Last week, Google announced a major change to their search functions. We’re not taking about Panda or any similar update to their search algorithm, but a change that could, in theory, revolutionise the way in which we search for and discover information.
Essentially moving away from simply providing websites based on the keywords you input, Google is becoming a lot more intuitive and it’s using what it calls its ‘Knowledge Graph‘ – a huge array of different resources, from Google Places through to Wikipedia, to provide you with the most customised search experience ever. You’ll soon no longer just see website after website, but, as an example, alternative options to your search terms to make sure the results in front of you are the most suited to your requirements and more in-depth, varied and instantly available data for you to choose from.
Potentially fantastic for consumers, as they should be able to get access to the exact products, services or websites they’re wanting much quicker than ever before, for organisations, it’s proof that an effectively implemented and maintained business blog is more important than ever before.
The primary reason behind this is because consumers are getting smarter. They’re wanting more information. Google is aiming to provide them with it, but it can only provide them with what it has access to.
And business blogging can mean you deliver on both of these fronts – pleasing your customers by being more savvy to their growing requirements and meeting Google’s updated capabilities by extending your online reach.
So how exactly can blogging help with Google’s new Knowledge Graph?
Think of it like this.
Google is trying to connect everything together, so when you search for a chosen term, it provides the most suitable information possible, whether that’s the key data of a famous person or the most up-to-date photographs of a part of the world. Therefore, if you search for ‘Disney’, chances are you’ll get information on Disney as a brand, details about Walt Disney and photographs of the many Disney theme parks.
What Google doesn’t do, however, is differentiate between where it draws its information from, as it’s based on quality.
Therefore, let’s imagine you have an online business selling Disney memorabilia – everything from action figures through to film posters – and you maintain a blog that’s updated regularly with fantastic information on every aspect of the Disney brand, pointing back to your products. You include images, videos, locations, in-depth data and most importantly, high quality, unique content.
When someone types the word ‘Disney’ into Google now, not only could they be presented with a link through to your website, but they could see character images, personal data on Walt Disney and the location of the theme parks, all of which comes from your blog, resulting in what could be a considerable increase in traffic to your website due to the varied, quality information you provide that is potentially what the searcher is looking for.
Of course, using the phrase ‘Disney’ may be slightly optimistic with it being one of the most prominent brands in the world, but it showcases the potential of a business blog within Google’s Knowledge Graph perfectly.
A few weeks ago, we talked about our blog writing services and how important a regularly maintained business blog can be when helping to handle Google’s latest Panda update. Today, we’ve explained it’s importance with Google’s Knowledge Graph.
But the linking factor for both aspects is that a business blog needs to be used to communicate with your target audience. If you can do this and be confident that the content you’re producing is as suited to your target audience as it can possibly be, the simple fact is any update from Google will only be one that you can benefit from.
