In the Weekly Shop this week we take a closer look at Google’s move towards a more semantic and user-centric approach to SEO. We also look at search data which has highlighted a fast change in the way we shop and some evidence that suggests that Google has started to enforce smartphone penalties. Plus, some more results from the study we featured last week which highlights what promotions shoppers are more likely to respond to.

6 Major Google Changes Reveal the Future of SEO

The last couple of Weekly Shops have been full of developments from Google and it can’t be denied that these changes are all part of their longer term strategy to move people away from tactical SEO behaviour and towards a more strategic approach. This article takes a few steps back and looks at the bigger picture of what impact these changes will have on SEO.

Searcher Personas: A Case for User-Centric SEO

Following on from the above, this article from Search Engine Watch explores how we can put the user-centric concept into practice across your SEO using searcher personas.

The New SEO — It’s About People, Intent, & Meaning

To finish up on the SEO side of things, here’s another nice article from Search Engine Land looking at the psychology of Google to make sense of the rapid shifts in the SEO landscape that we’ve seen recently.

Six Visual Solutions To Complex Digital Marketing/Analytics Challenges

Here are some nice visuals from content marketing evangelist Avinash Kaushik that our search team stumbled upon earlier in the week. The six venn diagrams in this article re-frame a unique facet of the digital opportunity/challenge, and shares how to optimally take advantage of the opportunity/challenge. There is some really good stuff in here laid out in a very digestible way.

Google’s Starting To Enforce Smartphone Penalties: The Evidence

As if we needed any more convincing about the importance of mobile within your digital strategy, we’ve now seen the first evidence that Google has started adjusting search rankings appearing on smartphones based on how well the site in question handled the mobile user experience. More over on Search Marketing Land.

Search data illustrates fast change in the way we shop

And now for some retail news. This article from Internet Retailing look at figures from a study by Google and the British Retail Consortium which has shown that the way UK shoppers look for the items they want to buy is developing fast. In particular the report has shown strong growth for searches on tablets and smartphones and in search volumes from overseas customers looking for British retailers.

Report: Online Shoppers More Likely To Respond To Free Shipping Offers Than Price Discounts

Here are some more findings from the report from Retention Science that we featured last week. According to the study online shoppers are twice as likely to respond to free shipping offers than price discounts. We can completely back this up and have had the same results with a number of our clients – definitely something to bear in mind when preparing promotions for the festive season.

That’s it for this week, happy reading!