{"id":13832,"date":"2016-11-04T14:20:45","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T14:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/?p=13832"},"modified":"2016-11-04T14:20:45","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T14:20:45","slug":"seo-game-top-tips-years-searchlove-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/seo-game-top-tips-years-searchlove-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Up your SEO game with top tips from this year\u2019s SearchLove Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

SearchLove is an internationally renowned SEO conference and one of the best in the UK. Once a year for two days some of the best speakers in the marketing industry reunite to discuss where SEO goes next. It’s exciting, inspiring and filled with actionable tips and advice.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s SearchLove, speakers like Moz\u2019s Rand Fishkin, Wordstream’s founder Larry Kim and Distilled\u2019s Will Critchlow, covered a variety of topics from PPC and technical SEO, to content marketing and visual storytelling, and even how to be better at doing presentations.<\/p>\n

In this article we\u2019ll focus on the SEO and PPC parts of the conference. So without further ado, here are our key takeaways from SearchLove 2016…<\/p>\n

Marcus Tober – \u2018Why user-focused content is the death of ranking factors<\/a>\u2019<\/h3>\n

Marcus Tober, founder and CTO of SearchMetrics, has been focusing on search since 2001. His presentation at SearchLove 2016 revolved around the ever-changing SEO landscape.
\nWhile you probably know that Google uses more than 200 ranking factors, have you ever looked closely into how these factors have changed over time?<\/p>\n

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You may know that these days ranking factors adapt to the search intention. But did you also know that these rankings factors differ depending on the market and industry? That\u2019s because search intentions are not the same in every industry.<\/p>\n

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This means that before anything else, you need to learn more about your users\u2019 search intentions. What are they searching for exactly when they\u2019re doing research on your business or products? And what are they searching when they\u2019re ready to buy?<\/p>\n

So, when you\u2019re creating a brand strategy, make sure to base it on your users\u2019 intent.<\/p>\n

What to take away from this:<\/strong> What works for a specific industry will not necessarily work for another. So, while you can always take note of what big players are doing, don\u2019t copy a strategy just because it comes from an authority site. The chances are that their users\u2019 intentions are different from your users\u2019 intentions.<\/p>\n

When writing content for your site, make it relevant to your user intent. Also, focus on providing real value, and not on filling your pages with as many words as possible. While it makes sense for an informational site to have lengthy pages filled with content (since sharing lots of information is what they\u2019re good at) that\u2019s not the case with an ecommerce site. It\u2019s unnatural for a pair of shoes to have a 1000-word description, which no one is ever going to read. Instead, ecommerce sites should focus on providing relevant content and making it easy for shoppers to find the information they need.<\/p>\n

Dr. Pete Meyers -\u2018 Tactical Keyword Research in A RankBrain World<\/a>\u2019<\/h3>\n

Pete works for Moz as a Marketing Scientist so naturally we expected a presentation filled with insightful data and information. He definitely delivered, and then some!<\/p>\n

At SearchLove Pete addressed the topic of keyword research and how the old-fashioned techniques have changed since RankBrain came into play.<\/p>\n

Are you still placing your keywords in your meta titles and descriptions like you\u2019ve been advised to all these years? Then you\u2019ll be surprised to learn that nowadays only 57% of search queries are still present in the title and meta description.<\/p>\n

Google is getting better at understanding context and the connection between words. This means it can show users results for a word variation even if it\u2019s not on that page, and even if it\u2019s not the exact word or phrase that a user has searched for.<\/p>\n

Here are some of Pete\u2019s examples:<\/p>\n

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Pete also talked about voice search, which is attracting more and more users every year and slowly making traditional keyword research obsolete. With voice, search queries are longer and more complex, which means that your content needs to be able to answer them.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a simple example:<\/p>\n

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What to take away from this:<\/strong> You need to stop writing for search engines and offering exact match keywords in hopes of high ranks. Instead, write for humans, or for \u201cbrains\u201d as Dr. Pete says, as search engines evolve and start behaving more and more like users.<\/p>\n

Bridget Randolph \u2014 \u2018The changing landscape of mobile search<\/a>\u2019<\/h3>\n

Bridget, Consulting Team Lead at Distilled, walked us through the history of mobile search and how it evolved from 2000 to present. Considering it\u2019s becoming a vital traffic channel, there are several things you should be on the lookout for:<\/p>\n