Google It!
This phrase or term no matter how you would like to call it has changed our world. In fact, the internet, search engines and social media have become such an inextricable part of our lives, that we cannot imagine a world where they did not exist some decades back.
With technology, software and digital ecosystems becoming a part of our lives, information became abundant. This information that can be collected, processed, analyzed and stored is referred to as Data’.
Big Data is a phenomenon that involves the storage, processing and analyzing of huge volumes of information in a structured fashion. Big Data Analytics is a field of expertise that excels in finding trends, making projections and issuing forecasts.
The advent of Big Data Analytics in the field of optimizing search results has not been discussed much. In this article, we are going to help SEOs, agencies and brands by highlighting how understanding Big Data Analytics can help in improving search result performance.
Big Data Analytics and Google: What we need to know
At its heart, the California-based organization is the biggest data company in the world!
With relevancy and correct information being at the heart of Google’s new search policy, Big Data is rising in prominence. Google does not want to show its users things that are similar. It wants to hit the nail bang on the head.
Google realizes that it can do so, by taking help from Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and other advanced technologies.
You might turn around and say, ok, but how is all this related to Big Data anyway?
Search engines like Google read and processes yottabytes of data on an everyday basis. It takes into account everything that the users do when they are online–
- Kind of content and websites they engage with
- Amount of time they are visiting on the sites
- Number of times are they scrolling through the web page
- Cross-relating information and data with social media platforms
- Checking Technical Optimizations of web pages and websites
All this helps Google create a data bank and then run complicated AI learning. This helps Google give to the users the best possible search results for their queries.
Content and Big Data Analytics: The Relationship
At the end of the day, data is information, which by itself is content.
This means that the best content is analyzed by Google as the most optimum form of data. If you are someone new to the field, you need to understand content as anything that has been published online.
As millions of pages of content are created every day, Google breaks it down into data for better understanding and processing. Experts and insiders who discuss how Google works have pointed to something called a Semantic’ understanding of content.
Semantic search refers to a process where the aim is no longer to just equate and understand keywords, but also to fix truth, facts and relevancy to the same.
Let us try to explain the same with an example
Imagine you are a technology brand that manufactures televisions. A standard SEO strategy for such a brand would include targeting keywords relevant to the industry and link building on the same to climb the SERPs. While this would help the brand climb the SERPS, there is a lot more involved. Google will try to find mentioned on the brand name all over the web.
If it comes across a lot of negative content on the brand in the form of criticisms, poor products and services, it’s Big Data Analytics will factor in these negative statements. Google as a search engine will then feel that since this brand has a lot of negative comments over the web, maybe it is not the right brand to show to the audiences. In such cases, it will remove the brand from the keyword list. Hence, it is important for the brand to take down negative search engine results.
Can Search Engine Optimization take help from Big Data Analytics?
In the last two sections, we spoke and discussed how search engines are using Big Data Analytics to optimize results.
In this section, we will show how SEOs, brands and agencies can do the same to tailor-make content that search engines love. This will help them rank their branded content on the SERPs.
As a digital marketing strategy, SEO is constantly evolving. Its methods, best practices and strategies need to be changed according to how search engines are behaving.
This is why marketers, SEOs, brands and agencies need to understand what search engines are moving towards. In this regard, Big Data Analytics can help create the best possible content that not only ranks, but builds credibility, pushes sales and creates brand awareness.
Businesses need to take help from tools that can highlight important data sources. This includes everything from keyword research tools to looking at social media analytics. Understanding data and how it is processed can help create the best content that will be picked up by search engines.
Tools and Software used in SEO Strategies that can help in Big Data Analytics
1. Keyword Research Tools
The first and probably the most important tools that are available to SEOs are keyword research tools. Just to name a few, marketers need to start analysing quality tools like AHREFS, MOZ and SEMrush to help them find the best keywords for their brands.
This is based on the number of searches that people are doing and listing down the authority pages that are ranking for the keyword.
It can also show how many links you would need to outrank someone, along with showing ten other different functions and features that can help in optimizing for search results.
2. Rankings and Analytics Tools
According to leading marketers, Google itself helps SEOs with the best rankings and analytics tool– Google Search Console. This is a very superior ranking tool that shows you where you stand.
It can help show you which pages on your site are ranking, what is the kind of impression they are generating, along with highlighting issues and problems. In a nutshell, the GSC shows you everything that they take into account when it comes to ranking.
Following the same can show you a clear path about the next stage of strategies. GSC results already take into account the pages crawled, site map analysis and more.
3. Content and Research Tools
Last but definitely not the least are content tools. These content tools are targeted towards giving you insights on two major ends- the real physical user and the search engine.
A piece of content needs to be as attractive to physical human beings as it is to the algorithms of search engines. While there are always tools like AHREFS that can help you with content strategy, you need to start focussing on platforms like BUZZSUMO as well.
From doing the best topic research to cross linking to authoritative sources like Quora, Reddit and Medium, content tools are very important.
Benefits of using Big Data Analytics in SEO Strategies
In this section, we are going to highlight four major ways how using Big Data Analytics can help in improving SEO KPIs-
i. Building Trust and Credibility
Every brand wants to build trust within its target audiences. If you as a brand are not building trust, no one will feel encouraged to start buying from you. Using data analytics can help you assess areas where you need to build trust.
Social media advertising and Google AdWords are already using cookies and retargeting to help marketers. With the reliance on digital platforms growing, brands will be able to harvest more customer data that can help them with better targeting.
ii. Better User Experiences
Site owners need to create the best user experiences to help their SEO performance. Here again, data analytics can help play a major role. It can inform website owners about what is good and what areas they need to improve on.
From data on location-based targeting to creating customized tastes and preferences, everything is targeted on the customer’s previous search experiences. If you analyze eCommerce businesses and platforms, you will see that this is the way forward.
iii. Deeper Insights and SEO Analytics
Generating better insights and awareness about what works and what doesn’t is a critical component of SEO. You need to use big data to grow your learning and help you make better decisions.
There are so many diverse SEO strategies that can be explored if you have the right data in front of you. For example, an analysis into long-tail keywords showed that users that used them had a higher buying or purchase intention. There are hundreds of other insights on offer.
The Final Word
Both search engines as well as SEOs are relying on big data to show them the way forward. For search engines, it is all about showing accurate and factual information as possible. For SEOs, it is about doing what audiences and search engines love best.
In both cases, it is Big Data Analytics that will help show the way. When it comes to making informed decisions like pursuing strategies or making investments, data is at the core of what we have to do. Putting investments behind strategies that data shows do not work is foolish.
In the next few years, the drive towards search equity is something that Google will pursue. This will again be dependent and become a reality only on the basis of Big Data Analytics. The search results discipline and field will once again change.
There is a reason why Clive Humby referred to Data as the New Oil. Do you agree with his statement? Let us know in the comments section below.
