The Need for a Different Kind of Optimization

While much of the information Google needs to deliver this level of personalization can be found online, a number of of it — such as inventory levels and insurance rates — would be hard for them to get by simply crowded a Web page. Ultimately they will need a real-time feed of in turn that they can pipe into their Knowledge Graph.

Because of that, SEO would expand beyond optimizing Web pages to optimizing information feeds. What’s more, the real optimization itself would change too — from optimizing for keywords that people search for, to optimizing for attributes and behaviors that match consumer profiles.
If this upcoming plays out as described above, SEOs will be dependable for helping search engines make the connection between product data and consumer profiles.

For instance, Volkswagen may be able to offer search engines with a list of specs on their new Beetle TDI, but the search engines may not understand that “clean diesel” really means a fuel efficient, environmentally-friendly car. SEOs will need to provide that context by adding additional information, such as the class of car, awards that highlight its fuel efficiency, and links to topical Web pages that discuss the car’s environmental impact.

The point here is that SEOs will be liable for filling-out Google’s Knowledge Graph so that the attributes of a product meet the real life needs of a consumer.

3 Tips to Prepare for the Next Evolution of Search

Below are a few things you can start doing today to get ready for the change:
1. Focus on Consumer deeds: supply in the tools and income needed to understand consumer behavior. Companies like Target are in an excellent place to rank well in the future, because their products are already mapped to real-life user behavior.
The first step to construction consumer profiles is get some basic information about who your users are such as age, gender and location. There are a few simple ways to get at this data:

    Ask them – Conduct a customer survey, let users make profiles on your site, or add a few optional fields throughout your checkout process.

    Use social networks – When a user creates an account on your site, ask them to do it through Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. You’ll get a ton of great information such as contact information, location, age, gender, personal interests, number of friends, and most importantly, the capacity to post to that user’s timeline (provided they give you permission).

    Use 3rd parties to enhance data – Companies like Acxiom and Experian will take basic user information such as name, email and address, and will superimpose it with in-depth profiling data such as household size and income.


Tip: If you have a segment of users that are measured “high value,” you can send that list to Facebook, and they can make a look-a-like group based on similarities to your given segment. That look-a-like group can be setup as a custom audience inside Facebook’s advertising system to help you obtain new users who resemble the high-value segment you already have. Parties to enhance data – Companies like Acxiom and Experian will take some

2. Build Consumer relationship

The future of search will be about optimizing for a consumer rather than a keyword. Given that, it is essential to focus on creating better/more intimate relationships with them. But many brands make the mistake of spending money to build a huge base of fans without building familiarity. They built an audience to broadcast messages to, like a speaker delivering a speech to a large crowd. Now they’re finding out that it’s really hard to create relationship this way. So in essence, they’ve shot their SEO efforts in the foot trying to keep up with the Jones’ follower count.
Keep in mind that Google+ will play an important role in the future SERPS, not only because it acts as an ID system for searches, but because Google can map-out the depth of a link between a user and a brand. The stronger the relationship, the greater the trust will be, and the better the search experience.

3. Get ready for The information Graph

Today the Knowledge Graph is largely based off Freebase, Wikipedia, and a few other sources. Studying the structure of Freebase will give you clear insight into how Google wants its data structured for the Knowledge Graph.
Google is taking steps to better structure Web pages as crawling them is a very wasteful process, as far as data capturing goes. It’s much more effective to send data through an API or product feed. With that in mind, spend time familiarizing yourself with microdata, Freebase, and other structured data sources Google uses. It will make the switch process much easier once Google opens up the Knowledge Graph to more outside sources.

The Future of Search is on Its Way. Are You ready?

If Google flipped the switch tonight from 10 blue links to info cards, how would you fare? Would you know what product attributes match your target consumers? Do you have a grasp of planned data, and a process for exporting your product information into a useable feed? Have you built real dealings on Google+ and other social channels? If not, you might want to start. Today.