It had to happen sooner or later- through prior browsing history, emails, links in emails and your general search trends- Google is slowly learning about you. In an effort to return the best, most relevant search results as accurately as possible first time round… Google strives to understand you- and what you really want.
They do this by logging and computing what you search for, whether or not you bounced right out of that page and went to search for longer-tailed keywords- they have their ways of knowing whether or not the match was right.
The message of this post- is that people are getting better acquainted with using search engines, and search engines are understanding user intent just that little bit better.
Much like a personal assistant would!
When you ask your P.A. for a coffee, they will know whether you want milk, whitener or sweetener- and how much of each. Google might not be there yet- but that day will come. I can see the day when you order something through an app, and Google drops you some suggestions based on recent searches… so your barista can put this new idea together for you as you double-park outside the café.
There’s little doubt that 2013 was a big year in terms of shakeups and changes, in the way Google did business. Websites with thin pages were hit; those guys from developing nations selling cheap, bulk links suddenly caused their clients to crash and burn, right off the dreaded edge of the online world.
The silent, stoic practitioners of ethical SEO were rewarded, their rankings shot up overnight, because their competitors fell.
Penguin left people running for cover- buying adwords in an attempt to regain lost business. PPC sales and keyword competition went higher, a whole new army of once-organic placeholders now came armed with credit cards, ready to buy their way back onto page 1.
Here’s what’s changed- and why it matters to you.
It’s no longer smart, cunning or cool to practice crazy linking techniques, as this will only get you pushed firmly off the map.
We’re entering what is really just the very beginning of transparent, accountable behaviour online.
Suddenly who you are and what you say really matters.
What also matters, is what you’ve searched for in the past, the websites you’ve visited, email discussions and communities you’ve participated in… all these things help fuel Google’s ever growing knowledge graph which strives to understand how the different points of data on the internet relate specifically to your search query, in the context of your world.
As the knowledge graph learns more and more about your queries’ contextual meaning and the sorts of things you’re really looking for, it takes on the role of a personal assistant, by getting it right more often. Many times, the answer to your question will be presented right there on the first page without you even having to click through one of the blue links.
If you think that’s really cool you should take a look at the article on the relationship between semantic search and SEO to learn about how Google intends to “get it”- when you know what you want, but your instructions in the little search box might not always be clear.
They do this by logging and computing what you search for, whether or not you bounced right out of that page and went to search for longer-tailed keywords- they have their ways of knowing whether or not the match was right.
The message of this post- is that people are getting better acquainted with using search engines, and search engines are understanding user intent just that little bit better.
Much like a personal assistant would!
When you ask your P.A. for a coffee, they will know whether you want milk, whitener or sweetener- and how much of each. Google might not be there yet- but that day will come. I can see the day when you order something through an app, and Google drops you some suggestions based on recent searches… so your barista can put this new idea together for you as you double-park outside the café.
There’s little doubt that 2013 was a big year in terms of shakeups and changes, in the way Google did business. Websites with thin pages were hit; those guys from developing nations selling cheap, bulk links suddenly caused their clients to crash and burn, right off the dreaded edge of the online world.
The silent, stoic practitioners of ethical SEO were rewarded, their rankings shot up overnight, because their competitors fell.
Penguin left people running for cover- buying adwords in an attempt to regain lost business. PPC sales and keyword competition went higher, a whole new army of once-organic placeholders now came armed with credit cards, ready to buy their way back onto page 1.
Here’s what’s changed- and why it matters to you.
It’s no longer smart, cunning or cool to practice crazy linking techniques, as this will only get you pushed firmly off the map.
We’re entering what is really just the very beginning of transparent, accountable behaviour online.
Suddenly who you are and what you say really matters.
What also matters, is what you’ve searched for in the past, the websites you’ve visited, email discussions and communities you’ve participated in… all these things help fuel Google’s ever growing knowledge graph which strives to understand how the different points of data on the internet relate specifically to your search query, in the context of your world.
As the knowledge graph learns more and more about your queries’ contextual meaning and the sorts of things you’re really looking for, it takes on the role of a personal assistant, by getting it right more often. Many times, the answer to your question will be presented right there on the first page without you even having to click through one of the blue links.
If you think that’s really cool you should take a look at the article on the relationship between semantic search and SEO to learn about how Google intends to “get it”- when you know what you want, but your instructions in the little search box might not always be clear.