Facts About Google That Can Impact Your SEO Efforts

There’s so much information out there on SEO for small business, and the landscape of search engine optimization is ever-changing, making it really difficult to keep up with. At the end of the day, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and information. It might help motivate you, though, to understand why SEO is so important, and how it works in general. Instead of writing out a lengthy beginner’s guide, here is a list of interesting facts about Google, along with how they can affect your SEO efforts.

First off, a little bit of non-SEO related stuff about Google:

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is currently ranked as the 12th largest company in the US. Google itself is continuously growing at a beyond substantial rate, which is evidenced not only by their healthy stock profile, but also by the fact that they’ve been acquiring an average of one new company a week for the last six years. It definitely qualifies as a tech giant, and it dominates the search engine game globally, which is why it’s the basis (and the target) of any and all search engine optimization efforts.

You Scratch My Back, I’ll Scratch Yours

Did you know that Google was originally called Backrub? It sounds like an apt name, given that it’s there to help you find what you need… rub your back, if you will. But, the name was actually derived from some of its original algorithms, namely, the way it ranked pages based on backlinks. The method of using backlinks to rank the authority of web pages is still very much alive today, it’s just much, much more complicated. This means that one of the best ways you can improve your SERP rankings is to obtain quality, relevant backlinks. Some simple ways to do this are to thoughtfully create content that attracts powerful backlinks, outreach sites where your competitors are mentioned or where your business is mentioned asking for a link, and keep track of your backlink profile with a backlink checker.

Google Analyzes So You Don’t Have To

Did you know that Google offers a tool that gathers and analyzes data about how visitors are interacting with your site? It’s called Google Analytics, and it can help you improve things like engagement and click-throughs, while decreasing things like bounce rate. It is a great tool for anyone who wants to understand better how their website is faring, and how it can fare better. The best news is that Google made it easier to learn Analytics, for free, by giving users “access to a fully functioning demonstration account for learning and testing purposes.” Give it a try today!

Unicorn

Google is likely the only company in existence that strives to decrease the amount of time users spend on its site. Their unicorn situation means that efficiency in getting users out the door and onto another site is a good thing. For almost everyone else out there, though, that’s the opposite of the truth. We want users to stay as long as possible, hopefully long enough to buy what we’re selling, and the very last thing we want is to send them to another website. Bearing that in mind, let’s talk about the simplest way to decrease bounce rate. According to Insurance Revenue, it’s all about efficient, minimalist landing pages. Some of their pro tips include not having more than one photo to ease the experience of mobile users, to keep home page copy to a minimum, and to make it easy for visitors to click through to the important areas of your site from the landing page. Another simple way to keep people on your site for longer (and increase your SERP rankings at the same time) is to add videos to your site.

Ask And Ye Shall Receive

Google’s goal has always been to answer the questions of those who come, but they do so in more ways than just finding relevant websites. Google strives to literally answer questions with its answer box initiative. An “answer box” appears in the organic search results and aims to provide the exact answer to an exact question, and it points to the piece of content that answers this question. There are many ways you can utilize Google answer boxes to drive traffic to your site. These include targeting “how to” and “what is” phrases, ensuring that your url and title tags match the target query, make the target question your H1, and provide an in-depth answer early on.