COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Agenda
• Search Gets Caffeinated– Examples of query
deserves freshness• A Father’s Day Case
Study– An analysis of an
evolving Holiday SERP• Takeaways– How to be proactive
about time-sensitive SERPS
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 2
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I’m that SEO Samurai Dude
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 3
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Google Caffeine 101
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 4
• Caffeine is Google’s index system to serve queries that require time-sensitive information.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Queries Deserve Freshness (QDF)
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 5
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Father’s Day Case Study
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 6
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Google 6/3/2014
• Knowledge Graph• Google News• Google Images– Pixel dimensions
are 450±50 X 450±50
• Pinterest influencer’s board?! #BarnacleSEO
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 7
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Google 6/6/2014
• Google News keeps refreshing
• Google Images remain the same
• A news site with high domain authority (97) but low page authority (1) can hit page 1
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 8
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Google 6/10/2014
• PPC Ads show up on the right
• Google News Shifts to “Gift News”
• Google Images remain the same
• Sites about gifts start ranking on page 1.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 9
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Google 6/11/2014
• Ads temporarily pop above the Knowledge Graph
• Askmen.com’s 1 page authority content gets tons of links.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 10
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Surprise! Google 6/12..13…14/2014
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 11
• News Results keep rotating
• Ad bids relatively similar
• Organic SERPS remain constant
• Image Search results remain unchanged…
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Father’s Day! (6/15/2014)
• Knowledge Graph• PPC ads on the
right• Only Google News
approved sites can play in this box.
• Top Google images results remain stagnant.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 12
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Post Father’s Day! (6/18/2014)
• Knowledge Graph• No PPC ads anywhere• Google News box falls
down.• Image results remain
stagnant after position 4
• We start seeing in-depth articles!
• Top SERPS don’t change much
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 13
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Summary: Theses Factors Matter In Time-Sensitive SERPS
• Knowledge Graph• Google News Listing– Most recent article/Most cited article gets listed
• Keyword relevancy, DA and PA• Image optimization• In-depth articles
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 14
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The Bigger Picture
• 81% of search now shows “universal SERPS”– Don’t forget image
and video SEO!
Full Study: http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/knowledge-base/universal-search-study/ APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 15
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 16
Takeaways
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Does Your Brand Want To Be A Part of the
Holiday Conversation?
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 17
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
• You want to win the SERPS before the peak ends. Planning is key.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 18
Step 1: Identify The Peaks (When Possible)
REDACTED
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Step 2: Potential opportunities for time-sensitive SERPS• News Outlets (Hard) PR & Social
– Newsjacking
• Text Ads (Expensive) PPC– Display Ads on SERPS you don’t own (Cheaper)– Retargeting on display ads (Cheaper)
• Images (Easy) SEO– Optimize images and obtain links with keyword-rich anchor text
Make image sharing easy so you can win links with image attribution emails.
• Knowledge Graph (Hard) SEO– Pray that Wikipedia editors cite your website as a source.– Edit Freebase and hope Google believes the information is accurate
To dominate a news-sensitive SERP, all digital channels need to be involved.APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 19
REDACTED
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
BONUS SLIDE
• Social is part of this as well! – (Most people
don’t search “Father’s Day” incognito or on Tor)
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 20
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Step 3: Create Content To Those Winning Verticals To Win!
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 21
• If your brand has time-sensitive content, you can take the lead!
REDACTED
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Examples from Another Life
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 22
REDACTED
Appendix(For Bing Lovers)
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Bing Also Gets Freshness
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 25
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
TLDR; SERPS DON’T CHANGE MUCH IN BING
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 26
• Bing Snapshot• SERP with
sitelinks• Image Results• Related Search
(multiple sections)
• News results• Ads
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
A Different Format: Bing it On?
• Bing features Fathers day news after the images.
• Bing Snapshot (their Knowledge Graph equivalent) is on the top right
• Suggested Search takes up quite a bit of real estate on Bing
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 27
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sometimes the News Doesn’t Cut It
• - We’re not sure why, but Bing SERPS are more volatile than we think.
• - Bing Boards shows up on this date. Feature is kind of in Beta.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 28
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
If A Search Engine Changes Its SERP And Nobody Notices…Did it Happen? - 4 Days went by with
pretty much no change in the SERPS. Bing doesn’t update its index as often (no surprise).
- Can you spot the URL position swap in this image?
- Did you notice an image search change?
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 29
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Hey… who else tested ads on June 11th?
• Not the first time Bing has been caught “copying” Google on things.
• Notice how News results are back, but on the very bottom of this screenshot.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 30
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Questions… But No Intuitive Answers
• News section gets pushed slightly higher (Pos 5)– Thumbnails
determined by whether source uses it.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 31
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
• Nothing special happens on Father’s Day. What a disappointment!
• Factors that matter:– Bing News– Bing Image Search– Bing Related Searches– Bing Ads– Bing Snapshot– Bing Board (Beta)– Typical SE ranking factors.
APRIL 7, 2023 | PAGE 32
Bing it On!