of nav (breadcrumb, link lists, etc.)Rich media warnings – don’t bury links in Javascript/flash/silverlight
On-PageHead copy
Titles – unique, relevant, 60 characters or so longDescriptions – unique, relevant, grammatically correct, 160 or fewer characters (Google shows up to 160 characters)
Body CopyH1, H2 and other H tag usageALT tag importance & usageKeyword usage within the content/text – see “Perfectly Optimized Page” imageAnchor text – using target keywords to support other internal pages
ContentBuild based on keyword researchDown-level experience enhances discoverabilityKeep out of rich media and images250 words per page or moreProduce new content frequentlyMake it unique – don’t reuse content from other sourcesContent management – using 301s to reclaim value from retiring content/pages<LINK> canonical to help engines understand which page should be indexed and have value attributed to it404 error page management to help cleanse old pages from search engine indexes
LinksPlan for incoming & outgoing link generationInternal & external link managementContent selection – planning where to link toLink promotion via social spaces – direct traffic & seo valueManaging anchor text properlyURL structure can help insert keywords where they are needed
SocialPlanning where to engage followersUnderstanding how to build trustContent selection and sharingWhat tools can I use?Creating my own investment planWhich social spaces should I target?Discovering your own voiceHow can I be seen as an authority?
Search Engine Optimization HelpPerforming site reviews is a critical part of determining what work needs to be done to help a website rank better organically. This five part series walks you through a detailed approach to performing an SEO review for any site.
Bing Webmaster Center FAQs
• Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Optimization for large websites often requires a different approach compared to that needed with smaller sites. This four part series helps you understand how to approach optimizing a large website.• Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Guide to successful indexing
Link Building Overview
Keyword Research Guide
Free Webmaster Tools
Free self help documents
Social Media Basics
Social graph and PatternsSocial Graph
Focus
PatternsNatural
Unnatural
Quality TrustPopularityTimeliness
You:FollowersFollowsLikesReplies
Retweets/Likes (by whom)
Follows (Twitter)
Followers (Twitter)
Who else Posts/Shares (reputation)
Fans (Facebook)
• Build a social media plan• Start by outlining the messages you want to share• Build a content production calendar• Set a schedule and start producing content
• Where to share• Start with your own website or blog – build the following from your own website• Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc.• Seek niche, industry, religious or group communities and become active in them sharing your expertise freely
• How to be an expert• Share your knowledge freely• Limit self promotion (80/20 rule)• Share items related to the topic, not just your POV on the topic• Answer questions promptly• Match level of detail to the audience
How to invest in Social
Thank you.Put your friends to work today - go do a search on Bing!
@duaneforrester