Marketers love Google. Marketers hate Google. Marketers depend on Google. Marketers try to outsmart Google.
If you’re involved in marketing for your business one thing is for sure: you can’t get away from the impact that Google has on the marketplace. And whenever Google makes an announcement, marketing people sit up and listen.
Naturally, when Google recently announced that they might take their human search quality rater public, marketers were obviously interested. So is Google your friend or your foe? The answer is probably, “Neither.”
Although some marketing people may feel differently, Google isn’t out there to make life hard for marketers with their highly touted and intensely guarded algorithm that calculates where your company ranks when customers search for you. On the other hand, Google doesn’t exist in order to give your company a “secret weapon” that will enable you to be the first one people find when they search for something online.
Their human search quality rater is really supposed to more accurately indicate how real people search for things. When people search for “widgets,” there is a context. There is a need they have. There is often an emotional element to their search. If you’re looking for a widget to solve a problem, you want to know how it will solve your specific problem. If the website you land on uses the word “widget” 47 times in the first paragraph, that doesn’t really help you (and it makes for a really lousy read!).
So what does that mean for you? When you create your online content, don’t write for Google. That may sound like marketing heresy, but it’s not. And it doesn’t mean that you should ignore what Google does. That would be foolish. Google is hugely influential in determining who gets found and how highly they rank. What it means is that you should write for your customer.
Search is becoming more and more sophisticated—more and more human. That’s what you should focus your attention on. Should you pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO)? Of course! But the key is not in “breaking the algorithm” but in figuring out how your customers search.
At TMR Direct we understand how important SEO (and Google!) is to marketing success. But we also know that it’s only part of the bigger picture. That’s why we invite you to schedule a Free Inbound Marketing Consultation, to look at how you can drive more visitors to your site—and then move them to action and generate more leads.
And regardless of where you stand with Google, we’ll still be your friends!
