Yesterday Google held its second Searchology event where Google masterminds share what they’ve been up to, how they’ve updated their search capabilities and their newest features. Bloggers and insiders have been talking about some of the new features for a couple of days now, but today we can all explore the latest and greatest.
On its search results page, Google has added a ‘show options’ button that will lead you some interesting, and potentially helpful search result filters.
Apart from choices that have been standard for a while (video results), you can now view your search query for forum results as well as in reviews. This is great, particularly for a nice search query since you can now quickly narrow down what the online community is talking about and respond in kind.
If you choose to search by review, Google will analyze comments made on sites and will highlight and return those it feels are interesting and related to your query.
You can also filter the search results down by the last 24 hours, the past week, and the past year. You can limit the search results to only the most recent content, and it will help you follow the trending topics – similar to Twitter’s trending topics.
Included is also an option for related searches. Google has long provided users with suggestions to other search results, based on the original query, but this is much more clear and easier to follow. As you can see in the example picture, this may give you some ideas for further SEO. Google is quite good at picking out related key terms, so the related search results might help point you in another direction.
Google includes a Timeline search result option where you can break the search results down by a chunk of time. The default setting is from 1960 – present, but you are able to search other dates. By winnowing down the timeline bit by bit, I was able to look at just the results from April, 2009.
The last major addition to Google’s repertoire from a search options stand point is the Google Wonder Wheel. This remarkable little search tool is very similar to those spider-web brainstorming designs your middle school English teacher made you use. In the center is your initial search query, and then spread around it are the related search results. Clicking on one of the bubbles will branch your search out, and then you’ll see Google’s take on the related search results for the new term.
You can click related words repeatedly and ultimately end up very far from where you started. In just six clicks, I went from SEO to “religious tax exempt”. Not to worry though, as Google keeps track of your previous bubbles and you can quickly jump back to the beginning.
So what to make of all this?
Obviously Google has gone all out here and make some large – and helpful changes. How can this help or hinder the SEO effort?
I feel like we can effectively use the related search results and the Wonder Wheel to pursue SEO key words that are a few steps away from the words we’re using. This will probably help the overall SEO effort. Going back to my example on the Wonder Wheel: SEO led to SEO Career which led to SEO Consultant which led to Corporate Reputation Management.
Corporate reputation management may very well be a key word we’d like to target in the future, and it may not have come to mind with our brainstorming sessions. You can do the same with your industry. For example, let’s say you sell solar roofing panels, and you’re interested in finding some alternative key phrases to target. A couple of clicks later, and I’m at “sunpower inverter”. That may be a route worth looking into!
Much of the impact these changes will bring will be to the social media universe. Now that it’s easy to search for the most recent information on a topic, we need to make sure we stay on top of our topics. Make sure you’re using Twitter on a daily basis and sharing information, blog posts and articles about the industry you work in.
Create accounts on some social news sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. You can even profit for free online with these sites if you want to apply yourself!
Google will be giving much more attention to fresh, up to date content, it looks like. Be sure that’s what you’re offering! Stay on top of your game, and you’ll stay on top of the search engines!
By: Zack S.
