What’s up with Google? Just ask King Kong

Most people around town know that we are “SEO experts.” (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.) But in 2013 we took a turn away from SEO after 10 years of having that be our core competency. What the heck is going on with us – and with Google?

It used to be that you could conduct some solid keyword research, and then force-feed the gigantic search engine with well-placed keywords written with just the right density and in the most prominent positions and, very legitimately, win favor (read: high rankings) with Google. We became past masters at this credible and proven way of achieving dominance in search results.

But honestly, now you don’t need to stack the deck in your favor on search. Google is so far ahead of you linguistically, it can simply ‘tell’ what your page is about without any neon arrows or welcome mats or bait of any kind. I’ve come to understand that Google is a linguist, not a geek.

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At its core, Google is an English professor. So if you write naturally, at length, and with plenty of synonyms in your highly focused article or Web page about a singular topic – Google’s got you. They perceive the sense of the piece and, given enough verbiage on the page, will likely consider you a subject-matter expert and honor you with rankings – at least locally.

Other factors always have come into play in winning Google’s favor: things such as inbound links (sites pointing to your site that are themselves popular places and are relevant to your topic) and tags (the title and description tags that make up the ‘answer’ on a search results page).

But content has always been king – or, as I say, “King Kong!”

So we don’t promote ourselves as SEO experts anymore. We think it’s disingenuous now to attest to that as a core focus. Google’s gotten far ahead of SEO’ers. Sure we know what rings Google’s chimes. It’s copy. Text on the page – finely honed and silo’ed to be about just one topic per URL address.

Google calls it latent semantic indexing. We call it copywriting. And we’ve written copy expertly and with a focus on conversions of visitors from the year dot.

Google’s got you covered. This should come as good news to small businesses everywhere.

Now for some more amazing news, especially for searchers.

Google is becoming a more advanced search engine, introducing the biggest shift in its algorithms in the last 12 years.

It’s called “Hummingbird” and it is poised to make Google an answer engine, instead of just a search engine. “Designed to be more precise and provide faster query results, the algorithm is based on semantic search, focusing on user intent versus individual search terms.”

The concept is that when you ask a question on Google, you’ll be given insight, not just a website that might possibly address your implicit concern.

Example: How many times does a swallow have to beat its wings to maintain air speed velocity? Google will answer back, “43 times.” How does Google know that it’s the right answer and feel confident in providing that to you? It has fine-tuned its algorithm to find specific answers to specific questions throughout the Web. In this case, there is a verbatim movie script from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in which a knight poses that question and the troll answers exactly as stated.

Based on conversational search, that is getting the ‘sense’ of your query, looking at your past searches and even your usual behavior on the Internet, Google would have good reason to have confidence in giving the number 43 as the answer FOR YOU. Maybe they would give an ornithographer a different first result.

Here’s another. What is the year dot? What is its etymology? The phrase may originate from a representation of the zero’th year – that is, the point between 1 A.D. and 1 B.C. (as there is no year 0). Right now you have to dig into online dictionaries to discover that “truth.” But with Hummingbird it will be answered confidently right on the search results page.

These were simplistic examples to make a point, and there will be many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. But imagine the implications of this massive change, which began to take effect, query by query, earlier this fall. It will make the Google of 2001 seem remedial, even absurd. No wonder their stock prices just went over $1,000 a share.

It might be advantageous in future to put much more emphasis on Q&As and FAQs on your website and be found by being ultra-informative. Start thinking of the common questions in your industry and beat competitors to rankings based on ample answers you provide on your website. Furthermore, plan on creating quality, engaging and sharable content that’s link-worthy across the Web. Become the subject matter experts that people refer to, and Google will refer to you as well.

And remember: copy is king – and “lots of pertinent copy” is King Kong!

Laurie Macomber, owner of Fort Collins-based Blue Skies Marketing, can be reached at laurie@blueskiesmktg.com or 970-689-3000.