Slides from my talk on algorithm chaos at Pubcon Las Vegas 2013

1. Algorithm Chaos
Manager, SEO & Analytics – SapientNitro
www.RyanMJones.com

2. How can we keep up
with the ever-changing
SEO algorithms?
“We make over 500 changes to our algorithms [each] year”
- Matt Cutts
2
@RyanJones

3. Think Different.
(about the algorithms)
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we
used when we created them”
- Albert Einstein
3
@RyanJones

4. The Algorithm Has
Evolved
Everybody’s 2nd Favorite Formulas
“al·go·rithm
ˈ
algəˈ Həm/
riT͟
noun
noun: algorithm; plural noun: algorithms
1.
a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving
operations, esp. by a computer.
4
@RyanJones

5. Dynamic Weighting
Algorithm Factors & weights are dependent upon the
result set (corpus)
5
@RyanJones

6. Dynamic Weighting
When the corpus changes, so does the importance of
various factors.
6
@RyanJones

7. My Theory:
It actually is brain
science
A
Something to Think About:
Neural networks Require Training Sets
• Human Quality Raters
• Panda
• Penguin
• Matt’s latest call for “good sites that should rank
higher”
- A “simple” neural network
7
@RyanJones

8. There’s Two
Theories of SEO
@RyanJones

9. Type 1: Storm chasers
The Algorithm Chaser /
Reverse Engineer.
Analyze, Measure, Correlate, Examine,
Interpret, & Follow top ranking sites.
Try to figure out the factors that top sites
have in common and emulate them.
“This is how SEO used to be, many years ago. It used to
work very well.”
Sometimes The Tail wags the dog.
9
@RyanJones

10. Type 2: Storm Predictors
Pay attention to where
the algorithm is heading
“We sometimes call these SEOs Google fan-boys. ”
10
@RyanJones

11. 10,000 foot view
Focuses on “What”
rather than “How”
Google wants to rank Quality, Useful sites. Ok, how can I
make my site more useful?
11
@RyanJones

12. Let’s Talk About Hummingbird
Hummingbird Changes The Algorithm Focus
OLD:
Show most popular results that actually contain “keyword”
NEW:
Show the most useful and popular results for “what the
user means”
@RyanJones
12
Source: soyunhamster.deviantart.com

13. Algorithm Myths
Let’s Change How We Think About Search Algorithms

14. Myth 1: The Algorithm is a Static Formula
It’s Not. Get Over It.
Ranking Factors differ
by query & corpus
@RyanJones
14

15. Myth 2: Google Has a Brand Bias
Customers
favor brands
Google favors what
customers favor.
Source: google consumer surveys.
Question : “where would you buy
a flat screen TV”
@RyanJones
15

16. How do you determine if something is a brand?
Hint: Not this way: (in_array($knownBrands,$URL))? $ranking++ : $ranking--;
Google doesn’t check against a list of brands.
Trust. Authority. Popularity
Note: yeah, I know Google uses python, not PHP. Here’s python. Happy?
ranking += 1 If url in brandarray else ranking -= 1
@RyanJones
16

17. Myth 3: Altering vs. Ordering
Some factors alter the SERP corpus. Others simply order it.
Alter (included or not?)
Order (ranking)
Device Type
Pagerank
Location
Page Speed
Relevance (tf-idf?)
Some factors may do both. E.G. personalization, QDF, manual penalties.
@RyanJones
17

18. Myth 4: Rankings changes only hurt people.
For every site that loses rankings, another one gains.
(although, to be fair, sometimes that “other” site is Google)
@RyanJones
18

19. Myth 5: Rankings dropped, I got penalized.
If you just dropped a couple spots, you weren’t penalized.
If you fall out of the search results completely, that’s a penalty.
@RyanJones
19

20. Myth 6: Social Signals Are Super Important
Social Signals Are Important, But Not For Rankings
Google has said they don’t use Facebook or Twitter signals
in rankings, and are still evaluating plusses/likes.
@RyanJones
20

21. Let’s Talk About Correlation
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
- Inigo Montoya
@RyanJones
21

22. Some Fun Correlations
Sometimes, the “hidden factor” is simply just Time.
@RyanJones
22

23. Example Correlations
• Ice Cream Sales are highly correlated with crime.
• Number of Facebook Users correlates to the national debt.
Source: xkcd.com
• In children under 3, vocabulary and shoe size have a correlation coefficient of 1.0
• One SEO study actually claimed having a keyword optimized title tag is highly correlated with manual
webspam penalties
Hidden Factors:
• Heat / Weather
• Time
• Spammers do keyword research – more than the general web.
@RyanJones
23

24. SEO correlations have hidden factors too!
• Plusses / Facebook likes are correlated to rankings
• But people can’t plus/like what they can’t find. (e.g. rankings came first)
• Let’s better understand correlation coefficients too!
• Anything under .6/.7 is pretty scattered.
Full Circle:
Perhaps study values are so low because factors
vary based on the result sets?
@RyanJones
24

25. Tips For Surviving Algorithm Changes
•
Don’t chase algorithms, chase the reasons for the algorithms.
•
Understand why the algorithm changes were made
•
Focus less on ranking factors and more on why they are factors.
•
Be a Brand. Do what brands do. Build Quality, Trust, Authority.
Goal: If your site isn’t ranking, customers should think that Google is broken.
•
Don’t Ask: “how do I rank for ___”
Ask: “What do people searching ___ want to see?”
@RyanJones
25

26. @RyanJones
Manager, SEO & Analytics
www.RyanMJones.com
SapientNitro
© 2013 SAPIENT CORPORATION | CONFIDENTIAL