How does a Google search work? If you are a company looking to have a formidable online presence, you will need to know how to be found. And one way, which could arguably be the best way, to do that is to know how Google searches work. This is a tool everyone uses to find relevant information online, and it is also one of the most vital things a digital marketer should have a good grasp of.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand it now! It’s actually quite simple. In this article, you will learn why you should care about Google Search, how search engines work, and how your business can be found on Google.
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Why Should You Care About Google Search?
Any business who has a website or whose traffic could depend on their online presence should care about Google searches. Even if you have a physical store and depend on foot traffic, it can still benefit you to learn about Google search and how to use it to your advantage. That is because people use search engines for most things.
For instance, if someone wants to look for places to eat that are nearby, they will most likely use Google Search. If you owned a restaurant, you would want to have your business website on Google Maps or registered on any other relevant sites like Yelp. By not having an online presence, you could be missing out on potential customers.
What is the Google Search Engine?
Basically, it is a web search engine developed by Google. It is a powerful tool commonly used to find information online, and it’s something any business can use to their advantage. But how?
How Does a Google Search Work?
The Google search engine works by using things called “spiders” to crawl the web. This means that it uses bots to take in information about the websites it looks at. It will look at everything, such as the text, to determine who you are and who your audience is. Then Google will index it all by putting that information in a database and use that to create relevant results for search entries. It will then rank your site based on a user’s query. Its efficiency and accuracy of search results is what makes Google the most popular search engine in the world, according to Oberlo.
Did you know that there are all kinds of advanced tricks for searching on Google you can take advantage of, too?
What Factors Does Google Take Into Account?
Google’s search engine looks for a variety of things when evaluating a website’s true worth, such as authoritativeness and relevance.
Authoritativeness looks at how often a site is referenced or linked to. A good example of an authoritative site would be an academic resource. The rationale is that a site that is referenced multiple times must have more credibility. Links play a very important role in determining this. Relevance looks at how well your site matches up with the user’s query or needs. It will also look to see how well the contents of the links line up with your own. For instance, if your page’s content is about food, but the linked site’s contents concerned furniture, that would hurt your ranking. Within the content, it will look for key terms and the organization of the content. That is why search engine optimization is so important.
Google is also using Rankbrain to help hone its algorithm. Rankbrain uses AI technology to help better understand the context and bridge the connection between links and the page’s contents.
What is the Google Search Console?
Another useful tool for helping get your business found on Google is the Google Search Console. The Google Search Console is a free service that provides you with access to valuable data on your site and who visits it. Some of its most common uses are that it helps Google crawl and index your site, review security concerns, among other things. For instance, it can show you what content you published was the most popular. It can also show you what your most popular traffic channels are. In short, the Google Search Console is very versatile and you should consider using it if you are serious about having an online presence on Google’s search engine.
How Do I Start Using It?
It is fairly simple to start using Google search console. First, you will need to create an account on Google. Then go to Google Webmaster Tools to “add a property.” Then choose “website” and add your website’s URL. After that, you will need to verify your ownership. Finally, you can start to use its features!
What is Search Intent?
If you want your business to be found on Google, you’ll need to know about search intent. Search intent, quite simply, is the reason why the user made a certain search query. It takes into account the person’s motivation in searching for something.
Why Does This Matter?
If it has nothing to do with search engine optimization or the technical aspects of ranking, then why does it matter? It matters because relevancy matters, and thy why behind is what fuels this relevancy. It is something Google understands very well, which is why it is more widely used than Bing or Yahoo. And because it’s important to Google, it should be important to you.
The Four Main Types of Search Intent
There are a few main kinds of search intent that should be noted. The first type is information, where a user just needs to find information on something. The second type is navigational, meaning the user already knows what their destination is. The third type is transactional, where the user is looking to buy a service or a good. And the final type is commercial investigation, where a user wants to conduct their own research before deciding whether or not to purchase something.
How Do I Determine the Type of Intent?
The answer to this can be derived from the keywords used in the query and also via the search engine results page (SERP). You can infer the answer by examining the query because it may often say the motivation explicitly. For example, a query of “where to buy a MacBook” could be interpreted as commercial investigation or transactional depending on the user.
Intent can also be determined from the SERP features such as video results, snippets, shopping results, related questions, etc. These usually give hints to the intent. For instance, if I searched something and shopping results came up, then I can be fairly certain that the intent for the search is usually transactional in nature.
But these are not hard and fast guidelines. SERPS may not be indicative at all of the search intent and oftentimes, the intent can be more than one type.
How Can I Use Search Intent to Help My Business?
You can use search intent to help your business by looking to see what the intent is for the kind of content you want to create. Some examples of this can include landing pages, product pages, and category pages. For instance, do your keywords show evidence that there is informational intent? If so, you may want to write a blog post about the topic, as opposed to creating a product page or using some other form of medium.
Next, you will want to optimize for the content format. Some examples of these formats are list posts, reviews, comparisons, and opinion articles. In order to determine this, you type in your query and see what comes up at the top of the page. If the first five results are all “how to” guides, then that is probably the format that you want.
After that, you will want to determine the content angle or your value proposition. If you search for “buying jeans” and the price tag is consistently popping up, then the price may be an important factor in what people are looking for. Again, here is where you should optimize for SEO.
Additional Tips
Here are some additional tips and tricks for using the SERP features to your advantage:
- Address the questions in the “people also ask” box in your content
- Look for content gaps in the queries and address those
- Analyze the top-ranking page’s content to see what people want directly
What Do I Do If My Website Still Is Not Ranking?
Perhaps you’ve done all the steps and even after a while, are still not seeing results. It could be because you need to update your site, Google’s algorithm changed, or because of something else entirely. Whatever the case may be, time is of the essence. It has become increasingly important for a company to have an online presence and can easily be found. If not, the risk is that you lose exposure to your brand and potential leads.
To avoid these repercussions, you may want to enlist the help of professional digital marketers or a digital marketing agency. They will have the knowledge and experience needed to navigate Google’s algorithm and lead your website to rank at the top of the search engine results page. Contact SEO Design Chicago today for help improving your Google search ranking!
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