Lessons From Google On Optimizing Your SEO

How Optimizing Your Website?

Universal Search, fixed local with the 3-pack, 5-pack and 7-pack different types, rich snippets, authorship, the knowledge graph, and of course the round about have all become part of the SEM lexicon. If you have self assured that all of these changes were A/B or multivariate tested and audit against some conversion goal.

So what does this have to do with SEO?

How Does Google Measure A Conversion From Organic?

If every modification to the presentation layer is handle by conversion optimization, it is reasonable to suppose to take that organic rankings are also learned by the same approach. The difficult choice is that we don't know what standards Google is using to calculate a “conversion” out of organic results.

The first detailed example of Google using user data to impact SERPs visible in 2009, when Matt Cutts told that Google site links are not entirely driven by user behavior.

The Big Brand Bailout

The second verification of user behavior influencing ranking came with the Big Brand Bailout which was first noticed in February of 2009. Big brands started magically commanding search results for highly aggressive short-tail queries. Displaced site owners screamed in protest as sites with fewer back links suddenly jump over them. Google called this as update Vince.

Hundreds of professionals suggested how or why this happened. Finally, Mathew Trewhella, a Google employee who was not yet learned skills in the Matt Cutts school of Answering-Questions-Without-Saying-Anything-Meaningful, told secretes during a SEOGadget Q&A session that:

• Google is testing to find results that build the least following search queries, from which we bring to an end following queries are a “conversion failure” when  verifying organic results.
• Google is using data on users’ following search query behavior to develop SERPs for the initial query and raise sites for which users are indicating aim later in the click stream.

Learning From Panda

The 3rd example of visitor commitment data have an impact on search page results came with Panda. Many parts of the Panda update remain nontransparent, and the classifier has developed gradually since its first release. Google crawler distinguish it as a machine learning algorithm and hence a black box which would not allow for manual interference.

Putting These Learnings To Use

Google’s statement that are often ambition and apparently lack nuance. They tell us that they have solved a problem or reduce importance a tactic and SEOs quickly point to the deviations before announcing officially as hype or FUD. Years later, we look around and that strategy is all but dead and the preprofessional are toast.