What the New Google Search Essentials Tells Us About SEO
Let’s talk about Google Search and how it works. I’m not just interested in “how” part of it, but also the “why.” What does Google want to accomplish with this new algorithm? And why is it important for you to know about?
The more you know about what makes a site rank well in search results, the better you can optimize your site for search traffic. This post will give an overview of the most important factors that influence SEO rankings.
The new Search Essentials is about focusing on the user.
The new Search Essentials is about focusing on the user.
Google wants to give users the best possible search results, and they want to make it easier for users to find the information they are looking for. They also want to help users get their questions answered or find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.
It’s okay to ask questions, but know what you need to know.
- Ask questions to find out what you need to know
- Make sure you understand the question, and ask for clarification if needed
- Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no
- Don’t ask questions that are too broad
Hummingbird is still a thing.
If you’re interested in SEO and have been following Google search trends, the name “Hummingbird” may sound familiar. Hummingbird is a search algorithm update that was released by Google in 2013 and made it possible for users to ask more complex questions such as “What is the best pizza restaurant near me?” or “Where can I find a good steakhouse?”
If you haven’t heard of it before now, don’t worry—Google has just revealed new details about how they’re changing their indexing system again. With this update comes even more information on what Hummingbird is all about and how we should approach the next few years of SEO.
RankBrain is a factor in Google’s algorithm.
RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm that Google uses to help it rank search results for English queries. It’s not a ranking factor, but it can influence rankings.
RankBrain is set up to be language-agnostic as well—it has been trained on numerous languages and is built to be able to understand them all.
Mobile-first indexing is coming.
Google hasn’t announced the date that mobile-first indexing will roll out, but it has said it will be sometime in the coming months. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about this change:
- Mobile-first indexing only affects mobile searches. It doesn’t affect desktop or tablet searches.
- If you’re making changes based on this algorithm and they don’t apply specifically to mobile devices, they won’t make any difference once mobile-first indexing is live.
- The timing of your site’s update matters when it comes to SEO because Google wants its users to have a great experience with their search engine—and if a page takes too long to load (especially on a slow connection), users may get frustrated and simply give up searching altogether! This makes performance critical for SEO success.”
Structure data and schema are important for making your site more visible in search results.
Google has recently launched a new series of videos explaining how to improve your search presence, called Google Search Essentials. In this video, we learn that schema.org is a type of markup language used by Google to help understand your content and better serve up relevant search results for users. To get started using schema.org, you can visit their site and follow the instructions there.
Featured snippets can be a big boost for CTR.
- Featured snippets, which show up as answers to search queries in a box at the top of Google’s results, can be a big boost for CTR. While it may have been hard to get featured snippets before, now it looks like you could get one just by having strong content and good SEO practices.*
- If you don’t have featured snippets, however, you should still take advantage of this opportunity by promoting the webpage where your content lives on social media and through other channels. You should also try to improve your website’s SEO so that it appears higher in organic search results.*
- Featured snippets are especially useful because they can lead users directly to information they want without having to click through multiple pages on your site or try other sites first (as long as those sites aren’t penalized). This means more traffic for you—and if that traffic converts well into leads or sales (or even just awareness), then even better! It’s no wonder why many companies are taking steps toward improving their SEO tactics around these little boxes.*
Keep your content updated (and make sure Google knows it).
- Keep your content updated. Google wants to know that you’re keeping your content up-to-date, so make sure it’s not just live but also regularly changed and updated.
- Make sure Google knows your site has been updated by adding a new tag in the header of every page on your website. You can use this tool to check if there are any errors or issues with these tags: [link](https://www.checkmylinks.com/). This will help Google understand that these pages are unique from one another, which is important for determining search engine rankings and relevancy in SERPs (search engine results pages).
Make sure you’re paying attention to these factors if you want to get the most out of Google search
Google is constantly changing the way their search engine works, and these updates can have a major impact on how your website performs. While it’s important to stay up-to-date on these changes, it’s also important not to get too bogged down by them.
When analyzing the new Google Search Essentials data, here are some key things you should keep in mind:
- Understand what factors influence your ranking in search results. This will help you understand which areas of your site need improvement, so that you can focus on improving those areas first and foremost rather than wasting time optimizing something that won’t make much of an impact (or is highly unlikely).
- Make sure all of the pages on your website are optimized for mobile users. It’s increasingly important for websites to be optimized for mobile users because this is where most people consume content nowadays—and because mobile users tend to bounce around more quickly than desktop users do (they tend not only spend less time on one page but also don’t go back as often).
Conclusion
The good news is that Search Essentials is really about focusing on the user and making sure your site delivers what people are looking for. This means that SEO is still an important skill to have, even if it isn’t as complicated as it once was. If you’re struggling with your SEO strategy or just need some help getting started, we can help! Contact us today so we can put together a plan to make sure your site gets found by Google’s bots and ranks higher than its competitors.