Have you ever entered search terms into Google and wondered how it came up with some of the results? How does Google know that two different words have the same meaning? In a recent Google blog post the search engine giant clues us in on how their search engine handles synonyms.
The goal of any search engine is to return the best results for the query you’ve entered, which is why synonyms play such an important role. Google’s synonym system was developed over more than five years of research within their team. Combining information from historical search data and web documents has helped Google’s computer system have a better understanding of what words mean in different contexts. For example, Google can recognize that that word pupil can mean student or it can mean an opening at the center of the iris of the eye, and adjusts search results accordingly. Google also says that their computer recognizes plurals and singulars of words just as any human being would.
How can you tell Google has identified synonyms when bringing up your search results? Early on, Google has been bold facing your search terms in the results and now synonyms are in bold face too. For example, see what happens when you search for “film quotes.†Google recognizes “movie†as a synonym for “filmâ€:
 
Slight differences are what make synonyms so tricky for search engines to recognize, but Google is getting smarter about it every day. Here at Fathom SEO, we use our knowledge and expertise to ensure that synonyms for keywords are taken into account. Our proprietary tool, the Keyword Refinery, helps us analyze keywords for relevance, website viability, competitive considerations and potential traffic. Included in our analysis are permutations of keywords, which include synonyms that are appropriate for your industry or service. Although the search engines are picking up synonyms on their own, it’s important to recognize that not all synonyms are captured in search results. Since you can’t rely on search engines to always recognize synonyms or slang terms, try weaving those throughout your website content to help your rankings.
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So, what criteria does Google use to pick the results that appear in the auto-suggest dropdown when you type a query?
While most SEO insiders I’ve talked to agree that auto-suggest results have much to do with current search term popularity, others think that additional factors carry more weight in the algorithm. When a client’s name shows up low in auto-suggest, for example, they suspect that optimizing that company’s website and beefing up the link authority might bump its name up a few spots on the list.
Personally, I’m in the camp that thinks auto-suggest results are almost exclusively influenced by current search popularity. But a little test I did recently left me surprised at just how quickly Google updates its auto-suggest results to reflect current search trends.
On Tuesday night, much of the nation (including yours truly) was following a special election in Massachusetts to fill the senate seat left vacant when Ted Kennedy passed away. I suspected that a large number of people across the country were querying Google to find out what times the polls closed in that state, and decided to see if the auto-suggest results would reflect that trend.
At 7:30 PM EST, just a half hour before the polls closed in the Bay State, I started typing the query “what time do the polls close in Massachusetts” in the Google search box. If figured the auto-suggest would present my intended query eventually, but was surprised to see it pop up in the second spot after only typing the six letters “what ti.” To see what I mean, check out the screenshot that I took below.
The small number of characters that I typed to produce the correct auto-suggest, and the fact that it appeared so high on the list, suggests to me that Google was indeed handing back a list of results based on what people were searching for at that time. (Apparently more searchers were interested in what time it was; do that many people really use Google to check the clock?)
The second part of my experiment really convinced me that close-to-real-time search term trends play a big role in auto-suggest results. This part was simple: a few hours later, when it became clear that candidate Scott Brown had defeated Martha Coakley and won the election, I went back to Google and started typing the same query again.
The result? Suddenly, “what time do the polls close in Massachusetts” was nowhere to be found in the auto-suggest list, even when I had typed out most of my query. As soon as people across the country stopped asking Google that question, the algorithm yanked it from the list.
Of course, there are a few other variables that I could be overlooking: a higher click-through rate for specific auto-suggest results could end up bumping it to a higher spot on the list, I suppose. But the results of my Massachusetts election test make me even more certain that search engine optimization does absolutely nothing to affect auto-suggest results.
So, what do you think? Leave a comment below and let us know any observations you’ve made about the Google auto-suggest feature that might shed further light on the variables they use.
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Joseph Moran
PPC Specialist / Senior Account Executive
Areas of Specialization:
Paid Search
Leadership Role:
PPC Tactics – Conduct in-depth analysis and provide detailed audits of paid search accounts for current and prospective clients
Industry Verticals:
Higher Education, Mental Healthcare, B2B
Best Thing About Working at Fathom SEO:
I work with an incredible group of people that can keep me smiling through the hardest of days.
Most Challenging Aspect of Your Job:
Staying ahead of the technological curve in this industry is challenging. Everyday there are new developments that can have implications on specific clients or the paid search landscape as a whole.
Most Rewarding Aspect of Your Job:
Hearing that I have exceeded the expectations of a client and their marketing goals is very rewarding.
Education:
Bachelor of Business Administration, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Major: Marketing
Minor: Psychology
Hobbies:
Reading, Video Games, Playing Pickup Basketball Games, and I just picked up Archery
Favorite Place to Eat Lunch:
Gourmand’s Deli & Coffee
Favorite Quote:
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon
A recent blog post on SEOmoz covered the important issue of keyword targeting for improved search engine optimization and increased conversions. Those of you who spend your days immersed in the world of SEO are well-versed in the language of keywords, but this quick refresher article written by SEOmoz’s CEO is beneficial in helping to clear up common issues such as:
- How many keywords can be targeted on a page?
- Should all of the most important terms be targeted on the home page?
- When should I target similar phrases together, and when should I split them up?
The article, entitled Keyword Targeting: How to Employ Multiple Keywords for SEO & Conversions, takes the reader through four basic steps of keyword targeting:
- Assembling your keywords by broad association
- Determining intent and segment
- Designing hierarchy according to usability and natural fit
- Laying out keyword targeting plans
Each of these phases is essential for effective keyword targeting, but the one we found to be especially important to remember was number 2: Determining intent and segment. You could target three keywords that a page is guaranteed to rank for, but if those keywords don’t match the user’s intent when searching on that page, you are not going to get the conversions you want. To avoid this problem you need to look closely at the information on each page and figure out what visitors want to gain from it. Visitor experience needs to be first and foremost in your mind when deciding which keywords to target on each page.
When considering visitor intent and experience, it is helpful to draw upon Danny Sullivan’s coined phrase of “reverse broadcast system.†This term explores the idea of active online searches, and how they create a unique way of receiving advertisements and other promotional media. In traditional advertisements, such as those on television and the radio, people receive advertisements, promotions, and informational messages passively. However, when a user jumps on the Internet to look for an answer to his or her question, he or she is actively seeking out specific information. Advertisers can capitalize on this, because they can reach people at the exact time they are searching for a product or service they want.
This is important to keep in mind when analyzing a user’s intent for your website. Visitors to each page have arrived there because they are seeking specific information. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they are going to move on, and your website is going to suffer from high bounce rates, low conversion rates, and a slew of other problems.
The bottom line? You may want your website to do a lot of things, but if it doesn’t meet users’ needs, it isn’t going to be effective. Figure out what your users want, and you will be well on your way to achieving search optimization happiness.
Here at Fathom SEO we employ the four basic steps for keyword targeting, and we pride ourselves on optimizing each web page for specific user needs. However, we also take keyword selection to a new level by using our proprietary tool, the Keyword Refinery. This unique tool allows us to effectively rate a plethora of keywords at one time, based on a distinct set of factors. You benefit from premium keyword ranking and selection services when you rely on Fathom SEO.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »“Write for your audience” is advice that every serious journalist and blogger has applied to successful content. But writing for your audience doesn’t just mean sticking to topics they’re interested in–it also means using styles they’re comfortable with.
When I was cutting my teeth as a beat reporter for a local newspaper nearly a decade ago, that meant writing articles “for print.” While lean copy that stuck to the facts was ostensibly preferred, editors still liked to see beefy feature articles that were heavy on content.
As a reporter, it was always better to write a long story and let the editor chop it up rather than get yelled at for submitting too little. Readers who paid for a newspaper liked to see more for their money, not less.
Today, though, writing Web content that attracts readers often means keeping pages lean. Consumers who are used to absorbing info online are more likely to “scan” than actually read, so making good use of helpers like bullet points, bold headings and numbered lists allow them to grasp the theme of a post more quickly.
With so much information available at our fingertips, the Internet has put a strain on the reader’s tolerance for unnecessary text. If you don’t get to the point quickly, your visitors are likely to bounce.
But online publishers benefit from more than just happy readers when they keep their content “Web-friendly.” Breaking articles up into several smaller posts isn’t just a good way to keep your visitors coming back; it also creates more indexed pages on your URL and increased organic search traffic. Shorter, more frequently published posts means your site get crawled and indexed more often by search engines, and also leads to better rankings in the SERPs.
One word of warning: don’t think that “keeping it lean” means that you can necessarily build a heavily trafficked site by spitting out a bunch of one-sentence posts. Keeping new articles between 200 to 400 words has always delivered the best results for me. Search engines aren’t likely to give much authority to a page that only has a few keyword-stuffed paragraphs in it.
And here’s that part where I follow my own advice by making sure that this post stays brief, too. Remember: keep it lean!
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