Today, Google looks far beyond keywords to determine the context of a document. Those that strive to stay abreast of Google’s activities know that relevance has become increasingly critical for SERP placements in response to any given query. This has been made possible, in great part, by Google’s focus on query meaning, since Hummingbird launched in August of 2013, and promises to be refined much more when RankBrain is rolled out across all queries (presently, it’s being tested against the ~15% of queries which Google’s algorithms don’t understand well).
Of course, the context of documents is also critical. Everything on a page should be relevant to a similar context, in order to allow it to be matched to a query for a page dealing with that context. I think it’s a given that at some point, Google will be applying RankBrain, or something very much like it, to documents in its index, as well.
Context is King
I won’t go into great detail here about how Hummingbird (and eventually, RankBrain) does this. For now, you just need to understand that where it used to be said that Content is King, that can now be modified to Context is King. In terms of determining the context of a query, Hummingbird accomplished a lot. But when Google finally applies RankBrain to all queries, it’ll be a whole new ballgame.
When that happens, and when RankBrain or its cousin are extracting the context of indexed pages,as well, the sites that realize this early and strive to ensure clarity of context on their pages will leap ahead of their competitors.
That’s why we’ve developed a new service offering – designed to show how Google may eventually see and classify your page. It reflects the way in which our content division has been developing content for about 3 years, already having considerable success in aiding the rankings of their clients. This isn’t a new concept – Google has simply found a tremendously more efficient way to work their magic.
C3 Context Audit
The C3 Context Audit is a subset of our full-scale technical Site Audit. We recognize that every website doesn’t warrant a full site audit, so we’ve broken the context portion out as a separate service for those whose sites are in otherwise good condition.
It involves an audit of the content in a document, whether for a particular page or for an entire site, with an eye toward identifying the most prevalent context – that in which Google is most likely to categorize the document(s) in its index. It calls out any ambiguities that might interfere with the effective categorization for the desired context and the resulting report makes specific recommendations for corrective actions to bring the content into line with what Google will most easily recognize.
Many people have said that you can’t design a page for Hummingbird (and soon, for RankBrain). To an extent, that’s true, since they’re both applied to queries, rather than pages (and provided that you’re already providing content that’s highly focused on relevance for the search terms for which you hope to rank). But it’s perhaps partially untrue, as well, because relevance and context can be incorporated into a webpage, in the content, the meta data. the navigation and even the off-page associations – which can only help.
And the beauty of it is that when done properly, it yields double benefits:
- It enables you to generate content more directed at users than search engines (which you really should have been doing all along);
- It allows you to provide the search engines with much more clarity of your document’s context.
When a company releases a new service, the first question that normally arises is ‘Will the information I’ll receive be valid and reliable’, followed shortly thereafter by ‘Will it do ME any good’.
In order to let you answer those two critical questions for yourself, We’ll give you a free 1/2 hour consultation, in which we’ll explain more about how Hummingbird and RankBrain are being used, and how it’s likely to affect you in the future. That will help you make an informed decision on whether a C3 Context Audit is right for you. At the very least, you’ll gain a better understanding of search rankings. And you may very well gain a significant advantage over your competition.
Our C3 Audits are not just white-labeled print-outs from some tool – we perform our audits manually, in-house. You’ll get the benefit of years of experience, from professionals that spend a lot of time keeping up to date with the most effective way to build a solid ranking basis with search engines.
Contact us today to set up your free consultation call. You have nothing to lose but 30 minutes of your time… and a lot to gain.