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Let’s look at the key differences between Penguin 4.0 and previous updates, how those changes impact your website, and how to see if you’ve been impacted.

The post How Will Google Penguin 4.0 Update Affect My Site? by @ab80 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond.

This week, we’ve got a special on stories about advertising and mobile, with a look at mobile ad viewability from our regular mobile columnist Andy Favell, and the news that Snapchat video ads are generating less than three seconds’ viewing time on average. Over on our sister site ClickZ, Tereza Litsa took a look at how neuroscience can activate brains in a mobile world.

And speaking of advertising, take our 10-minute survey to tell us how the events of 2016 affected your advertising spend, and you could win an iPad mini in time for Christmas!

What is mobile ad viewability, and why does it matter?

When advertisers pay for ads, they understandably want to make sure that the advertising will be seen by someone. So if an ad fails to display, is visible for barely any time or is triggered by a bot instead of a real person, the advertiser shouldn’t be charged for that impression.

Mobile expert Andy Favell delved into why this is even more of a headache on mobile than on desktop, and why mobile viewability is an issue on so many levels.

Snapchat video ads generate less than 3 seconds of view time on average

Snapchat has been a hot property in the marketing world for some time now, with brands racing to snap up (haha) the young and highly engaged audience that Snapchat gives them access to. Only, it turns out that this audience might not be engaging with ads much at all.

Al Roberts reported for Search Engine Watch this week on the news that Snapchat’s video ads are generating an average of less than three seconds’ view time. Can video ads, even ones which take up the entire screen and play with sound by default, generate any useful leads in under three seconds? As Al Roberts wrote:

If they ultimately don’t see lift and can’t trace action back to these ads, Snapchat, which is reportedly preparing to go public in 2017 at a valuation of $25 to $35 billion, could find that advertiser interest in its platform is as fleeting as the snaps that its users send.

2017 will be the year of machine learning, intelligent content and experience

Last week, we looked at the eight most important content marketing trends that marketers will need to pay attention to in 2017. This week, Jim Yu wrote for our sister site ClickZ about why 2017 will be the year of machine learning, intelligent content and experiences.

Jim took a close look at the role of machine learning, deep learning and artificial intelligence in understanding data, the importance of automation, and how we can balance machine learning and human capital in the digital ecosystem.

Why Black Friday won’t be going anywhere for a while

Every year, a debate springs up in the world of ecommerce and retail as to whether Black Friday is really worth it. Is the hype bigger than the revenue it brings in?

Well, Black Friday supporters can rejoice, because Robyn Croll reported for ClickZ this week on why Black Friday won’t be going anywhere for a while. Figures from the National Retail Federation have shown that Black Friday 2016 set a record for mobile sales – a total of $1.2 billion, up by 33% from last year. 154 million consumers shopped over the long holiday weekend, an increase of 3 million from last year. Overall spending was up, and Cyber Monday set a record for the biggest day in US ecommerce sales with a massive $3.45 billion in transactions.

In her article for ClickZ, Robyn Croll looked into what retailers learned from last year’s Black Friday shopping extravaganza, and how retailers and brands can still tweak their strategies in the run-up to Christmas.

How neuroscience can activate brains in a mobile world

ClickZ and Search Engine Watch contributor Tereza Litsa was at Integrated Live this week, and listened to Heather Andrew of Neuro-Insight explain how neuroscience can help increase engagement with mobile users. She wrote,

“It’s not easy to be effective with the ever-increasing mobile audience, but emotion along with memory can contribute to a more meaningful relationship between a brand and a target user.

As people become more attached to their smartphones, marketing needs to be adjusted to build trust between a brand and a consumer – and neuroscience can be helpful in this journey.”

Tereza broke down Andrew’s speech into five key takeaways, including how to make messages personalised and relevant to users; the importance of delivering emotional intensity; and why driving physical interaction with branded messages is useful.

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Facebook announced another glitch with its metrics and marketers start wondering whether they can really trust the social network’s measuring methods.

It’s the third time in the last three months that Facebook reports a problem with its metrics and this has affected its credibility among marketers and publishers.

As the most popular social platform the expectations are high and Facebook’s ambitious plans that keep growing year by year bring out bigger challenges. As marketers and publishers invest more time (and money) on it, they are expecting a Return On Investment for their efforts. Thus, they weren’t happy when they found out a problem in accuracy that occurred several times.

Case #1 – September 2016

The first case was revealed in September when Facebook admitted that there was a miscalculation in the average viewing time for video ads the past two years. This led to an artificial inflation in the video views

This led to an artificial inflation of the viewing time in video ads, as it took into consideration all the video views of more than three seconds. According to Publicis Media, this has overestimated the average viewing time by 60% to 80%, while Facebook made it clear that this error didn’t affect billing.

Case #2 – November 2016

November was a busy month for Facebook and everyone working on its metrics, as there were miscalculations with the video views, the monthly Page reach, and the time spent on Instant Articles.

In more detail:

Facebook uncovered a bug in Page Insights with the weekly and monthly summaries miscalculating the total numbers without taking into consideration the repeat visitors. This brought a reduced reach of 33% for the 7-day summary and 55% for the 28-day summary. According to Facebook, this didn’t affect the paid reach.
There was a small miscalculation to the length of the videos, with a difference of one to two seconds in the final result, due to occasional problems of syncing the audio and the video to each device.
There was an over-reporting of 7-8% on the time spent on Instant Articles since last August. Facebook reported that this issue is now fixed.
The “Referrals” metrics on Facebook Analytics for Apps was also miscalculated, as it didn’t simply track the links to the app or the site, but also the clicks to the posts via the app or the site, which also included the clicks to view photos and videos.

Case #3 – December 2016

Facebook announced more updates for its metrics, along with new miscalculations and fixes, this time affecting the estimated reach, the measurement of the reactions in live videos and a problem with like and share buttons.

There will be an improvement in the estimated reach during the ad creation, which will provide a more accurate estimate for the potential target audience. We should expect from now on a change of less than 10% (increase or decrease).
Facebook is fixing the reactions in live videos by counting from now on multiple reactions during a live streaming. These multiple reactions were calculated up to now on the “reactions from shares to post” and they will be now measured on the “reactions on post” metrics. This means that we should see an increase of 500% on average to the “reactions on post” and a decrease of 25% on average to the “reactions from shares of post”.
Facebook also identified a discrepancy between the like and share buttons on the Graph API and the URLs used in the mobile search bar, fixing this difference to make the metrics match up.

Is Facebook ready to improve its metrics?

It is more important than ever for Facebook to include third-party verification for its metrics and it already made it clear last month that they are heading towards this direction:

We believe strongly in third-party verification to prove the business value we’re driving for our partners, and we have a long history of working with global industry leaders like comScore, Moat, Nielsen and Integral Ad Science (IAS). We’re now exploring additional third-party reviews to validate the reporting we offer partners. We’re also launching the ability to verify display impression data through our third-party viewability verification partners, including Moat, IAS and comScore. This integration addresses requests we’ve received from partners for independent measurement of the amount of time ads are viewed on-screen.

For publishers, we’re partnering with Nielsen to include Facebook video and Facebook Live viewership in Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings (DCR). This will give publishers access to third-party verification for video metrics and allow for comparable digital and TV metrics in Nielsen’s Total Audience Measurement.

Should marketers be concerned?

Marketers and publishers have every right to be unhappy with Facebook’s continuous glitches and it certainly affected its credibility up to a point.

However, looking on the bright side, it may be a good opportunity for the social network to evaluate the growing needs and examine third parties that could help them scale their efforts.

As the products evolve, it’s important to focus on maintaining its quality and we are hoping that these problems will help Facebook work harder on the right direction.

If it wants to be taken seriously for its advertising platform and its business aspect, then it’s crucial to bring back the much desired trust and invest in the proper tools that will make the measurement more accurate. This should be an interesting challenge for 2017.

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Agency websites can be kind of intimidating.

They’re meticulously styled. They make bold declarations. And they’re not always extremely straightforward.

To a prospect seeking out a new agency partner, it can all be a little overwhelming. It’s easy to wonder: Who are the real people behind all the smoke and mirrors?

Adding a “Meet the Team” page or section to your website is an easy, effective way to give your business a accessible face. It gives prospects an idea of who exactly they’ll be working with, and shows potential employees that you’re proud of the people on your team.

For some inspiration, see how these agencies introduce visitors to their most important creative assets: their people.

13 Creative Agency ‘Meet the Team’ Pages
1) Sub Rosa

Sub Rosa, a Manhattan-based strategy and design studio, decided to skip the typical employee headshots in favor of something a little more unconventional.

They invited team members to bring in 10 to 12 objects that best represent their personalities, photographed them, and asked employees to briefly explain the value of each object. These original profiles were then shared on their website instead of traditional employee bios.

“By seeing the objects we hold most dear and the stories attached to them, we give a deeper look inside ourselves,” said Michael Ventura, founder and CEO of Sub Rosa, to Digiday.

2) Digital Marmelade

Since most employee bios read a lot like a list of stats (“10 years in the industry … 4 years at the company … Managed 80 website redesign projects … “) the folks at Digital Marmelade decided to have a little fun with the format.

Each employee at the London-based marketing agency has a trading card-style profile detailing their actual marketing accomplishments and personal facts, as well as their fictional superhero abilities.

It’s a quirky twist that gives visitors a colorful snapshot of the agency’s team, highlighting both their impressive experience and friendly culture.

3) Studio Airport

This Dutch agency offers up a clever, slapstick take on the typical yearbook-style grid of employee photos.

When you hover over a picture, the employee in the photo starts to interact with the employees around it — e.g., dumping a bucket of water on the person in the photo below them, shining a light on the person next to them, or aiming a leaf blower towards their neighbor.

4) Sagmeister & Walsh

The bios and headshots for Sagmeister & Walsh’s team seem perfectly conventional at first glance, but if you hang around the page for a second, their faces move ever so slightly — a subtle effect that’s so quick you’ll think you might have imagined it.

Each team member has a different, nearly imperceptable movement — some tilt their heads, and others simply blink before reverting back to their resting places as stony-faced portraits. A scroll through the section feels like a trip to a mysterious museum where the paintings are coming to life.

5) Bolden

Bolden’s team bios are more conventional than some of the others on this list, but what they lack in invention they more than make up for with style.

Hovering over each team member’s picture produces a colorful stacked card effect, revealing brief employee bios in coordinated fonts. This is a great example of a minimal, accessible “Meet the Team” page that manages to look cool and introduce the faces behind the agency without going over the top.

6) Rock Kitchen Harris

Rock Kitchen Harris, a full-service agency, decided to skip the photos altogether and showcase the cartoon versions of their employees instead.

Each employee at the English agency had a custom caricature drawn up, and every single one has a different personality. While some employees opted for representations reminiscent of LinkedIn profile pictures, others got a little creative with it, dressing their cartoon selves up as Ewoks and other characters.

7) FCINQ

FCINQ, a creative studio, introduces us to their team with a collage of colorful bubbles.

Hovering over an employee’s individual circle produces a zoomed-in effect, and clicking expands their headshot with their name and social profiles. The splashy set up is a stylish alternative to the expected rows of team photos and names.

8) Zulu Alpha Kilo

This Canadian agency presents their founding team with refreshing comedic flair. While many agency leaders choose to represent themselves with stoic business portraits, the three leaders of Zulu Alpha Kilo opted for playful photos and cheeky bios.

Here’s an excerpt from the bio of Marcus Alpha — the agency’s “Ultra Chief Creative Director Officer”:

Marcus has a reputation for pushing his creative teams further than any other creative director. He makes them work late nights, weekends and through holidays in pursuit of that one truly breakthrough creative idea. And when they’ve finally cracked it after weeks of gruelling and thankless work, Marcus will triumphantly stand in front of the client and present it as an idea he had in the shower that morning instead.

9) Stink Digital

We love this expertly color-coordinated slideshow of team members form Stink Digital.

This creative agency has offices in five major cities around the world — including New York, Paris, and Berlin — but having a personable “Meet the Team” section helps give their business an accessible edge. They don’t call themselves “a global company with a local feel” for nothing.

10) Drexler

This “Meet the Team” section from Drexler is perfect proof that you don’t necessarily need a whole page devoted to introducing your employees — just a small section can do the trick.

This simple but polished team member marquee appears at the bottom of the Baltimore, Maryland-based agency’s “About” page, and adds a welcome personal touch to their website.

11) Unfold

Inspired by the periodic table of elements, this “Meet the Team” section from Norwegian agency Unfold is minimal but far from boring.

Employee headshots are arranged in a masonry style layout, each anchored by muted blocks of color. The effect is sophisticated and modern.

12) Push.

To take their employee introductions up a notch, Florida-based agency Push. introduced a dose of animation.

When you hover over a picture of one of their leaders, they strike a power pose. It’s a seemingly small touch that adds some major visual interest to the otherwise conventional page.

13) Soup

To illustrate how their small team collaborates on projects, Soup created this interactive diagram. The circle is divided into three sections — dev, design, and workflows — and when you hover over one of the segments, the team members associated with that particular branch pop up in the circles to the right.

It’s a creative way to exhibit their process and demonstrate how each team member contributes to projects.

Does your agency have a “meet the team” section on your website? Let us know in the comments.

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Instagram has made its live video feature available to its U.S. users. Instagram’s live video allows users to broadcast a video in real-time on Instagram Stories.

The post Instagram’s Live Video Rolls Out to All U.S. Users by @rinadianewrites appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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As every digital marketing source has been telling you, user behavior has become increasingly mobile-oriented. The necessity of mobile optimization is now less of a good idea than it is a total necessity for online success-a statement supported by research of user behavior. All of that information is critical, but there’s now an even more important reason to get with the mobile optimization program.

Within the next few months, Google will be creating a separate mobile, “primary” index the search engine uses. At present, there is only one search index of documents. With the mobile-first index, Google will create and rank its search listings based on the mobile version of content for both mobile users and desktop users (though how that’s going to work remains unclear).

What this means is that websites not optimized for mobile will likely suffer from the ranking algorithm, as the documents Google fetches in response to queries will only come from the new, primary mobile index. So, if there was ever a time to make sure your website is mobile-ready, now is it.

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Whether you’re a Baby Boomer or a young member of Gen Z, there’s a good chance you use some form of social media. In fact, there are over 2 billion social media users worldwide.

When it comes to marketing, segmenting social media content for your audience is key. And one way to target your social media marketing efforts is by age group.

Although billions of people log onto social media platforms every day, generational groups each have different habits and preferences when it comes to their favorite platforms and ways they engage with content.

In this infographic from WebPage FX, you can see just how large the generational gaps can be on social media. For example, did you know that Generation Xers between the ages of 36 and 49 make up 36% of Pinterest users, 93% of whom have shopped online in the past six months? 

There are huge segments of social media users who want to hear from brands. Check out the infographic below to learn more about how they’re using social networks and how you can target them more effectively.

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Marketers work hard, amirite? But there are still some people in our lives — ahem, Mom — who seem to think that we just write stories and draw pictures on the internet all day.

I mean, we don’t do that every day. We work hard, and we have a great appreciation for things that are creative and clever. It makes sense, then, that we also like our season’s greetings to share those traits. And when it comes to holiday cards, just make us laugh.

But if you’ve been described as “impossible to please,” or having an “abnormal appreciation for puns,” have faith — you’re not alone. That’s why we put together this guide of great holiday cards for marketers.

From punny to downright clever, these cards certainly have us in stitches — We hope you’ll enjoy them, too.

11 Hilarious Holiday Cards for Marketers
1) Thoughtful Tweets, by Someecards

Leave it to Someecards to capture the holiday snark that lives in all of us, at least a little bit.

Holidays are a busy time for marketers. We have to plan content for the season — which is remarkably easier with a social media content calendar — and make sure it continues to thrive, even if we’re elsewhere, donning ugly sweaters and drinking eggnog.

Naturally, this fitting sentiment made us laugh.

Someecards makes it super easy to send these greetings, too. Just visit the link, click on the picture, and choose when you want it to be delivered.

2) CapterraGrams, by Capterra

In a past holiday season, Capterra compiled a list of 10 B2B holiday greetings that were so clever, we’re kind of jealous that we didn’t come up with them.

It’s hard to pick just one, but here are a few of our favorites — like this one, which puts a marketing spin on the classic carol “Up on the Housetop.”

Or this one, which turns social sharing buttons into dreidels.

Of course, we couldn’t leave out a good CTA color pun, either.

3) The Forgetful Marketer, by SadShop

We love all of SadShop’s holiday cards for their deadpan greetings, like “You are not bad” for Valentine’s Day, and “You are too old to say yolo” for birthdays.

So when it came time to find the perfect holiday sentiment for the marketers in our lives, we knew that SadShop would have something fitting. And if you’re the type of marketer who works so hard before the holidays that perhaps you never quite make it to the “cards” line on your December to-do list, this one might be for you.

4) Holiday Zen, by ThePaperArtShoppe

Then, there are the marketers who do manage to get it all together — work, cards, and maybe even a box of homemade cookies — but you wish he or she would take a minute to breathe. (Or maybe, you know, that describes you. We can relate.)

There’s nothing like some holiday yoga to keep calm and market on during this season. A little bit of laughter wouldn’t hurt, either — What better way to get a chuckle than with a tree-posing reindeer?

5) Appy New Year, by nocturnalpaper

As marketers, we really love our apps, especially if they help us relax or become more productive. So when it comes to wishing us a happy holiday, it’s quite fitting to make it more of an “appy” holiday.

This adorable card puts that pun to work by taking four app icons — weather, mail, messages, and music — and attaching tiny arms and legs to them. However, depending on who you ask, those arms might look like little reindeer antlers. Festivity is in the eye of the (appy) beholder. 

6) For the Good-Humored Boss, by FINCHandHARE

If you’re as lucky as we are, your boss has a great sense of humor. In that case, he or she might appreciate this greeting — which is actually meant to be a birthday card, but still works as a holiday one — which simply reads, “You are terrifying.”

Once the card is opened, the humor continues with, “You are a terrific boss. I am really enjoying the comfortable work environment you foster.” Be sure to add your own warm, hand-written greeting, though, to make sure it’s all in good fun. We suggest, “For one of the best marketers I know. Happy holidays,” or, “I mean it. Thanks for such a great year, and happy holidays.”

7) Holiday Buzzwords, by Someecards

Someecards strikes again with this great greeting that calls out marketers on, well, the language we might throw around during the holidays.

But hey, don’t fault us — we really do wish you hope, peace, joy, and successful marketing.

8) #FFFFFF, by NerdyWordsGifts

Where there’s marketing, there’s often branding. And where there’s branding, there’s a style guide. That usually comes equipped with official rules about which colors should be used in marketing collateral. Those colors usually have their own html codes that lead with the # symbol.

As you probably guessed, #FFFFFF is the html color code for white. This card puts a branding and design spin on the famous carol lyrics, “May all your Christmases be white,” replacing the word “white” with the digital symbol. In that case, we hope your holidays are anything but #0468E0. 

9) Holiday QR Code, by kissandpunch

QR codes are hardly a new marketing concept, but when used correctly, they can still be effective. Case in point: this card with a QR code letterpress.

But the greeting doesn’t end there. Once the code is scanned, the recipient is taken to this adorable video of a yorkie’s holiday adventures — and who doesn’t love marketing with a healthy dose of dogs?

Warning: The video is a bit corny, but we can’t think of a better time than the holidays for some cheesy cheer.

10) #Presents, by NewtonAndTheApple

No matter how you feel about a personal use of hashtags, there’s no denying their importance in marketing.

The makers of this card leveraged that idea to capture a hightlight of the holidays: #presents.

But if the marketers in your life are feeling a bit grinchy this season, fear not — there’s another version made just for them.

There are also editions available for #lights, #Rudolph, and #tree. Might we submit a request for #cookies and #wine?

11) Beyoncé Jingles, by NostalgiaCollect

Consider this one our gift to you. I mean, Beyoncé and a pun? Nothing says “happy holidays” to our favorite marketers like a play on popular song lyrics.

Happy Holidays From Our Marketers to Yours

Between all of the chaos and planning, it seems like there’s one big thing we forget to do during the holidays — laugh. That’s what the season’s greetings are for, after all. And if that festivity and joy happens to come with a good dose of marketing humor, we hope that makes you all the merrier.

Have you come across some great holiday cards for marketers? Let us know in the comments.

 

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

The post SearchCap: Google Search Console update, Bing Ads bot & Google Home appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Posted by randfish

After analyzing hundreds of SERPs over the past few weeks, Rand has identified the 10 distinct content types that work best for SEO and classified which formats are suited for certain queries. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, he explains those content types and how to use them to satisfy searcher intent, match them to the right projects, and enhance your overall strategy.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we’re going to chat about the types of content, content formats that tend to work well for SEO, and I’m talking specifically about content rather than sort of an e-commerce product page or a contact page or those types of things, and that’s because what we want to try and do here is talk about those of you who are doing content strategy and content marketing and choosing which content formats you should potentially use.

So I actually spent a bunch of time over the last few weeks analyzing a few hundred search results, of many, many different kinds, trying to identify the unique, diverse kinds of search results in which content marketing pieces ranked or the types of pieces that would fit into the content marketing world rank.

10 content formats that appeared regularly atop Google

So I made this list of 10. There are actually 11, but I don’t particularly recommend all 11 of these, and what I’ve done is, below the video, you can see in the text content of this Whiteboard Friday I’ve made a list. For each of these 11, I have a URL that’s a good example of this and a search query for which that URL ranks, so you can get a sense of what this type of stuff looks like. So you’re probably familiar with most of these formats:

Blog posts and those could have regular updates or be republished on a regular basis
e.g. Live & Dare’s Benefits of Meditation (ranks for Meditation Benefits)

Short-form evergreen content and articles
e.g. Jim Collin’s Piece on Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (ranks for BHAG)
Long-form articles
e.g. Wait But Why on the Fermi Paradox (ranks for Fermi Paradox)
Photo and visual galleries, I found a lot of these ranking, especially for things that lent themselves to it, for example if you were to search for men’s haircuts styles.
e.g. Right Hairstyle’s 100 Cool Short Hairstyles for Men/ (ranks for men’s hair styles)
Detailed and information-rich lists of information
e.g. Wareable’s Best Fitness Trackers of 2016 (ranks for Fitness Trackers)
Interactive tools and content, got some good examples of those.
e.g. Zoopla’s House Prices Tool (ranks for property prices)
Comprehensive category landers, so this would be like if you search for kitchen designs, how you might land on Houzz’s page of various kitchen designs and that’s really a lander to get you into more content, so it’s not technically a content marketing piece by itself, but it leads you into content pieces or could.
e.g. HGTV’s Kitchen Ideas (ranks for kitchen remodeling ideas)

Multi-page guides, things like Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, but we have some other examples too.
e.g. Bates University’s “Painless Guide to Statistics” (ranks for statistics guide)
Data or complex information that is visualized
e.g. CNN’s Election Results (ranks for election results 2016)
Video, YouTube or embedded video on a particular page, Whiteboard Friday itself being an example of that.
e.g. Whiteboard Friday itself (ranks for Unique Content)

Then an eleventh format that I don’t actually recommend, even though I found it in the search results quite often, and that is the formal research documents that are usually PDFs or Powerpoints or those kinds of things. The reason I don’t recommend these formats is because they’re actually hard to parse. They’re particularly hard to open on mobile devices. They’re not very user-friendly, and most of the time the reason they rank well is simply because they’re cited by lots of other things. But when you see content marketers invest in one of these spaces and make a document in one of these other formats that’s better and more comprehensive and more useful and more user-friendly, they do a much better job and they tend to rank better too.

Which format should you use for your project?

So the question is: Which format should you be using for your project? This is something we have to do at Moz. We ask ourselves this question when we’re creating content around SEO and around web marketing information and information of all kinds. So there are sort of three big ones that I ask and then a few tips that I’ve got for you as well. But first off, I like to start with:

What’s the searcher’s intent? What are they trying to accomplish?

Now generally speaking, if it’s navigation or transaction, content marketing-types of pieces are not the right match for those types of queries. But if it’s informational, which is a huge swath, a massive amount of the searches that take place on the web and certainly many of the ones that content marketing is designed to target, because then it can turn those people from, “Yeah, I now know about your brand and I’m now considering you and I thinking about you.”

There’s a bunch of different variants of these. So things like I’m looking for:

A quick answer to this question
A deep comparison of different types of information or different products, different services, different paths that I could choose to answer the action that I’m about to take.
A broad overview
I could be searching out something, searching for information purely out of curiosity and intrigue. You know when you go down a rabbit hole around, “Hey, I want to know all the films that Meg Ryan was ever in.” Then, “Wait a minute. What is that one? I’ve never heard of that one, and let me go learn more about that.” So the curiosity and intrigue.
Professional and scientific interests
Multi-threaded exploration.

Look, there are plenty of others other types of informational queries. The key is to ask yourself which of these are most of the people performing this search query trying to accomplish, and then you can do a better job of narrowing down this list. So you might be able to cut out five or six of these and only leave yourself with a few options after you’ve answered this question. The next one is:

What actually appears in the search results page?

I mean this two ways. One, who already shows up there, and what kinds of formats are they using? That can be informational. That can give you some inspiration, or it could drive you to want to be different from the rest of them. But also, I’m asking in terms of the SERP features that appear there. Are we talking about:

10 blue links and ads, which is very, very classic old school, but uncommon these days? Or are we talking about search verticals appearing in their images, which suggest maybe I should be thinking about…
Photos or visual galleries or maybe data or complex information visualized, like maybe an informational graphic or more likely a data visualization that’s of high quality. I’m not a big infographic fan myself, as you might know from previous Whiteboard Fridays.
Is it news? In which case, maybe I want a short-form article or a long-form article.
Is it videos? In which case, I probably want to video.

If we see lots of things like:

Instant answers, people also ask, in-depth results, that could point us toward the complexity of the information and how much people are willing to go dig into this. So people who also ask suggest that it might be a multi-threaded exploration, a multi-page guide, or a comprehensive category lander could be a good match there. If I see an instant answer, probable that a short-form, evergreen article could do really well, or a blog post that’s regularly updated might do well there.

If I see…

Site links, maps or local, or one of Google or Bing’s widgets, that essentially answer the query for you, a search for a calculator or a search for flight prices, they answer that already. A search for weather, they answer that already. Chances are it might be pretty hard to do things in the content marketing world that will actually have success there. I might bias you to look for other things.

Then the third question:

What’s going to resonate with two groups — my audience and their influencers?

You need to ask these questions about both those groups. That could mean:

Device type and where you are searching from. So if somebody is searching on a mobile device and they are on-the-go and this type of query has an intent that is informational but it’s very quick information, you might want to consider some of the shorter form stuff.
If there are hopeful next steps and you know that that’s the case, you might want to give something like the multi-page guide or the category lander or the interactive tool or content or that detailed list that gives someone actions they can take right after they’ve consumed that information.

You also want to consider whether this is a person or this is likely to be a person who is:

looking for new and interesting formats and they would be fascinated and enjoy exploring that, or whether they’re…
looking for something familiar and trusted, that is not new, that doesn’t make them think at all, it just answers their query and gets them finished.

Suggestions

I would say…

Don’t ignore new formats. So if some of these are not things you’ve considered in the past, don’t ignore them.
Recognize that you shouldn’t just use a format because it’s new. That is a terrible idea. You should use a format because it works well for your audience, because it serves all of these functions.
Learn from who’s already ranking
I wouldn’t say that you should just copy somebody else’s format because it’s easy to do and familiar. Make sure that familiar and trusted is the best way that you can compete.
Look at these content formats and finding ways to get a competitive advantage from them. If all of your competitors are just doing blog posts and short-form and long-form articles, you might be able to win with a visual gallery, you might be able to win with an interactive piece of content or a tool, or you might be able to win with complex information visualized. That’s a powerful thing.
Do use a multi-keyword approach in this analysis. So when I’m saying, “What is the searcher’s intent,” I’m asking you to consider all of the words and phrases that you’re hoping to rank for with this piece of content, not just a single keyword term or phrase. That will give you the best way to choose the right content format for the search queries and the overall goal of attracting the right searchers.

All right everyone, look forward to hearing about some of the formats you’ve used, maybe some that aren’t on this list. If you have great examples of these you’d like to share, we’d certainly love to see them. And we’ll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

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