The concept of big data can seem a bit elusive to most people. There are thousands of possible applications and just when you think you have a grasp on it, something changes. But from a business and marketing perspective, it’s important that you recognize how big data is related to SEO.
Google: The World’s Largest Data Corporation
It’s impossible to separate big data from SEO, if for no other reason than Google is the original and largest big data organization in the world. As SEO expert Jiyan Wei explains, They have become the institution they are today by analyzing enormous sets of data, making automated inferences, and providing intelligence back to consumers. By studying Google’s methodology and applying their findings, search professionals have been intimately involved with big data for quite some time.
When you consider that Google is the leader in the SEO industry, it becomes clear that big data and SEO will forever be intertwined. The future of search will be determined by big data, as will the manner in which businesses optimize their websites and digital content.
Data is what makes the massive (and growing) amount of content on the internet decipherable. It’s how users are able to filter out the meaningless to find the relevant. It’s how small brands are able to compete with larger competitors through strategic content strategies. It’s how the internet, which is nothing more than a confusing collection of code, becomes neatly organized in a very systematic fashion.
How Big Data and SEO Can Partner Up
For those who want to understand SEO, it all starts with an honest look at big data and how it interacts with search engine algorithms and optimization. Here are some of the ways big data and SEO partner up in the real world to produce tangible results.
1. Optimization Tools
With the help of big data, businesses now have access to a variety of optimization tools that can help them quickly and efficiently optimize web pages so that they’re able to maximize conversions. A/B testing tools, which test multiple versions of a page to find out what works, are extremely popular right now.
2. Better User Experience
Over the years, businesses have been focused on getting ranked and following a set of formulas for improving SERPs. And while getting a page one ranking is still important, the way in which brands attempt to rise to the top is changing.
As the pendulum shifts from content to data, the logic that once guided our thinking about search will change and our hesitation to limit what we show Google will fade, Wei says. It’ll be interesting to follow this development as time goes on.
3. Better Competitive Analyses
Big data is giving businesses the chance to conduct more informative and accurate competitive analyses that ultimately drive superior results in terms of marketing, advertising, and branding.
Thanks to a suite of Google tools, as well as a number of third party tools, businesses can see which keywords perform best, how competitors are doing in terms of SEO rankings, and where there’s room for improvement. The result is smarter businesses that are able to tackle SEO with objective data, not just subjective hypotheses.
Don’t Ignore the Role of Big Data in SEO
It’s easy to look at SEO as its own thing, but when you dig beneath the surface, it becomes clear that it’s impossible to approach optimization without leveraging the power of big data. Whether you’re a business owner, SEO expert, data scientist, or simply an internet user, make sure you understand this relationship.
