Google released an update, expanding upon their ‘About This Result’ panel and the new information has marketers and brands taking notice. SEO experts are garnering keen insights regarding the ranking factors and brands/clients alike can discern the ranking signals that truly culminate in how these results propagate the SERPs. As you may have guessed, GEO and language play key roles, but backlinks are also core to outranking – read on to learn why and how.
SEO Ranking Factors – Google is Creating a Less Ambiguous Experience
Taking a brief step back; Google added the ‘About This Result’ in early 2021 citing a way for users to garner more information about a search result, especially those sources that were less well known. Thus, accessing the panel by clicking on the tipple dots in the upper right corner of a search result would expand a panel with deeper insights.
Let’s take a closer look at where ‘About This Result’ is found natively within the search experience, as well as the type of information that is further unveiled.
Initially the added content from within the About This Result panel was lean, often showcasing Wikipedia results that were content oriented. However, the evolution was swift and in the recent update insights are more powerful for consumers and brands alike.
Consumer Benefits: More Knowledge, Better Search
Taking a queried first approach, as Google would, we start with the search experience. Google provided a classic example which illustrates intended value to the end user depicted via the narrative of the search “how to cook fish in the oven.”
If a search were performed for “how to cook fish in the oven” a result could populate pertaining to a recipe stemming from a website that contained the words “how, cook, fish, and oven” and potentially were semantically related to other words such as “ingredients” and/or “recipe.” Google explained that their intended goal is to help users who are not as granularly aware of their algos and ranking factors learn why and how the search result was relevant to better empower the users forward facing searches.
Examples of the types of information that Google may provide within the About This Result panel include:
- The result matched the search query to words on a page.
- The page is in the same language as the query.
- The location was defined within the same GEO/Country (USA) as the page
SEO Rankings Empowered By Insights – Where Rubber Meets The Road
While the information can be deemed of interest to a general audience, what excites us the most is how SEO experts, data analysist, brands and marketing teams can harness deeper insights to focus not only on how Google would determine relevance, but additionally, an element of ROI as the About Results Panel can also uncover and present information pertaining to backlinks. Link building has always been a core and effective SEO strategy for outranking in search, but it was also ambiguous. If one were able to see the dotted line from the links to the search result and it’s overarching placement within the SERPs the value is then quantifiable.
Google has been clear regarding how their algorithms work before and recently shared “some of these most important factors used” by their algo, for ranking signals. They noted four clearly:
“Matching keywords: A simple, but important, factor Google uses to determine if information is relevant is when a webpage contains the same keywords as your search.
Related terms: Google also looks for terms that our systems determined are related to the words in your query. If you search “how to cook fish in the oven,” we’ll also look for pages that have related terms like “bake” and “recipe.”
Looking at links: When other pages link to a page using similar words as your query, that page might be relevant to your search. It can also be a helpful indicator of whether online content creators tend to regard the page as useful for that topic.
Local relevance: Our systems also look at factors like the language you’re using to search as well as your country and location, to deliver content relevant for your area. For example, if you search “What day is trash pickup?” it’s helpful to get results that are applicable to your city or state.”
The About Results Panel provides clear signals pertaining to Google’s value of relevance and the criteria therein which empower the search result. Beyond that, this is now available on a result-by-result basis. For many years SEOs have crafted their needling moving strategies in a macro, keyword level basis.
To augment standard keyword research, and the deep strategies and tactical implementation therein, harnessing About This Result data, via competitive analysis of the existing rankings and what value Google has placed on top ranked pages, SEOs can level-up and serve the signals. A cohesive analysis and strategy will be rewarding and the ambiguous nature of how and why certain pages hold the top position just became vastly clearly.
At the moment ‘About This Result’ is utilized in approximately 10% of searches within the US and is expected to roll out ubiquitously both in queries and countries.
