Enhancing Search Results at Google

Enhancing Search Results To Determine What the Responses to a Query Will Look Like

The Internet provides access to a wide variety of content. When a searcher searches for content on the Internet by submitting a query to a search engine, the search engine may return a query response that includes a plurality of search results. Search results may include hyperlinks to first-party resources.

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These can include web pages, documents, images, videos, etc. They also include third-party content items, such as advertisements, public service announcements. These have become determined to be relevant to the query. The query response may get provided to a client device in the form of a results page. When the client selects a desired search result on the results page (e.g., by clicking on the search result), the client’s browser navigates to a destination resource associated with the search result.

Enhancing Search Results and Universal Search Results and Augmented Search Results

This patent focuses on 10 Blue links in search results with advertisements added to those. It is the first Google patent that details information about ads being added to 10 blue links. Google has published at least 4 versions of patents about universal search results. Google has also been granted a patent about augmented search results where the search engine decides if there is an entity in a search query, and if there is, it may decide to add knowledge results to the SERPs, such as knowledge panels, related questions, featured snippets, and related entities.

Some search engines enhance the results page by highlighting (e.g., bolding) various terms in the search results. Conventional highlighting techniques involve highlighting each term submitted as part of the search query throughout the search results. Synonyms and other terms that are equal to the query terms may also become highlighted. While conventional highlighting techniques can sometimes assist a searcher in identifying desired search results, such highlighting can also distract and overwhelm the searcher and may cause the results page to appear cluttered. It would be desirable to enhance the results page to allow the searcher to be enhancing search results while avoiding the disadvantages of conventional highlighting techniques.

Enhancing Search Results for Improved Readability

The patent shows a system for enhancing a search result for improved readability. This includes a communications interface configured to receive a search query from a client device via a computer network and a processor and memory processing circuit. The processing circuit gets configured to generate a set of query terms based on the search query and identify a search result using the set of query terms.

The search result includes a first textual part and a second textual part. For each query term in the set of query terms, the processing circuit performs a first highlighting operation that includes:

• Determining whether the query term occurs in the first textual part and, in response to a determination that the query term occurs in the first textual part
• Highlighting the query term in the first textual part and modifying the set of query terms by removing the query term from the set of query terms
• For each query term remaining in the modified set of query terms after the first highlighting operation, the processing circuit performs a second highlighting operation, including determining whether the query term occurs in the second textual part
• In response to a determination that the query term occurs in the second textual part, highlighting the query term in the second textual part

The processing circuit becomes configured to generate a query response, including the highlighted search result, and provide the query response to the client device via the computer network.

The search result includes a hyperlink to an indexed first-party resource and a third-party content item.

The first textual part includes a title of the search result and the second textual part includes a text snippet of the search result.

The processing circuit gets configured to identify a plurality of search results, perform the first and second highlighting operations for each search result, and generate a query response including the plurality of search highlighted results.

Highlighting the query term includes:

• Bolding the query term
• Underlining the query term
• Italicizing the query term
• Increasing a display size of the query term
• Adjusting a display color of the query term
• Adjusting a background color of the query term

What Is the Enhancing Search Results Process?

The method may:

• Get performed by a processing circuit of a computer or computer system
• Includes receiving a search query at a processing circuit having a processor and memory
• Generating a set of query terms based on the search query
• Identifying a search result using the set of query terms

The search result includes:

• A first textual part and a second textual part
• For each query term in the set, performing a first highlighting operation including determining whether the query term occurs in the first textual part and in response to a determination that the query term occurs in the first textual part
• Highlighting the query term in the first textual part and modifying the set of query terms by removing the query term from the set of query terms
• For each query term remaining in the modified set of query terms after the first highlighting operation, performing a second highlighting operation including determining whether the query term occurs in the second textual part and in response to a determination that the query term occurs in the second textual part
• Highlighting the query term in the second textual part

Receiving the search query includes:

• Receiving the search query from a client device via a computer network
• Generating a query response including the highlighted search result and providing the query response to the client device via the computer network
• A hyperlink to an indexed first-party resource and a third-party content item

The first textual part includes a title of the search result and the second textual part includes a text snippet of the search result.

The method includes identifying a plurality of search results, performing the first and second highlighting operations for each of the plurality of search results, and generating a query response including the plurality of search highlighted results.

The method further includes providing a query response including the highlighted search result to the client device in response to the search query.

The search result includes a hyperlink to an indexed first-party resource and a third-party content item.

The first textual part includes a title of the search result and the second textual part includes a text snippet of the search result.

This patent on Enhancing Search Results is at:

Search result content item enhancement
Inventors: Matthew Paff, Ramakrishnan Kandhan, and Catherine Zuo;
Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
US Patent: 11,086,892
Granted: August 10, 2021
Filed: August 23, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods for enhancing search results for improved readability get provided. A search result becomes identified using a set of query terms. The search result may be first-party content or third-party content. The search result includes a first textual part and a second textual part. Each set of query terms that appear in the first textual part gets highlighted in the first. Each set of query terms that appear in the second but not in the first textual part gets highlighted in the second textual part. A query response including the highlighted search result gets generated and provided to a client device.

A Response to A Search Query

The systems and methods described within this patent may generate a response to a search query received from a client device. The query response may include search results such as hyperlinks to first-party resources, such as webpages, documents, images, videos, etc. They can include third-party content items such as advertisements, public service announcements, etc., relevant to the search query. The query response gets provided on a search results page, including a plurality of search results. The term “search results” may refer to:

• Indexed first-party resources (i.e., “first-party search results”)
• Third-party content items (i.e., “third-party search results”)
• A combination of both

A search result may include multiple textual portions such as a title, a visible URL, and a text snippet (e.g., text extracted from a first-party resource, an ad creative, etc.).

Purpose Behind Highlighted Search Results

Each search result may become enhanced by highlighting (e.g., bolding, underlining, italicizing, increasing display size, changing a display color, etc.) various terms that appear in the text of the search result. Highlighted terms may include terms that get received as part of a searcher-submitted search query and, in some implementations, terms that are equal to such searcher-submitted terms. Techniques such as latent semantic indexing and adjusting pluralization may become used to generate an expanded set of query terms based on a searcher-submitted search query. The expanded set of query terms may be used to identify relevant search results and highlight terms as Google is enhancing search results.

A search result enhancement system may parse the text of each search result to identify occurrences of the query terms. For each search result, the system may perform a multi-stage highlighting process to highlight various terms that appear in the text of the search result. A first stage of the highlighting process may include identifying and highlighting each set of query terms in the first part of the search result (e.g., the title). If a term gets highlighted in the first part of the search result, the term may get removed from the set of query terms. A second stage of the highlighting process may include identifying and highlighting, in a second part of the search result (e.g., the text snippet), any remaining query terms that have not already gotten highlighted in the first part.

Using this highlighting process, each occurrence of a query term in the first part of the search result may become highlighted. But, only query terms that appear in the second part of the search result without appearing in the first part of the search result may get highlighted in the second part. In other words, if a query term gets highlighted in the first part of a search result, the same query term may not become highlighted in the second part of the same search result. But, if a query term does not appear in the first part of a search result, the query term may get highlighted in the second part of the search result.

This highlighting process prevents excessive highlighting while ensuring that each query term that appears in the search result gets highlighted at least once in the search result. Such a highlighting process preserves the advantages of highlighting for searchers who skim the search results by looking at only the highlighted terms. Any query term excluded from highlighting in the second part of the search result may still be highlighted in the first part. Eputtingach query term that appears in the search result may be highlighted at least once but with less duplication than traditional highlighting techniques. The highlighting process outlined above may result in less highlighting relative to traditional highlighting techniques and may cause the search results to appear cleaner and less cluttered.

A Computer System Gets Shown

The computer system may get used to putting in place the systems and methods of the patent. The computer system gets shown to include a network, resources, content providers, client devices, data storage devices, a content server, a search engine, and a search result enhancement system.

The network may ease communication between various components of the computer system. For example, client devices may submit search queries to search engines via the network.

The search engine may parse the search queries and identify resources that are relevant to the search queries.

The search engine may also interact with the content server via the network to identify third-party content items relevant to the search queries. It may generate search results (e.g., first-party resources, third-party content items, etc.) relevant to the search queries and provide the search results via network to the search result enhancement system.

The search result enhancement system may highlight query terms in the search results and provide the enhanced search results to client devices in response to the search query.

Resources in a Computer System

A computer system include resources. Those resources may:

• Include any type of information or data structure that can get provided over the network
• Become identified by a resource address associated with each resource (e.g., a resource URL)
• Have webpages (e.g., HTML webpages, PHP webpages, etc.), word processing documents, portable document format (PDF) documents, images, video, programming elements, interactive content, streaming video/audio sources, or other types of first-party content
• Show content having embedded information (e.g., meta-information embedded in hyperlinks) and embedded instructions
• Contain computer-readable instructions (e.g., software code, JavaScript.RTM., ECMAScript.RTM., etc.) which get executed by client devices (e.g., by a web browser running on client devices) upon viewing content
• Result in a search results page

The search results page may include:

• Search results (e.g., first-party resources, third-party content items, etc.) identified as relevant to a searcher-submitted search query
• May get provided to client devices in response to a search query received from client devices
• Resources that include an interface for interacting with a search engine

Those resources may include a webpage with a search field that allows a searcher to enter and submit the search query to a search engine.

The search engine may use the search query to identify relevant first-party search results.

This provides the content server the search query (or a set of query terms based on the search query).

The content server may use the search query to identify relevant third-party search results.

That search results page may become generated by a search engine, content server, or both, including a combination of first-party search results and third-party search results.

Landing Page In SERPs

The resources may include landing pages for search results.

For example, the search results may include a hyperlink URL (e.g., given by a href attribute) that specifies a location of a destination resource.

The client devices may get directed to resources on clicking or otherwise interacting with a search result.

These Resources may provide more information about a product, service, or business featured in first-party search results or a third-party content item. For example, resources may host a resource through which a product or service featured in the third-party content item may get purchased.

And resources may also include slots for presenting third-party content items in conjunction with the first-party content. Resources may include inline frame elements (e.g., HTML “iframe” elements, <iframe> . . . </iframe> for presenting third-party content items from content providers. An inline frame can be the “target” frame for links defined by other elements. It can become selected by searcher agents (e.g., client devices, a web browser running on client devices, etc.) as the focus for printing, viewing its source, or other forms of searcher interaction. The content slots may cause client devices to request third-party content items from the content server to view first-party resource content from resources.

Other Resources as Search Results

And Resources may get combined with content providers. Resources may include data stored on electronic devices (e.g., computers, servers, etc.) that define content providers. Those resources may be separate from content providers. They may include data stored on a remote server (e.g., FTP servers, file sharing servers, web servers, etc.), combinations of servers (e.g., data centers, cloud computing platforms, etc.), or other data storage devices separate from the devices which define content providers.

Content providers may include electronic devices representing advice patent also tells us that content providers may submit a content generation request to the content server, and the content server may generate a third-party content item in response to the request. The third-party content items may get stored in data storage devices local to content providers, within a content tent server, or data storage devices.

The third-party content items may be advertisements. The advertisements may be display advertisements such as:

• Image advertisements
• Flash.RTM. advertisements
• Video advertisements
• Text-based advertisements
• Any combination thereof

In other implementations, the third-party content items may include other types of content which serve various non-advertising purposes (e.g., public service announcements). The third-party content items may get displayed in a content slot of resources and presented to client devices alongside first-party content from resources.

Content providers submit campaign parameters to the content server. The campaign parameters may control third-party content items to client devices. The campaign parameters may include:

• Keywords associated with the third-party content items
• Bids corresponding to the keywords
• A content distribution budget
• Geographic limiters
• Other criteria used by content server to determine when a third-party content item may get presented to client devices

Content providers may access the content server to watch the performance of the third-party content items distributed according to the established campaign parameters. For example, content providers may access a content server to review performance metrics associated with a third-party content item or set of third-party content items. The performance metrics may describe interactions between client devices and a distributed third-party content item or set of third-party content items (e.g., number of impressions, number of clicks, number of conversions, revenue, attributable purchases, etc.).

Client Devices Showing Search Results

Client devices include an application (e.g., a web browser, a resource renderer, etc.) for converting electronic content into a searcher-comprehensible format (e.g., visual, aural, graphical, etc.).

These client devices may include a searcher interface element. This can be an electronic display, a speaker, a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a printer. It can present content to a searcher, receive input, and 00facilitate searcher interaction with electronic content. It can do this by clicking on a content item, hovering over a content item, and so on. Client devices may function as a searcher agent for viewing HTML encoded content. Client devices may include a processor capable of processing embedded information (e.g., meta information embedded in hyperlinks, etc.) and executing embedded instructions. Embedded instructions may include computer-readable instructions (e.g., software code, JavaScript.RTM., ECMAScript.RTM., etc.) associated with a content slot within which a third-party content item gets presented.

An Interactive Content Item

Client devices can detect an interaction with a distributed third-party content item. An interaction with a third-party content item can include:

• Displaying the content item
• Hovering over the content item
• Clicking on the content item
• Viewing source information for the content item
• Any other type of interaction between client devices and a content item

How An Interactive Content Item Might Work

Interaction with a third-party content item does not need explicit action by a searcher about the content item. An impression, such as displaying or presenting the content item, may qualify as an interaction. The criteria for defining which actions (e.g., active or passive) qualify as interaction may become determined. According to established campaign parameters, they could be on an individual basis, for each content item), or by content providers, according to established campaign parameters), or by the content server.

A Computer system gets shown to include data storage devices. Data storage devices may be any memory device capable of storing profile data, content item data, or any other type of data used by the content server or search engine. Data storage devices may include any non-volatile memory, media, or memory device.

The data storage devices may include:

• Semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices, etc.)
• Magnetic disks (e.g., internal hard disks, removable disks, etc.)
• Magneto-optical disks
• CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks

Data storage devices may be local to the content server, content providers, or search engine. Those data storage devices may be remote devices connected with the content server and search engine via the network. And data storage devices may be part of a data storage server or system capable of receiving and responding to queries from the content server and search engine.

We may see data storage devices store profile data for client devices. That profile data may include:

• Interest data
• Behavioral data
• Other data which may be relevant in selecting third-party content items for distribution to client devices

Profile data stored in data storage devices may also get used (e.g., by the content server) to select and rank third-party content items to provide in response to a search query from a particular client device.

Personal Information About Searchers

When systems discussed collect personal information about searchers or use personal information, the searchers may become provided with an opportunity to control whether programs or features collect searcher information.

This could be information about:

• A searcher’s social network
• Social actions or activities
• Profession
• A searcher’s preferences, or a searcher’s current location), or to control whether and how to receive content from the content server that may be more relevant to the searcher

We are also told some data may become treated (e.g., by the content server) in ways before it gets stored or used to remove personally identifiable information.

A searcher’s identity may get treated so that no personally identifiable information can become determined for the searcher, or a searcher’s geographic location may get generalized where location information gets obtained (such as a city, ZIP code, or state level) so that a particular location of a searcher cannot get determined.

Thus, a searcher may control how information becomes collected (e.g., by an application, by client devices, etc.) and used by a content server. The content providers may get provided with similar control options about collecting and using content provider data. This means data associated with particular content providers, data extracted from a resource, etc.

Third Party Content Item Selected As Relevant

A Content server selects a third-party content item determined to be relevant to a particular first-party resource, client device, or search query.

For example, the content server may select a content item by comparing the keywords associated with each content item. Those content items specified by content providers, additional keywords extracted from the content item, etc. This method will also look at the keywords associated with the first-party resource or client device requesting the third-party content item. If the first-party resource is a search results page, a set of query terms may get used to establish keywords for the resource. The Content server may receive a set of query terms from the search engine and use the query terms to select a third-party content item related to the search query. The selected third-party content item may become presented on the search results page with first-party search results identified by a search engine.

The content server may select a third-party content item by comparing the keywords associated with each content item with information (e.g., profile data, searcher interests, searcher preferences, etc.) associated with a particular client device requesting the content item. The content server may select a content item based on searcher profile information independent from a particular client device. If a client device gets logged into an online account or profile, information associated with the account or profile (e.g., demographic information, searcher interests, searcher preferences, etc.) may get used to select a content item for distribution to the client device.

A client device may become associated with searchers, searcher accounts, and searcher profiles. The content server selects a third-party content item that does not match established searcher preferences if an insufficient number of preferred content items are available. And the content server may select a third-party content item based on:

• An established click-through-rate
• A predicted click-through-rate
• A bid price associated with each content item
• Other relevant selection criteria

The selected third-party content item gets transmitted to resources for presentation to client devices and first-party content. The selected third-party content item gets provided to a search engine for inclusion in a list of search results. And the selected content item gets delivered to the client devices (e.g., without first transmitting the content item to resources) from the content server or data storage devices.

The Content server may assign each third-party content item a unique identifier (e.g., a signature attribute) for measuring or recording searcher interactions with distributed content items. Each third-party content item may include many textual portions, such as a title with an embedded hyperlink, a visible URL associated with the hyperlink, and a text snippet. The text snippet may be an ad creative or other descriptive text associated with the third-party content item.

Search Engine as Part of The Computer System

The computer system gets shown to include a search engine.

The search engine may be configured to receive a search query (e.g., a string of text) from client devices via an input feature (e.g., an input text box, etc.).

That Search engine may parse a search query to identify query terms.

For example, if a client device submits the text string “cheap flowers bay area,” the search engine may identify the query terms “cheap,” “flowers,” “bay,” and “area.” It would know that those words existed on an inverted index for that page. The search engine may use various techniques to expand the searcher-submitted query terms. Those techniques may include:

• Identifying synonyms of the searcher-submitted query terms
• Adjusting the pluralization of the searcher-submitted query terms
• Identifying more terms that are semantically equal to the searcher-submitted query terms

Query Expansion Techniques

The patent tells us that the search engine may use query expansion techniques such as latent semantic indexing (LSI) to identify the query terms that have the same meaning as the searcher-submitted query terms.

For example, the search engine may identify the term “inexpensive” as a synonym for the query term “cheap.”

That search engine may identify the term “florist” as a semantic equivalent of the term “flowers” since the original query implies that the searcher is searching for a vendor that sells cheap flowers. That would be from a florist.

A Search engine may identify the term “flower” as a singular version of the term “flowers.”

And a search engine would correct misspellings in the original query and suggests alternative query terms based on the original query.

It is also possible that a Search engine may generate a set of query terms that includes both the original query terms and any expanded terms based on the original query.

A Data Structure to Respond to Queries

Even more complicated. A search engine may generate a data structure, such as an array, a vector, a list, etc., representing the generated set of query terms.

Each of the query terms may get stored as a separate element of the data structure.

For example, if a client device submits the text string “cheap flowers bay area,” the search engine may generate the following data structure: {cheap, inexpensive, flower, flowers, florist, bay, area} where the query terms “cheap,” “flowers,” “bay,” and “area” are part of the original search string and the query terms “inexpensive,” “flower,” and “florist” become expanded terms added to the set of query terms by a search engine.

A search engine may search an index of first-party resources (e.g., documents, webpages, etc.) for relevant first-party search results using the generated set of query terms.

That search engine may identify search results relevant to the set of query terms. The search engine formats each search result to include many textual portions. Each search result may include a:

• Title with an embedded hyperlink to a first-party resource determined to be relevant to the query terms
• Visible URL displaying a part of the URL associated with hyperlink
• Descriptive text snippet extracted from the associated first-party resource or provided by a third-party content provider

The Search engine may select or generate the title and the descriptive text snippet based on the content of the associated first-party resource.

The various textual portions of the search result may include the set of query terms.

The Search engine may provide the search results to a search result enhancement system to highlight a selection of the query terms that appear in the textual portions of the search result.

Enhancing Search Results Pages

The search engine may generate a search results page that includes the highlighted search results.

The search results page may get provided to the client device in response to the search query.

That search engine may provide the set of query terms to the content server in conjunction with a request for third-party content items related to the search query.

The content item request may include more information, such as the searcher device information, the resource information, many content items, a format for the content items, the search query string, keywords of the search query string, information related to the query (e.g., geographic location information and temporal information), or other parameters that may get used by the content server to select relevant/suitable third-party content items.

Also, the Content server may select third-party content items as described above and provide the selected items to the search engine for presentation in a content item slot of the search result page. A delineation may get made between the first-party search results and the third-party content items to avert confusion.

A Search Results Enhancement System

A Computer system includes a search result enhancement system. This search result enhancement system may become configured to receive search results from the search engine and the content server and perform a highlighting operation to highlight query terms in the search results.

That search result enhancement system may be a component of content server, search engine, client devices (e.g., integrated with a web browser application executing on client devices), or a separate system. The content server, search engine, and search result enhancement system may be components of a single integrated system.

Also, the search result enhancement system includes the functionality of the content server and the search engine. For example, a search result enhancement system may receive a search query submitted by a client device and generate a set of query terms based on the search query.

The search result enhancement system may identify search results (e.g., first-party resources, third-party content items) based on the query terms.

The Enhancing Search Results System Receives A Set of Pre-Identified Search Results and Query Term

The search result enhancement system receives pre-identified search results and query terms from the content server and the search engine. Each search result may include a first textual part (e.g., a title) and a second (e.g., a text snippet).

In the first textual part, the search result enhancement system highlights each set of query terms that appear in the first textual part. That search result enhancement system may then highlight, in the second textual part, each of the set of query terms that appear in the second textual part but do not appear in the first textual part.

Each set of query terms that appears in the first textual part may get highlighted in the first. Any of the query terms that appear in the second textual part may get highlighted in the second textual part only if such terms are not highlighted in the first textual part.

A Multi-Stage Highlighting Process To Identify And Highlight Query Terms In The Search Results

Also, the search result enhancement system performs a multi-stage highlighting process to identify and highlight query terms in the search results. The search result enhancement system may perform a first highlighting operation for each query term in the set of query terms.

The first highlighting operation may include determining whether the query term occurs in the first textual part.

For each query term that occurs in the first textual part, the first highlighting operation may include highlighting the query term in the first textual part, It can also mean modifying the query terms by removing the query term from the set of query terms.

This system may perform a second highlighting operation for each query term remaining in the modified set of query terms after the first highlighting operation.

The second highlighting operation may include determining whether the query term occurs in the second textual part.

For each remaining query term in the second textual part, the second highlighting operation may include highlighting the query term in the second textual part.

Enhancing search results identifies the set of query terms as the first set of query terms.

The system may highlight occurrences of each of the first set of query terms in the search result’s first portion.

It may generate a second set of query terms, including each of the query terms highlighted in the first portion of the search result.

Also, the enhancing search results system may generate a third set of query terms, including each of the first set of query terms not included in the second set of query terms.

This enhancing search results system may highlight occurrences of each of the third set of query terms in the second part of the search result.

Highlighting Query Terms For The Enhancing Search Results System

The highlighting operations performed by the enhancing search results system may include modifying a search result to make certain portions of the search result more noticeable when the search result gets displayed to a searcher.

For example, highlighting a query term in a search result may include:

• Bolding the query term
• Underlining the query term
• Italicizing the query term
• Increasing a display size of the query term
• Changing a display color the query term
• Applying any other highlighting and emphasizing effect to the query term

The search result may become represented using HTML code, and the search result enhancement system highlights a query term in a search result by adding HTML tags around the query term.

For example, search result enhancement system may insert:

• Bold tags (i.e., <b>query_term</b>)
• Emphasized text tags (i.e., <em>query_term</em>)
• Italics tags (i.e., <i>query_term</i>)
• Strong text tags (i.e., <strong>query_term</strong>)
• Marked tags (i.e., <mark>query_term</mark>)
• Other types of HTML tags around a query term in the HTML code of the search result to highlight the query term

The enhancing search results system uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to highlight query terms in the search results.

It also may insert span tags (or any other HTML tag) around a query term with a CSS attribute (e.g., style, id, class, etc.), enhancing the query term within the tag.

For instance the enhancing search results system may insert the following HTML tag around a query term in the HTML code of a search result: query_term where the “property” parameter defines a property of the CSS style attribute and the “type” parameter defines a specific type of the property. For example, “font-family:verdana,” “font-size:160%,” “color:red,” “background-color:yellow,” etc.).

That Search result enhancement system may use inline styling. This uses the “style” attribute in HTML elements. It can also use internal styling. This can use the <style> element in the <head> section of the HTML document. The patent also tells us about the use of external styling. These would be the use of external CSS files. There could also be any other type of styling to highlight query terms in the search results.

Also, the system may be enhancing search results by inserting HTML tags around specified query terms and sending the modified search results to client devices for rendering and presentation to a searcher.

About Bill Slawski

With more than 26 years of SEO experience and a Juris Doctor Degree, Bill Slawski is the foremost expert on Google’s patents as related to SEO. Patent Exploration is one of the quickest and most detailed ways to find new information about SEO. Bill is the Editor of SEO by the Sea, a prominent search engine optimization blog, where he is the author of over 1,300 posts. Bill’s experience includes Fortune 500 brands and some of the largest websites in the world. Bill is a contributing author for Moz, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal. In 2014-2021, he spoke at industry-leading international conferences about topics including search engine algorithms, universal and blended search, personalization in search, search and social, and duplicate content problems, structured data, and schema