Mark Mitchell

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

There’s been much discussion about how social media influences SEO, including references to “social SEO.” So what does it all mean, and just how do social media and SEO work together? In this article, we’ll explore some high-level concepts around the social signals used in SEO.

Some background: big data and social media

Over the past few years, there has been an overwhelming amount of data generated online. The sheer volume of global data (referred to as “big data”) produced within this relatively short time span can be largely attributed to social media – 90 percent, in fact.

How do social, content and organic search fit together? As the graphic above indicates, organic rank in search engines is predominantly determined by content quality, and search engine algorithms use content sharing as a primary quality signal. The explosion of social data is reflected by statistics for social media usage and content sharing, which show that as of 2013, there were 1 billion Facebook users accounting for 3.3 billion pieces of content shared each month, while Google Plus accounted for 5 billion Google +1’s per day.

How search enginges are adapting to create content for social

Bing

Bing began its foray into social with its incorporation of Facebook “likes” in its search engine results pages (SERPs) in February 2011. It then expanded its integration of social in its search results in May 2012, when it announced a dedicated social side bar on its SERPs, allowing users to readily view their Facebook friends’ activity as it related to their search query. More recently, Facebook has given way to Twitter in Bing’s search results, as Twitter entered into an “exclusive social partnership” with Bing in November 2013). In June of this year, Bing announced that users could “discover tweets directly in [their] search results.” Bing’s commitment to integrating social signals in its search results is evident in its webmaster guidelines, where it states:

Social media plays a role in today’s effort to rank well in search results. The most obvious part it plays is via influence. If you are influential socially, this leads to your followers sharing your information widely, which in turn results in Bing seeing these positive signals. These positive signals can have an impact on how you rank organically in the long run.

Google

Google first ventured into social with its introduction of “Social Search” in 2009, which it described as an expansion of its personalized search results (instituted in 2007). Social Search highlighted “relevant public content” from the users’ friends and social contacts at the bottom of Google’s SERPs. It wasn’t until June 2011 that Google launched Google+, its own social media platform, which integrates Google+ content into personalized search results. Several months later, in November 2011, the search giant announced it would start adding brands and businesses to Google+ with Google+ Pages. Then in January 2012, it unveiled “Search, plus Your World,” which incorporated G+ profiles and “relevant web results” related to search queries in their SERPs. Marketers have also adapted to social in their SEO strategy. A survey by BrightEdge found 80 percent of marketers indicated that social sharing of their content as a means to improve rank would be “much more important” (31 percent) or “more important” (49 percent) in 2013 than in 2012.

Why brands need to pay attention to social

Clearly, social sharing of content represents an opportunity – if not an SEO imperative – for brands to increase their visibility in organic search, including their products, services and solutions. Embracing social also allows brands to “own” and manage their reputation, as well as engage with their followers and fans. Finally, a social presence can drive Web traffic, which in turn can result in increased conversions and revenue: 

Case study: SEO and social 'synergy'

An example of how SEO and social work together to improve search ranking and customer engagement is the case of Tiny Prints, an online boutique specializing in unique designs and stylized cards for occasions. As a brand that relies on organic search to drive Web traffic and revenue, Tiny Prints sought to increase its conversion rate and boost search engine rankings using Twitter and organic search together.

As the graph shows, the results proved that the strategy worked. By aligning its Twitter strategy with its organic search strategy, Tiny Prints realized a 300 percent increase in customer engagement on its Web pages and “long-tail” keywords, as well as a 47 percent increase in search rankings on those keywords and the individual Web page URLs that were trending on Twitter – all within one month! Stay tuned for our follow-up post on how you can leverage the suite of BrightEdge tools to rock your social SEO!  

Andy Betts

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

A little over a year ago in September 2013, Google eclipsed all search query data globally, representing one of the most dramatic changes ever to the SEO landscape. SEO practitioners were forced to adapt to the loss of their keyword data, and with it, a good portion of their traditional keyword-driven strategy. As BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu observed in his Search Engine Land article of December 2013, it was no coincidence that Google’s switch to 100 percent secure search occurred with the announcement of its new infrastructure, Hummingbird. “Hummingbird asks marketers to think about the meaning of words on the page, and to create content around topics rather than keywords,” he wrote. Secure search created a new need – the need for page-centric, content-centric analytics (p.s. BrightEdge offered that before 100 percent secure search!). The new norm would be page-level performance, and SEOs would quickly pick up the pieces and move forward.

Secure search insights from the Share14 event

Secure search was discussed by several speakers presenting at BrightEdge’s Share 14 event (in August), including Jordan Kasteler, senior SEO manager of Red Door Interactive and Ken Shults, managing director - global consulting of Global Strategies. Let's briefly go over how these two professionals said they were handling SEO in a post-secure search world. Jordan Kasteler said he believes Google’s motivation for encrypting all search data was to get the SEO industry to think about keywords less and searcher needs and intent more (we agree). He listed several ways SEOs have adjusted to secure search, including:

• Persona development
• Site search data
• Landing page traffic and engagement analysis
• Conversion optimization and analysis
• Grouping keyword buckets and ranking monitoring by keyword size (single or two-word keywords vs. longtail key phrases), topic, buying stage and intent (transactional, informational, commercial investigation and navigational)

Jordan presented a search query classification funnel, showing the breakdown of search intent as it relates to search volume:

Keyword-based optimization was now intent-based optimization, he said, which identifies the primary topics and questions users are looking to answer when searching for “xyz,” and creating content to address the user’s needs on the target landing page. Jordan then shared keyword research tools that are still useful today, including:

• Google Webmaster Tools
• Bing Webmaster Tools
• AdWords’ paid and organic report
• Site search (which you can set up in GWT)
• The BrightEdge Data Cube (for competitive ranking intel)

Ken Shults said the biggest impact secure search has had on Global Strategies is in the areas of insights and measurement. Global Strategies has now employed a page-level data performance model that tracks metrics such as engagement, direct and trending views when assessing page performance. Adding engagement data at the page level helped them refine content in alignment with the interests of searchers, he said.

A new twist to secure search in August

In August, Google announced a new twist to the secure search saga that went beyond the keyword (“not provided”) situation; now, sites that were HTTPs would see a boost in ranking. Google said that for now, it would be a “lightweight signal” in its ranking algorithm that could carry more weight in the future. At the SMX East event, a Google rep said it affected less than 1 percent of queries. But for those who want to prepare and stay on the leading edge, it’s still important to be acquainted with the signal and what it could mean for the future of organic search ranking.

5 resources on secure search

We'll continue to keep our eye out on this issue, and present any unique research we might forge in the future. Until then, you can read up on the history and many facets of secure search with these five resources:

1. Google Hummingbird & The Keyword: What You Need To Know To Stay Ahead by Jim Yu, Search Engine Land
2. A New Direction for SEO in 2014: The Secure Search Manifesto by Jim Yu, Search Engine Watch
3. The 3Ps of Content Measurement: Page Rank, Traffic & Engagement by Jim Yu, Search Engine Watch
4. Securing the Future of SEO: Global Brands & 5 ‘(Not Provided)’ Solutions by me, Andy Betts, Search Engine Watch
5. Secure Search and HTTPS collated content on Search Engine Land

ssharma@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

The attention span of the average consumer is eight seconds—one second less than that of a goldfish. In 2000, this figure was at 12 seconds. With short attention spans becoming increasingly shorter, there really is no debate between inbound and outbound marketing. Today, marketing isn't about hunting for customers. Rather, it's about making the customers come to you. People don't like the older, in-your-face methods of marketing—and it just doesn't work anymore. Even television commercials, entertaining though they can sometimes be, are skipped by 80-90% of viewers.

We now live in a world where blogs, social media and SEO marketing have taken the place of annoying and interruptive ads and are the norm when it comes to marketing. But the question remains: are people always responding to these methods as we would like them to? Marketers understand that blogs are important; most company websites have blogs. But are they working?

Let's take a look again at what made traditional advertising and marketing so ineffective. These methods were based on interrupting people while doing something that they otherwise enjoy. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, commercials while watching television, ads in a magazine or on a website, and phone calls from telemarketers when eating dinner. All intrusive, unwanted interruptions that annoy rather than capture a potential customer's attention or interest. Today, by contrast, digital marketing is about creating an experience that people actually enjoy.

People like reading blogs that legitimately answer their questions and needs. People enjoy social media that draws communities of like-minded people together in an online platform where they can discuss their shared interests. SEO brings the most helpful webpages up first in a Google search, so people don't have to search long when looking for something online. In fact, nearly half of a company's website traffic comes from search engines. These digital marketing tactics are proving to be much more effective than "old-school" interruptive techniques. Research shows that 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content; that translates to more sales. And since people spend over 50% of their time online looking at content, a company that doesn't use this kind of digital marketing tactic to win customers is missing out on a large chunk of the pie.

What if your company has a blog, twitter handle and great SEO strategy? The average company might think this is enough, but it really isn't—unless an average company wants to remain average.

At their core, these activities are not, in and of themselves, appealing. People won't read a blog unless they get something from it, something they can act upon. An advertisement written as copy and disguised as a blog will certainly not attract consumers. People won't engage with social media profiles that post boring content. In fact, interesting content is a top three reason that people follow brands on social media. Boring content translates to fewer followers and less engagement. And no one likes manipulative or spammy SEO with an unrelated backlink that sends users to a webpage that has nothing to do with the user's search query.

So if your digital marketing tactics seem like they are not bringing results, it's likely you might be holding on to traditional marketing techniques—the type of marketing that most consumers avoid at all costs. Rethink your digital marketing tactics, especially if you aren't seeing traffic, engagement, or conversions. Remember the following:

• communication should be interactive and two-way
• customers should be coming to you
• marketers should provide value
• marketers should seek to entertain, educate, and gain trust
• the consumer is in control

That last one especially is important to remember. Don't forget that ultimately the consumer is in control, and if your marketing effort is one that annoys or bores, the consumer will move on to something else, and you will have lost their business in the process. Take our digital marketing quiz to test your knowledge.

Mark Mitchell

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

Local SEO has undergone a number of changes over the past few years, led by both Google and the overall trend towards mobile search. Among the more notable of local SEO changes initiated by Google is its introduction of Google Places (now called “Google My Business”) and its local “Carousel” - and most recently, its update (“Pigeon”) to the local search algorithm. As a search trend in general, mobile has rushed to the forefront, carrying with it significant implications for local SEO.

First, a brief history: Google Places was first introduced with Google Plus (Google+) in 2011, becoming Google+ Local about a year later, which made it essential for businesses to create Google+ pages and profiles to which to tie their sites’ URLs directly.

The most recent name change to “Google My Business” came in June. Google My Business also integrates Google Maps and the Google+ platform (including G+ reviews) within its local search results. Then came Google’s interactive “Carousel,” unveiled for desktop in June 2013, which proved to be a game-changer with local search listings represented side-by-side at the top of its traditional top-down results, and incorporating details such as review-based scores as well as the physical addresses and photos of local businesses.

Most recently, Google’s update to its local search algorithm in July (dubbed “Pigeon” by Search Engine Land in the absence of a formal name by Google) has meant a shifting local SEO landscape that BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu recently discussed at Search Engine Watch.

The local-mobile connection

Alluding to its “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT) directive, Google states on its “My Business” page (referenced above): “Give customers the right info at the right time, whether that be driving directions to your business in maps, hours of operations in search or a phone number they can click to call you on mobile phones.” Google elaborates on the local-mobile connection with its November 2013 “Mobile Path to Purchase” study, in conjunction with Nielsen. The report reveals key findings:

Consumers are spending time researching on their smartphones (15+ hours a week), their research starts with a search engine (vs. a mobile site or app), proximity is important (69% expect businesses to be within five miles of their location), immediacy is key (more than half want to purchase within the hour) and mobile influences their purchase decisions (93% go on to buy).

Jim Yu has also discussed the boom in mobile search extensively within the past few months. Citing data from the BrightEdge 2014 Mobile Share Report, he wrote for his Huffington Post column in July:

Mobile is commanding more of the organic search market today than ever before. Smartphones account for 23 percent, and combined with tablets' 12 percent share, mobile now equates to fully a third of today's organic search traffic. And in the coming year, smartphone share is poised to balloon by at least another 50 percent.

Now let’s explore some tips to help you optimize for the best local SEO techniques, and ways BrightEdge’s Local SEO Management tool can help.

Best local SEO techniques

1. Distance from geographic center: having a physical address for your locale matters!

2. Consistency in your business name, address and phone number (N.A.P.) across your website’s local URL and Google My Business pages, as well as within local directory listings, is essential. 3. Prominence of your business page: To calculate the local prominence of business, Google looks to local “citations,” or Web pages mentioning your business. It gauges the quality of these citations as well as the quantity. Generating user reviews on your “Google My Business” page and other sites (such as Yelp) improves your business’s credibility and in turn, its prominence.

Google My Business optimization

Optimize your Google My Business by considering the following steps:

• Name: Business name
• Categories: Carefully choose the five most important categories based on important keywords
• Description: Contains the business name and keywords
• Additional details: Keywords for products and services, as well as local information
• Business related photos and videos
• Reviews
• Manual verification

On-site optimization for local

You should also perform on-page optimization for any local-focused pages on your site. Check out the following table for tips on how to optimize those Web pages:

Don’t forget about Schema.org markup as well in order to help boost the search engine’s understanding of the content on the page. For contact pages, you can communicate things like address, phone number, hours of operation and so on. Check out the LocalBusiness markup here.

How BrightEdge can support local SEO

Details on optimizing your local Web page and its corresponding page in Google My Business, as well as local competitive analysis resources, are available through BrightEdge’s Local SEO Management. For instance, with Google My Business, you’d be able to generate reports like this using BrightEdge tools. 

Using BestBuy.com in San Francisco, as an example, this report shows Universal Search result listings for all keywords in Google My Business accessed via a Google search on a mobile phone. Digging deeper, the report can break results down by image, video, shopping, Places and Carousel results. This helps you to not only understand which keywords you currently have visibility on in Universal Search results, but also identifies opportunities - for example, how many of your keywords show any Universal Search results that your site is not showing up for at present.

All of the information available through the BrightEdge SEO platform can be tracked easily by creating a dashboard. Among the valuable insights you can glean is identifying high-priority keywords within Google My Business where your business is not ranking. While there is a host of local ranking factors, and what we’ve discussed today still only scratches the surface, optimizing the basics is the very first step in any long-term local SEO strategy.  

ssharma@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

As people come to understand the value of doing quality SEO, it becomes obvious that time and resources should be devoted to doing SEO. What people might not realize, however, is that real success comes when all departments are working together for SEO help. SEO marketing efforts should not be left solely to a digital marketing team because huge advances can be made when other departments are utilized and kept in the loop. Chances are, though, that departments apart from a digital marketing team don't really know how much effect they can have on SEO. While virtually all corporate departments can assist in SEO, several facets of a company, including the PR team, web developers and a content team, can directly influence SEO in a big way. 

PR team for SEO help

PR practitioners mainly focus on raising awareness of the company and building quality relationships with others. This can happen in a variety of ways, whether it be through articles written about the company, in speaking at events, or some other way of getting word out about the company. What PR reps might not realize is that these are great opportunities that can be capitalized on to get huge SEO benefits. When articles are written about the company, they will most likely be published somewhere on the internet (and if not, that should change).

There are a few things good PR practitioners can do to better optimize articles for SEO; using effective anchor text somewhere in the article will make the digital marketer's job much easier. Show your PR reps the importance of a backlink to the site and how to know which URL it should point to. When speaking at events, the speaker representing the company needs to optimize their presentation deck with the right links and then share it. Depending on the subject of the presentation, there are a number of places online where a presentation can be shared to get the most SEO benefits as possible; consider slideshare.net and social media platforms.

Web development team for SEO help

As web developers make changes to the company's sites and working on side projects, it's important that they know how to optimize their projects for SEO. There's a lot that goes into this, including understanding how to use title tags, creating effective UX design that contributes to SEO, taking care of 404 errors, as well as the differences between 301 and 302 redirects. You can even teach them about canonical meta data to improve link and ranking signals.

There's a lot they can do to help in a company's SEO efforts, but ultimately the more they are aware, the more they will be able to do before it even gets to the digital marketer's hands. Having the web developers work on these elements of web design from the get-go will streamline the entire SEO process and perhaps save the digital marketers some time in the process. Essentially, there are many different ways to code a website to strictly function properly and to provide for a secure search; webmasters need to know how to make them SEO compliant. The key is to get the marketers and web developers on the same page so that the web developers will know the best practices for utilizing SEO.

Digital content team for SEO help

It's been said that “content is king,” and while this is a heavily debated topic, it can be agreed upon that good content has an effect on SEO. First pick topics that are trending and have a high likelihood of being shared and discussed. Boring, unoriginal and irrelevant content will do little to further your SEO efforts. Make sure that those producing content for the company know what long-tail keywords to include in their posts. Also teach them about internal linking so that they know to which PLPs they should be linking for which keywords. Share the content in places where it's likelihood of being picked up is high, and the optimized content will do its work.

If a company isn't really sure on how to best integrate other departments into the SEO process, BrightEdge has a tool that makes achieving better SEO success as a collaborative effort possible. This project management tool streamlines time and effort spent managing SEO projects and helps make the SEO process more of a team one. So while it's true that digital marketers can work on their own, the results will be different—and not as good—as what could be accomplished should all the departments work together. Real success will come if everyone is on the same page when it comes to SEO practices.

Jim

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

In the wake of Share14, our premier marketing event and the largest of its kind in the industry, we’ve experienced exceptional growth and innovation. As we head into the fourth quarter, we’d like to take this opportunity to give you, our customers and community, an update on BrightEdge and where we’re headed. We have reached an exciting point in the evolution of our company and a tipping point in the industry.

BrightEdge has raised $64 million to invest in product innovation and business growth to fuel expansion, which has enabled us to deliver more than 81 product releases to date. This is largely why we’ve seen more than 60 Fortune 1000 customers upgrade to our technology. We are honored to serve so many exceptional companies and proudly boast a rich roster of more than 1,000 direct customers - up from 650 at this time last year.

What’s more, BrightEdge is now working with the Top ten largest online retailers, nine of the Top ten largest hotel groups and eight of the Top ten technology companies. Our company has come a long way since its inception in 2007, and there are no signs of slowing down. Our continued success is in large part due to the core values that BrightEdge was founded upon; a culture of innovation and a commitment to making customers our No. 1 priority. We firmly believe that it is this very innovation and customer focus that sets BrightEdge apart from other solutions, and enables us to not only thrive, but also consistently delight and support our customers.

These values are in the DNA of our company and dictate every decision we make. This commitment to our customers — and the marketing community as a whole — necessitates rapid innovation, so we can help marketers navigate a constantly evolving field. Just this year, we introduced a new perspective on content performance marketing, revealed the Content Optimizer and Data Cube, and made our most powerful technology available to the entire marketing community with the BrightEdge Community Edition. This innovation has spurred our own internal growth at BrightEdge, allowing us to expand to six global offices — including London, Sydney and Tokyo — to support more marketers and helping us reach a major milestone of nearly 300 employees.

Despite all of our progress, our job of providing our valued customers with the best content performance marketing technology is far from over. We’re committed to supporting customers by offering not only content insights, but also educational experiences. This year, an incredible 1,500 marketers worldwide became BrightEdge Certified Professionals. These marketers are providing invaluable insight to their companies, and are helping the industry to progress from an era of “trial and error” to one backed by hard metrics and measurement.

At BrightEdge, we’re passionate about marketing. We know how challenging it can be to find success in this industry, and how great it feels when you do. That’s why we’re committed to supporting our customers at every step of the way — and why we continue to stay cutting edge. As we evolve even further, we’ll always remain dedicated to releasing new products and insights that give our customers the advantage in a crowded marketplace. We look forward to continuing our partnerships with such talented, innovative companies, and can’t wait for what the future holds!

ssharma@brightedge.com

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

Most marketers know that earning backlinks and link-building tactics naturally is key to maintaining and increasing rankings, but the difficult part comes in figuring out the best ways to get these links. There are a lot of ways to go about earning them, and some are more questionable than others. Begin to utilize these five creative ideas and start seeing quality links pointing back to your site.

Appeal to egos

One great way to earn backlinks is to appeal to others' egos. A lot of the time you can do this through “Top 10” posts; one example of this would be to create an article like “Top 10 Digital Marketers of 2014.” Articles like these are easily promoted and picked up by those mentioned. Tweet at those in the the article to make them aware and to stoke their egos; hopefully, they will mention the article in a tweet. Ideally they will link back to you, if not now then in future articles on their blog.

Interview or be interviewed

Reaching out to experts in a certain field is like appealing to one's ego, but in a more specific and targeted manner. Crafting a piece of content about someone should gain backlinks from the interviewee since it is promoting them or their company. To get interviewed, reach out to someone who is writing on a subject you know well and offer yourself as an industry expert willing to be interviewed. Be sure to do the required homework on the subject and on the blogger or journalist you reach out to.

Host competitions

Giving away free things is a great way to catch people's attention, and a beneficial way to do this is through giveaways and contests. Reaching out to people after hosting a competition will return better results because they will see you a more favorable light and will be more likely to respond positively. Giving away things for free is enticing, and not just for those looking to win; bloggers and others seeking to attract followers and viewers will be more willing to post a giveaway or contest because there is something in it for them.

Craft high-quality infographics

Webmasters and bloggers are always looking for quality content that will get them noticed. Produce and promote original infographics or other high-quality images and share them across different platforms. After the graphic has been published, check to see if it has been republished elsewhere; if it has been, it's likely that the graphic was embedded but that a link pointing back to you was not given. In this case, you will want to contact the website to ask for the link. Finding where the graphic is being published is not very difficult.

Start by getting a copy of the filename where the graphic is hosted. You want the actual jpg or png filename rather than just the URL. To do this, go to the graphic, right-click, and select “Copy Image URL.” Next, go to Google Images and look for the camera symbol. Click on it and paste in the URL that was just copied. Click “search by image” and the results will show the URLs where the image is being shared. Go to these URLs and make sure that there is a link pointing back to your site. If there isn't, reach out to the website owner and ask them to add a link back to the original source.

Make a quiz

Quizzes are especially useful if you are a B2C business—consumers love them. Getting the most use out of them might require action similar to what you do when hosting giveaways or contests; outreach to bloggers to post the quiz with a backlink to you. Producing a quiz also presents a good opportunity to embed code to put on your site, making the quiz easier for people to share. Quality link-building tactics takes creativity and a little bit of time, but the results from quality backlinks are considerable and too good to pass up. Throughout your link-building tactics for campaigns, you should be conducting SEO competitive analysis to make sure your backlinks are the most beneficial for you. Don't forget, you can analyze your site's backlink profile inside BrightEdge platform under Reports and Backlinks!  

Andy Betts

M Posted 11 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

A couple of weeks ago, Google formally introduced “structured snippets” as a means to incorporate more Web page data in its search results. In its announcement, Google explained this was just another step in its ever-evolving quest to improve the search results:

Google Web Search has evolved in recent years with a host of features powered by the Knowledge Graph and other data sources to provide users with highly structured and relevant data. Structured Snippets is a new feature that incorporates facts into individual result snippets in Web Search.

Structured snippets are relevant bits of information pulled from a Web page into a Web page’s search result listing in an effort to enhance that listing. Google cites a search result for Nikon’s D7100 as an example of how its structured snippets work, stating “interesting and relevant information is extracted from a page and displayed as part of the snippet for the query ‘nikon d7100’:”

Barry Schwartz reported in a Search Engine Land post that “the structured snippet part of this result are the factual elements,” meaning the information specifying the Nikon D7100’s sensor resolution (type), weight (with battery) and display size/resolution. Search Engine Watch noted in its coverage of the announcement that the snippets work by extracting information from data tables on a Web page and “pairing that with an algorithm to help determine the quality and relevance of which data to display in the snippet.”

In other words, structured snippets work by using an algorithm that pulls what it believes to be relevant data from tables featured on a Web page. As BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu recently wrote at Search Engine Land, “The table aspect is perhaps less surprising when you read the announcement [from Google] that says structured snippets is a collaboration from Google Research and the WebTables research team, and Google Search.” Drawing on the Nikon D7100 search result example given by Google in its announcement, Jim showed the original product page from DPreview.com that was extracted by Google to display the snippet:

At Search Engine Land, Schwartz experimented with the types of queries that trigger Google’s snippets in the search results, and with the exception of the Nikon D7100, his queries all returned structured snippets for Wikipedia. It’s not surprising that Wikipedia shows up with structured snippets often; as Jim noted, Wikipedia makes it very simple for the search engine to parse information out easily.

What do structured snippets mean for you?

Some have speculated that the snippets might cause a decrease in click-through rate from the search results even if it means a better experience for users. (That is, if the searcher sees all the key facts he or she needs from the Google search listings, why click through?) Other industry opinions diverge on this issue. In her interviews with SEOs, Amy Gesenhues at Search Engine Land reports on reactions ranging from concern over Google becoming more of a publisher than a search engine to the possibility of correctly formatted (yet poor) content surfacing to no concern whatsoever. As far as next steps go, there are a few considerations. For those in an ecommerce marketing position, Jim’s post at Search Engine Land (cited above) gives tips for e-commerce CMOs and their page-level strategy for creating and formatting product specifications. That includes:

• Deciding what the most important specifications are about a product, and organizing the information in a nicely formatted table.
• Considering the placement and grouping of the facts on a table, and testing to see if placing the most important facts together and first makes a difference in how structured snippets render.

And there could be even more considerations when it comes to responsive Web design (RWD). Keep in mind that because tables have a rigid structure, they’ve been harder to convert to responsive design. While some designers have decided to abandon tables in RWD, this new feature may require a second thought about that, including:

• Re-evaluating and prioritizing the inclusion of tables in RWD. Do you need to do a multi-page redesign now, or can you make small tweaks to important pages within your mobile configuration?

It remains to be seen how Google’s structured snippets initiative will impact search results, click-through rates and mobile marketing; however, it’s safe to say that this new feature will be yet another item to put on the SEO’s page-level optimization checklist – at least for now.