Creating Lasting Search Results

Are you tempted to use words like “fully integrated, multimodality, intraoperative, quantitative anti-frictional analysis” on your website in an attempt to set yourself apart from your competition? Many companies do, and in the long run, it may hurt more than help.

Do you know how your web content get’s discovered? Most people searching the web understand this:

I enter search terms and click search.  Simple.

Some savvy users know that you can use other search variables to refine your search, such as using things like “define:” before a word in Google. When using operators such as these, you can quickly tell the search engine, “Hey, I want to be specific and this is exactly what I am trying to find.” Google and Bing, to name a couple of the predominant search engines, both offer these types of search refinement capabilities. 

• Google Search Operators - http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html
• Bing Search Operators - http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2005/06/24/432...

However, when it comes to maximizing search and finding content that is truly relevant, many of us get frustrated. Why?

Understand that it may not be your fault. The content you are searching for may not be properly optimized. Let us explain.

With all the recent talk about Google changing its search algorithm (http://directmatchmedia.com/googles-trust-us-penalty.php), many companies may find themselves bewildered, but don’t fret! Google, while their main business goal is to generate revenue, is also trying to level the playing field for how content gets found on the web. In other words, they are rewarding sites for using plain and simple straightforward words in their content that are not trying to game the system.

For years websites have been built with marketing in mind; media companies and catchy complex sales phrases have driven content. Trust us, unless your catch phrase clearly focuses your business, don’t spend a ton of time peppering your web content with it.

The real key to your web content consistently ranking high during a web search is fairly simple. 

• Keep your content on topic
• Use common noun phrases
• Group like topics using taxonomies (if your web presence has this capability)
• Use clear titles that describe your topic
• Keep your website URL’s clean, and if possible, leverage your taxonomy in the URL
• Keep your wording simple and leverage key noun phrases that are commonly used by your target demographic

Let’s provide a quick example. Say that I am trying to search for the best local youth charity in my area. I may enter that exact phrase in a search engine, or even form it into a question.
“What is the best local youth charity in my area?”

Before we continue with our example, let us ask you few questions:

• Did you know that search engines use your geo-location information to enhance search?
• Did you know that search engines also leverage latent semantic analysis to understand real world human language to interpret search topics and group relevant content?
• Did you know that search engines weight different HTML element tags, giving heavier weights to titles and URLs in calculating relevancy?

Returning to our sample search phrase the search engine interprets our question using semantic analysis.  It understands that when you search using the words “local” and “area”, it should take your location into consideration. Additionally the noun phrase “youth charity” will be given a higher weight in search results.

With this said, if a local youth charity has the words “Best Local Youth Charity Unveils New Learning Center for Teens” in one of its articles, AND the content leverages simple noun phrases that are on topic with this title, it will rank high in the results.

Now if the youth charity website has embedded its location information properly into its website headers, and you’ve allowed your search engine of choice to use your geo-location information, their website will rank even higher in your results!

So there you go – simple. No games, no tricks.

Clear concise on topic content drives results, not fancy schmancy catch phrases.