Tag Archives: search marketing

Give the Right Answers and Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

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Google is constantly coming up with ways to present the most appropriate content to its users.

Over the years, although the basic mechanism of ranking websites and links is underpinned by their algorithm, they are more and more shifting towards data gathered from human behavior.

No matter how advanced AI becomes, there are some fundamental mind -related phenomena that are only manifest among humans.

This is why, Google takes into account social validation when ranking your webpages and blog posts.

Keyword optimization is fine and as of now, it is still one of the most important aspects of SEO, but more important is how people perceive your content.

What is their reaction?

What do they derive out of your content?

How many people share your link on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and how they engage with your content on various social networking websites?

In the recent “Whiteboard Friday”, Rand Fishkin of Moz talks about another feature that Google is gradually rolling out (may have already rolled out): “Search Task Accomplishment”.

Rand says that “Search Task Accomplishment” may be the most powerful ranking factor. The term doesn’t exactly come from Google but the intention is the same.

“Search Task Accomplishment” means providing exactly what a Google user is looking for.

When people are looking for something on Google, they are trying to accomplish something. They have a question, they are looking for an answer. They have a problem, they want to solve that problem. They want some information, and they want to get that information. Does your content respond accordingly?

In the whiteboard session, Rand uses the example of a search term “disinfect a cut”: what does a person want to achieve when he searches for this phrase?

The most likely answer is that there is a cut and the person wants to disinfect it.

If you have got a webpage or blog post that can help him disinfect a cut, you have provided a solution to his problem and hence, Google deems your content good and valuable.

What happens when someone searches for information on Google? Rand has explained on the whiteboard in running handwriting, but I have created the flow of activities using an image editor.

Typical-search-flow

This is what happens when a typical search takes place:

  1. The person uses an expression (need) to carry out search
  2. He has an underlying goal: what is the intention of searching for that particular phrase or bit of information?
  3. He evaluates the search results where your link appears
  4. He clicks on your link
  5. He evaluates your content and decides whether your content gives him the answer he is looking for, or not
  6. He discovers additional information for his additional needs on your link

But you may ask, “if my link isn’t showing up in Google, how is the person going to access my content in order to be able to evaluate it?”

Your search results are not dependent upon your link only. If right now your link shows up at position 23 in the results, all the links above you must be having something that makes them rank higher than your link, right?

Suppose, one of the links, not satisfying Google’s “Search Task Accomplishment” factor, begins to rank lower. Your ranking will automatically improve one notch. This is assuming that your content is of top quality and satisfies the “Search Task Accomplishment” factor in one or another way.

If more and more websites fail this new benchmark, your link begins to move up.

Then, some people go beyond the first page on search results. Maybe they find your link on the second or third page and find the information they’re looking for – Google has a way of figuring out whether someone finds useful information on your link or not.

The more people are happy with your link, the better are your search engine rankings. Your rankings begin to improve and you start inching towards the top 10 results.

If these changes are happening – Rand says that they are definitely happening – then you should start focusing on providing answers through your content.

Create webpages and blog posts that provide an answer to precisely the question a typical Google user is searching for.

Coming back to the “disinfect a cut” example; suppose on your link, instead of telling the person how to disinfect a cut, you go on a rant about how one of your cuts were infected and how scared you were and how you were on the brink of losing your finger. Touching it may be, and the person may even empathize with you, but if you are not telling that person exactly how you were able to disinfect a cut, your content does not provide a solution and hence, doesn’t stand a chance of ranking high.

Why content marketing is important for your business

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Content marketing is a misunderstood terminology. It has got nothing to do with conventional marketing where you keep on pushing your messages and then wait for response.

There is often some confusion regarding why you need content regularly and why it needs to be marketed through proper channels. Unlike your brick and mortar business, the game is totally different on the web. You cannot compete on the Internet on the strength of your money, market reach and off-line reputation. You need to have a presence, and you need to have a convincing presence, and only high-quality content gives you that presence.

On your website or your blog, you cannot directly communicate with your visitors unless you are constantly online and are using a webcam or a chat interface to talk to individual visitors (this is feasible, but only up to a certain point). Your web pages, and what they contain, become your representatives, your voice on your online presence. So your content helps you communicate.

But this is not the only reason you require ongoing content and subsequent content marketing. You also require content to

  • Strengthen and establish your brand
  • Generate traffic from social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook
  • Improve your search engine rankings
  • Establish yourself as an authority
  • Keep your visitors/customers/clients informed
  • Provide answers to the most common questions regarding your business
  • Keep on communicating with your prospective and present customers and clients so that they remember you when they need the product or the service you provide
  • Give your visitors a reason to visit your website or blog regularly

Why content marketing

After you start publishing on your website, people need to know about it. Since there are zillions of pages and blog posts on the Internet it is practically impossible to publish 50-60 odd web pages or blog posts and then expect the traffic to pour down from all over the Internet. Some people may have 500-600 web pages or blog posts, and some may even have thousands of them. So in terms of quantity and quality, you are in a constant competition on the Internet, and the good thing is you need to compete constantly. Why I say this is a good thing is because then everybody gets a chance to compete on the strength of his or her ability to produce and market high-quality content. This way, even while working from your basement, in your undergarments, you can compete with as big a company as Forbes by producing better content and marketing it properly.

In order to compete, along with publishing relevant information you also need to market it. You need to highlight it and promote it where people can see it. Here are a few things you can do in the effort of content marketing without spending much money:

  • Search engine optimize your content: Although this comes under search marketing, basically it is content marketing. With the help of your content you are trying to promote your business on various search engines. If you are able to optimize your content, it is going to rank well on major and minor search engines and this can bring you tons of traffic. Choose the right keywords, pack your articles and blog posts with as much information as possible, and make them as helpful as possible.
  • Write for other websites and blog posts: You can publish articles on article directories (although they are losing their charm over search engine rankings because there are 100s of such article directories). A better thing to do is write blog posts as guest blogger for reputed blogs. This might not be easy so first you will have to interact on the blogs and let the blog publishers become familiar with you. Many start-up companies use this content marketing tactic with great success by publishing blog posts on tech blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch.
  • Maintain an active social media presence: This may include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or YouTube. These days your website may get traffic from multiple sources and you need to maintain a vibrant presence over these places. Regularly interact with your friends and followers on social networking websites and generate content for social media websites like YouTube and Tumblr. Lots of content is shared and passed around using these platforms and you never know which of your links might go viral.

These are but a few ways you can carry out your content marketing effort. As mentioned above, content marketing is important for your business because first of all content is important for your business, and second, you need to make as many people aware of the existence of your content as possible.