winning at direct answers ehren reilly

#SMX #22a @ehrenreilly

“Think Inside the Box”

WINNING AT DIRECT ANSWERS


WINNING AT DIRECT ANSWERS


•  What can you actually do about it?

•  What tactics enable you to make the best of the situation?

DIRECT ANSWERS ARE HERE. MORE ARE COMING. DEAL WITH IT.


QUICK, EASY FACTS


IT’S NO LONGER VIABLE TO BE HIGH-QUALITY AND BITE-SIZED


IT’S NO LONGER VIABLE TO HAVE HIGH-QUALITY NON-PROPRIETARY CONTENT


BUT WHAT IF I HAVE HIGH-QUALITY, UNIQUE, PROPRIETARY CONTENT?


SPOILER ALERT!


THOSE FU*#%RS ARE STEALING PUBLISHERS’ CONTENT!!!!


REALITY CHECK

“Take that, Wiki-freakin-pedia!” - John Doe, SEO Director at Britannica.com


REALITY CHECK


THAT’S MY SERP!

THAT’S MY SERP!


THAT’S MY SERP!


BETTER FOR USERS, BUT WORSE FOR DIRECT ANSWER BOT


FOLLOW THE FORMULA


Every direct answer follows a formula. 1.  Figure out the formula for the DA you want to appear in. 2.  Put your information in that format. 3.  Success!

FOLLOW THE FORMULA


I CAN DO THAT


MOVING TARGET


WEIRD, PRECISE PATTERNS


FORM > RELEVANCE


THINK INSIDE THE BOX

•  Clickable direct answers are click magnets.

•  CTR on clickable DA is ~2X better than “#1” on a SERP with no DA.

•  If you’re “#1” and not in the D.A., it siphons away ½ your traffic.

Monthly traffic to a single page of glassdoor.com


SOME DIRECT ANSWERS ENTICE CLICKS BETTER THAN OTHERS


GET PICKED •  Do good SEO 101 •  Match the formula •  Avoid unhelpful structure & markup

GET CLICKED •  Make it clear that you have more to offer. •  What’s the next thing people want to know?

DIRECT ANSWER SEO TACTICS


THANK YOU!

SEE YOU @SMX WEST SAN JOSE, CA

MARCH 1-3, 2016

Now hiring SEOs & Product Managers: jobs.glassdoor.com


MEGASNIPPET!


EXPECT FLUX

•  DA is a new technology

•  New formats

•  Fixing errors


•  DAs disrupt the classic SERP organization.

•  Some rank tracking software doesn’t handle them well.

•  Possible handling: •  DA counted as ordinal 1 •  DA counted as ordinal 1 and 2 •  DA not treated as an ordinal.

RANK TRACKING WITH DIRECT ANSWERS ON THE SERP

winning at direct answers ehren reilly

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