Whether it be for people, places, or things of interest, the world’s largest search engine racks up a staggering one billion monthly unique visitors.
We all know that Google’s search engine contains a wealth of information. We also know that the knowledge it contains comes from sites, blogs and educational resources that allow Google to index their content. One hand washes the other – ranking on the world’s largest search engine is a great way for sites to generate traffic, and indexing the sites is a great way for Google to give its users the information they’re looking for.
Search queries are rising in number every day. More and more people search Google and use it as their go-to information resource and ‘Googling’ something has become a household term. Whether it be for people, places, or things of interest, the world’s largest search engine racks up a staggering one billion monthly unique visitors.
Google has been working on the way they display information – people understand and engage with data that they can see and Google’s answer is the “knowledge graph”.
See below the search engine results page (SERP) for the query ‘micasa’
The knowledge graph has been around since 2012 and about 25% of queries return a graph on the SERPs. Mi Casa is a popular house/jazz band in South Africa and there is value in having their information at your fingertips (see the left side of the desktop SERP). The graph typically contains images, a website, more information (usually from Wikipedia because of its relevance and organic ranking) and the appropriate social profiles. It also shows up on mobile but follows a more restricted pattern because there is less space on mobile screens.
The graph is Google’s way of putting facts, people and places together to create interconnected search results that are meticulous and relevant. There is the argument that the knowledge graph puts the user first and the website second, because less traffic is driven to the site. However, if your site consistently delivers quality answers to web users’ queries, there is no doubt Google will send people to your web pages.
See below an image for the query ‘south africa population’.
In improving on linguistic-search information gathered from a variety of sources, Google is constructing an enormous warehouse of knowledge in human history, and it’s doing this with the public’s help. The graph results interact with the main algorithm to attribute the correct search results and make them available to the users. Google is using technology to simplify our lives by delivering the results we need, while eliminating extra work for the user.
It’s great for your business as well, as it’s triggered by the first organic ranking that contains a business listing. Google pulls its information from Business Listings (My Business), map listings and Google + social profiles – note the Business Listing will take priority.
Make sure you get the most out of Google by allowing web users easy access to information when they search for your brand.
Daniel Schmidt is head of search at Mark1 Media.
