About This Result is SEO gold

You’ve gotta love Google. (Honest.)

Every so often they do huge launches with loads of PR that tell us… precisely nothing.

Then, on other days, they release understated little blogs that are pure Google Gold.

This week, Google did just that.

At first glance, a product manager’s post on an update to the obscure little ‘About this Result’ panel might not appear particularly interesting, to anyone other than Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) geeks.

Wrong.

If you’re a ‘dabbler’, a small time player just trying to do your marketing a little bit better, then This Is Dynamite. It’s Gold Dust. An Absolute Gem. Brilliant.

Now, if you know anything about me, you know I want to democratise great marketing. And this? This tool democratises great SEO. I’ll leave it to your imagination just quite how excited I got about this.

A little bit of background

To say that Google is tight-lipped about how it ranks pages is a bit like saying that Jeff Bezos has a wee bit of spare cash.

The Google algorithm is one of the most powerful tools in the world. Since its early days there has been a continual game of cat and mouse between the marketers who want to ‘beat’ the algorithm; and the Google developers whose raison d’etre is to prevent the algorithm being gamed.

Which is probably why what makes up the Google algorithm is even more mysterious than Area 51.

But then this

In the words of Google Product Manager Elizabeth Tucker: “Now, there’s a quick and easy way to see useful context about how Google returned results for your query, and to find helpful tips to get more out of Google Search.”

The update is badged as useful for people searching - but it’s real value is for those trying to understand how to make their pages do well in search results.

Most Google results now have an ‘About this result’ panel. (You can access it via the three dots next to the search result.)

The new feature is being rolled out and isn’t available everywhere yet. But, when it’s rolled out in your region, in that panel you’ll see a section called: “Your search and this result”.

Which, Tucker says: “Will show searchers information about some of these most important factors used by Google Search to connect results to their queries.”

This level of transparency is significant for two reasons.

1) You can see what’s important to Google. Which means that you can create content that you're confident will tick Google’s boxes.

2) Keyword research just got a whole lot more simple.

Here’s how.

‘About this result’

The example Tucker uses lists four factors that threw up the search result.

Matching keywords: Quite simply, the words in your search term that match words in the text of the search result.

Related terms: Google uses the example that “If you search ‘how to cook fish in the oven,’ we’ll also look for pages that have related terms like ‘bake’ and ‘recipe’.”

Looking at links: If other people have linked to a page, it indicates that other people found it useful.

Local relevance: The language you searched in, your country and location are all important. Tucker’s example is “If you search ‘what day is trash pickup?,’ it’s helpful to get results that are applicable to your city or state”. (Just in case you thought that Google tracking your location and every move was creepy…)

The key takeaway: if your website isn’t taking into account keywords, related terms, link building and local search, then it’s time for a review.

How to use this to improve your ethical marketing

‘Keyword research’ is a significant reason why so many people run in fear from SEO.

But this takes the mystique out of that. And it goes further - it teaches us how to ‘do’ great SEO.

• The matching keywords is a great tool. For any search, we can look at the keywords that Google has matched, and then go to the pages at the top of the results. We’ll quickly get an intuitive feel for what Google is prioritising: how often those words appear, where they appear, in what order, how close together, the importance of keywords appearing in headings…

• Related terms is perhaps the most exciting part of this update. Understanding related terms is priceless for good SEO. But unless you know where to start, that can feel pretty daunting. This panel gets you started. It simplifies related words, and produces great prompts… all without leaving your search page.

• Gaining links coming to your site (‘link building’) can seem intimidating, or impossible - putting yourself out there, asking (relevant) people to link to you and so on. I’m just going to leave it here - this is how important (good) links are to Google.

Why it matters

Search Engine Optimisation is one of my four ‘marketing must haves’. It doesn’t need to be swish or fancy, it doesn’t need to take a ton of resource. But having a website without thinking about simple SEO is a bit like having an email list and never sending an email.

But talk to marketers and they make SEO all about ‘secret sauce’ and magical nuggets that only they can intuitively understand. Marketing is treated like a dark art - and SEO gurus are the worst offenders.

That’s why I love this new panel.

It makes SEO accessible, understandable and simple. It demystifies it. It shows that, basically, Google is really good at matching what people search for with good results.

It shows that there’s no need for sorcery and ‘beating’ the algorithm. That, if you write clearly about something that searchers want to discover, then Google is your friend.

-At the time of writing, ‘About your result’ is in the process of being rolled out, starting in the US and in English. It’s likely to be universal pretty quickly.

-Want to find out more about some simple ways to boost your SEO? You’re welcome.

-If you found this article useful, please do share it and maybe even link to it… see this link building malarkey isn’t so hard :-)