Blue Tits, Apples and Keyword Research

Google made another 40 changes! I know what you’re thinking: “Again!?”.

Fortunately the changes aren’t anything major and a few actually help our understanding of Google’s quest to provide context to search queries!

Let’s take a look at the example I use in the video:

• The image search phrase ‘blue tits’ with no filtering provides us with images of the blue tit, a small bird
• The same search phrase with moderate filtering provides relatively the same images
• The search phrase ‘blue tits’ with strict filtering provides a slew of blue images that are not relevant at all

Why?

Because strangely enough, Google sees the word tits as an adult search term even when preceded by blue. Get your mind out of the gutter Google, we’re searching for birds here!

So what do ‘blue tits’ have to do with your keywords?

The ‘blue tits’ example shows that Google will see the context behind your searches by matching language semantics and search data, meaning that you should not only be thinking about what your keywords are, but also what they mean.

Looking at it another way, Google knows that the majority of people searching for Apple are most likely searching for the technology company. But turn Apple into its plural form and suddenly Google understands you’re instead searching for the fruit.

While Google’s push for context driven searches isn’t anything new, some of the new algorithm changes let us know that it’s still an area Google is pushing innovation in. Whether they do it through language semantics (as in the examples above), social signals (I have Apple circled on Google+, therefore I’m searching for the technology company even when searching for ‘Apples’) or even through user history and search data, Google’s next big leap will be to understand not just the words people are searching for, but the meaning behind them.

The next time you’re reviewing your keyword research, think about the meaning behind your key phrases and how searchers could interpret your key phrases in other ways. Run them through Google in a few different ways and look for clues as to how you can improve your keywords to provide Google with context.

Hope that helps, see you next week!

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Jim

Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.