Friday, October 4, 2013

Changes to Google's search algorithms and what it means to the typical user

What should you  type into your search bar to improve the search results?  Or, to say it another way, what can you type in the search bar that will result in the most relevant results appearing at the top of the list of results?

A typical way to search is to use some key words, not any any particular order.  Until recently the search engine would process those results and generate a list where sites with the most hits and that have one of the words in their list of relevant topics would appear at the top of the list.  (Web designers have a field that is hidden from you but that search engines read.  That field contains a list of relevant terms.  There is an entire specialty career that focuses on "Search Engine Optimization," or SEO.  Furthermore, search engine companies often have a bidding process where advertisers will bid on certain words.  They will pay the bid price per click and the search engine company will move their web pages to the top of the list or put their results in a special box at the top of the list.)

The Google search algorithm has changed.  Google hasn't really advertised the change, but it is substantial.  The idea behind the change is to use "semantic search."  This means that it takes all the words you type and searches on all of them in their context.  So typing in single words is not the best way to get good search results.  Now you should type a question in the search bar and that question should contain your key words.  For example, type in "how to improve my search results?" or "how to improve your search results?"  The returned list will consider all of these words and also figure out a priority order.  Of course, they will also use the "paid word" business process, but, still, the results are pretty amazing.

For more information, type in "What is the Google Hummingbird search process?"

Here is another example that may interest you:  "Are Stink Bugs Being Used to Control Kudzu?"  You could also ask "Why are there so many stink bugs?"

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