I want to talk about the Leaked Google Search API document that Rand Fishkin wrote about earlier this week.
It’s great to have confirmation on things we already suspected. But as Search Marketers there weren't really a lot of surprises here. The approach we’ve always taken and that we recommend other marketers take is to understand the data that Google has access to and then make assumptions as to whether they would use it or not.
If their goal is to provide the best possible search results, then what data is available and is it likely that they will use it?
In the late 1990s ,Yahoo and the older search engines just used on-page data. And the results were awful. On Page is what you say about your site. It’s easy to affect. Google built a better mousetrap by adding links into the algorithm. Off page (anchor text) is what others say about your site. That’s harder to affect.
User behaviour is an even stronger signal. It’s not what people are saying about you. It’s what they are DOING. When you think about it like this, why wouldn’t they use such a strong signal (transparency and ethical discussions aside)?
Consider reviews. A website has lots of 2-star reviews and Google isn’t going to use this? Of course they are.
Let’s look at Chrome, as a developer we suspected that this is a great tool to spy on everything happening on the web. And sure, enough they created it for that reason.
Now let’s think about all the data they have because people are using Androids. Or have Chrome set to allow them to access your location. Instead of just looking at your click behavior, they are looking at where you go? Let’s say they are ranking a clink. Are lots of people walking into your place? And if you have two clinics, why wouldn’t you rank the one that gets more foot traffic?
We all know that famous Wayne Gretzky “ don’t’ skate to where the puck is, skate to where its going”. Well Matt Cutts said a long time ago to “Go where the user goes”. Create great content, create a great user experience and you will rank well.