Over the years, Google’s motto has been: to fetch the best results.
They it did.
Recently, they changed their motto: to fetch the best results for YOU.
They are doing it.
Not much difference – Just a single word ‘you’ added!
But when it comes to SEO and content marketing, this one word means all the difference in the world.
Google has made some radical changes in its algorithm over the past few months. Panda Update and Freshens Update were the two major modifications. Together, these two updates heavily affected the organic search results.
Content Marketing
But in a recent post on the official blog, Google announced Search Plus Your World. This update was powerful enough to change Google’s motto – that’s more than a sign for you to understand how it will affect the search results.
If you depend on Google for traffic, you must understand, adapt and react quickly.
You must be thinking what is Search Plus Your World?
For the past few years, Google has been striving to make their search results more personalized. They introduced Social Search back in 2009. Search Plus Your World is a major step in this direction. It focuses on three major factors as explained in the said blog post:
“1.Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
2.Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
3.People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.”
But another question is how Google understands what is relevant to you?
The answer is simple. They just take into account behavior of people who are socially connected to you.
There are several social networking sites but Facebook and Twitter are undoubtedly the two giants. Facebook has kept its content in ‘walled gardens’ since forever while Twitter didn’t renew their agreement with Google for the usage of their content in real-time search results.
Thus, it’s a clear indication that these two giants don’t matter too much when it comes to SEO.
This leaves you with only one option: Google+.
Google has killed two birds with one stone. They have thrashed their two competitors and effectively upheld their own cherished social network.
If you care about SEO of your site or you deal in content marketing, Google+ is the new boss in town.
Yes, quality backlinks and on-page SEO still matter – but not as much as in the past.
Now, your content is more likely to appear in the search results of people who are in your Circles on Google+.
You have to pay as much attention to amassing followers on Google+ as you pay to building backlinks. The more people you have in your circles, the more exposure your site gets.
Personally, I don’t like this idea of personalized search. But unfortunately, Google likes it which means I don’t have any other option but to ‘understand, adapt and react’!
Article by Ali Abbas
Ali is a seasoned freelance writer and a blogging enthusiast. Want to keep up with the latest trends in freelance writing, blogging, SEO and content marketing? You should totally read his Writers Blog. You can also add him on Google+ for extremely useful resources and for FUN ;-)
Ali has written 2 awesome articles for Shariffdotorg
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
hi,
I don’t have my own website yet but I’m am an SEO consultant. This post has literally amazed me, only a few are talking about this so important issue. I’ve read the Google’s post also and now on, i will help my clients in a much better way :) thanks a ton for this useful post :)
I’m happy this post was of some help to you Shumaila.
NextGen Writer recently posted..How To Be Smart In The World Of Dumb Writers – Amazing Lesson From Eddie Morra
Like with everything in SEO, we have to bow to Google’s every command..even if we don’t like it! Understand, adapt & react indeed ;)
Mel@SEO Company Manchester recently posted..Does Google Really Know More About You Than…You?
You got it absolutely right Mel… We don’t even have the time to think, or others will ‘react’ before we do and we will be out of the game :-)
NextGen Writer recently posted..3 Secrets of Effective Copywriting ‘Gurus’ Don’t Want You To Know
SEO and content marketing is no doubt two of the best ways you can increase traffic to a site. The information you feed to customers through your site will be crucial in attracting potential customers. So for increase traffic, we need to be concerned with SEO and content.
Well, Content marketing is good thing which SEO use for build a back links. Content marketing is important part of link building. we write a post after writing we paste this post on blogs so that the purpose of post we put on his website URL so we get back link from this. Thanks’ for sharing this nice post.
Hi Ali,
I think, before hiring an SEO we should be very strict and know them more if they are that updated in SEO strategies. Especially now that google is always finding or changing their search algorithms for a better result.
SEO must be aware of and follow the rules. Thank you Ali for sharing your knowledge to us, it is very helpful.
Martha