Google Launches Search Tips to Help with Relevancy
You may see a new message in Google search that reads “it looks like there aren’t any great matches for your search”. Google today announced it is launching a new feature that tries to help you rephrase your query when the search engine cannot find relevant results on the web. Google said it is rolling out in the U.S. today “a new message that lets you know when Google hasn’t been able to find anything that matches your search particularly well.” Who will see this. Google said you are unlikely to see this message because for most queries, Google does hope to give you great search results. But for a “fairly small proportion of queries,” a Google spokesperson told us, you may see this message come up. The message will give you advice on how to change your query to find better results. What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the message, which reads “it looks like there aren’t any great matches for your search.” It then gives you tips and advice on how to retry your search: More results. Google did test this last November, but in those tests, Google made you click to see more search results. In the launched version of this feature, Google will show you search results — although not great results — below this box. “While you can still go through the results to see for yourself if they’re helpful, the message is a signal that we probably haven’t found what you’re looking for,” Google said. COVID-19 help. This may turn out to be helpful for the spike in COVID-19-related searches. As information and advice around COVID-19 is changing all the time, search results may not be available. That is one of the reasons Google expanded the question hub to the U.S. Now, here is another feature that can help searchers find better results for COVID-19-related queries. Why we care. If you see this box come up for any of your customers’ keyword phrases, in their analytics, in their performance reports and in their keyword lists, you may want to rethink your strategy for those keyword research. Maybe you need to build out more content around the query, maybe you need to see if those searching for those keywords are converting on your site. There may be opportunities for you here as SEOs.
SEO will be a Primary Focus for Marketers
SEO will be a primary focus for marketers during the downturn, says a survey. Respondents said SEO was their top-performing channel last year and is more likely to be maintained going forward. A new survey validates the importance of maintaining your SEO efforts through the coming downturn. The survey, by Conductor, had 317 respondents drawn from Conductor’s extended network across a range of industries, including B2B (24%), Retail (12%), Healthcare (11%), Media (10%) and others (travel and hospitality, consumer technology, financial services, insurance, automotive, e-commerce and manufacturing). Budgets down, but goals the same or up. Like the most other marketer surveys right now, the Conductor study shows that budgets are being adversely impacted by the outbreak. However, the majority of these survey respondents — most of whom are hands-on practitioners — said their budgets were only decreasing slightly or remaining the same. Only 20% were seeing budgets “decrease greatly.” Despite this, 68% said that their goals would remain the same (32%) or increase (36%). Accordingly, 86% said that their marketing goals would be more difficult to achieve this year given reduced budgets and other circumstances. Asked “Will SEO be more or less important during this time?,” 63% said SEO would gain in importance either slightly (34%) or steeply (29%). Only 5% responded that SEO would decrease in importance. Organic Search the Top Channel Organic search was seen by 66% as these marketers’ top-performing channel last year, followed by paid search (50%) and email (50%). Social media was named as the top-performing channel by just 14%. These perceptions will drive future marketing decisions in a downturn. Confronted with a global recession, these marketers say they would, lower budgets, invest more in SEO and raise the ROI threshold for marketing decisions. Only a minority (25%) said they would issue layoffs. Data and images Source: The Impact of COVID-19 on Marketing (2020)