View the #DF14 #Dreamforce14 presentation given by Danny Sullivan (@DannySullivan) Founding Editor & Chief Content officer of http://SearchEngineLand.com & http://marketingland.com

1. The Growth Of Google Direct Answers
Danny Sullivan
Founding Editor, MarketingLand.com & SearchEngineLand.com
@DannySullivan

2. A Quick History Of Direct Answers
@dannysullivan

3. Direct Answers Aren’t New & Google Didn’t Start Them
@dannysullivan

4. Some Early History Of Direct Answers
 AltaVista Shortcuts: In 2002, provided links to
weather, stock quotes and more
 Yahoo Shortcuts: In 2003, similar to AltaVista with
weather, quotes, more
 Google: In 2005, added weather then “Google Q&A”
with fast facts on celebrities, planets, movies and more
Historic & current examples drawn from Google Direct Answers,
Search Engine Land’s archive of stories on the topic...
@dannysullivan

5. 2007: Google Launches The “Plus Box”
@dannysullivan

6. 2007: Flight Tracking Takes Off
@dannysullivan

7. 2008: Olympics Information
@dannysullivan

8. 2009: Was That An Earthquake?
@dannysullivan

9. 2009: Sports Results
@dannysullivan

10. 2010: “Answer Highlighting” In Snippets
@dannysullivan

11. 2010: What Time Is The Super Bowl?
@dannysullivan

12. 2010: More Facts From “Google Squared”
@dannysullivan

13. 2010: Futbol!
@dannysullivan

14. 2010: Hockey
@dannysullivan

15. 2010: Suicide Prevention (& Why Direct Answers Are Great)
@dannysullivan

16. 2011: Snow Report
@dannysullivan

17. 2013: March Madness
@dannysullivan

18. 2014: Direct Answers Go BIG
@dannysullivan

19. @dannysullivan
Menus

20. Step-By-Step
@dannysullivan

21. @dannysullivan

22. Structured Snippets
Google Structured Snippets Officially Live In Search Results,
Search Engine Land, Sept. 2014
@dannysullivan

23. Direct Answers Now Appear More Often
@dannysullivan

24. @dannysullivan

25. @dannysullivan

26. @dannysullivan

27. Now In Nearly 4% Of All Queries, According To MozCast
Source: MozCast SERP Features Graph
@dannysullivan

28. Concerns Over Credit
@dannysullivan

29. 2011
@dannysullivan

30. 2014
@dannysullivan

31. 2010
@dannysullivan

32. @dannysullivan
2014

33. 2007
@dannysullivan

34. @dannysullivan
2014

35. 2014
@dannysullivan

36. Are You Thinking WTF Google?
@dannysullivan

37. @dannysullivan

38. @dannysullivan

39. @dannysullivan

40. Sourcing The Sources
 Some answers done through partnerships; menus, for example,
from third-party provider
 Others are just because facts is facts, says Google…
When Google Shows A Source Or Credit For Quick Answers & Knowledge Graph,
Search Engine Land, Sept. 2014
@dannysullivan

41. So Direct Answers Will Kill SEO?
@dannysullivan

42. Stone Temple Study: Links Are Often Provided
@dannysullivan
The Great Knowledge
Box Showdown: Google
Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana,
Stone Temple Consulting

43. But Time At Google Itself Is Up
Search Engines Keep Searchers Longer Before Referring Traffic To Web Sites
MediaPost, Sept. 2014
@dannysullivan

44. Not All Steps Provided
@dannysullivan
The Great Knowledge
Box Showdown: Google
Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana,
Stone Temple Consulting

45. Google Mines Answers From Others, Then Stores Them
More Google Answer Boxes, with Bonus Experiment!
Moz, Oct. 2014
@dannysullivan

46. SEO Is Dead!
@dannysullivan

47. Not quite…
@dannysullivan

48. @dannysullivan
Incomplete
Answers

49. Weird Answers
@dannysullivan

50. @dannysullivan
NSFW
Answers

51. @dannysullivan
You Know
Nothing,
Google!
Photo of Ygritte from HBO –
Watch Game Of Thrones!

52. Reasons To Relax
 Google isn’t perfect, can’t turn everything into direct answers
 Direct answers still small, single percentage amount of
searches
 Many searches are complex in nature or multi-session
 Publishers aren’t reporting major traffic drops
 But stay tuned -- concerns remain & people are watching to see
if Google maintains search engine “balancing act,” especially if
the Knowledge Vault really does come
@dannysullivan

53. Things To Do
 Don’t like? Nosnippets tag is about the only option
 Want? Put more information in tables for structured snippets
 As always, be the essential answer Google avoid pointing to
 And keep on SEOing, our Periodic Table Of SEO is a good start
@dannysullivan

54. @dannysullivan