The process of search engine optimization is all about building fantastic, relevant content that your users want and distributing it to them. The same is true for what search engines, such as Google, are trying to do as well.
For example, if you’re a rental property company, you should be offering great rental resources, an intuitive property browsing experience, and good customer service tools such as maintenance request forms, online inquiry forms, and more. If you’re an auto mechanic, you should be providing quick access to your contact information, service offerings, testimonials, and build additional value through a resources and tips & tricks section that gives your customers additional knowledge about car upkeep.
This picture is a screenshot of today’s Google doodle, in honor of Bram Stoker, the author of “Dracula”. How does this relate to the knowledge graph, and what is the knowledge graph anyway?
Shortly put, the knowledge graph is a concept that Google has developed that provides immediate access - within search results - to relevant information about your search. You have probably seen some versions of the knowledge graph results while you’ve searched for things on Google in the past, but the display and prominence of these results is becoming increasingly bigger; especially for very specific queries, such as “Bram Stoker books”.
As you can see from the examples above, Google is trying to deliver more engaging, relevant information to their users when a search is performed, when possible. By striving to develop your business and website past just keyword and link optimization, you will provide a better information experience for your users; which is what Google is ultimately trying to do.
While there is nothing to say at this point for how this directly effects your SEO efforts, this does go to show that if you’re trying to rank for keywords that incorporates the knowledge graph, you will have a lot more competition in terms of focus from the end-user.
So what should we do?
I feel like this perhaps has been beaten into the ground, especially as of late, but here’s what I think we should be doing:
- we should be developing great, relevant content that our users love; more importantly, this content should be for the users, not the search engines
- we should be employing microformats to mark up the content and make it easier for Google to understand
- we should be including authorship integration to build our personal brand recognition
These efforts will help you stand out against the knowledge graph in the end. In fact, I believe that these efforts would enhance the knowledge graph and provide an even richer search experience for our users.
If the user is happy, so is Google. If Google is happy, then so are we (not really - we have high standards).
If you are wondering more about microformats, structured data, or the knowledge graph - let us know in the comments below! We work with organizations large and small to gain better traction in the search landscape, so if you’re looking for someone to partner with to help you succeed online, then get in contact with us to start getting the ball rolling.
http://youtu.be/mg91_trV4hY
