Google’s Inside Search Blog recently announced the official launch of nutritional information through its Knowledge Graph, a function that could significantly impact internet users’ food choices. With a quick query, consumers can determine which ingredients offer the biggest health benefits from those that jeopardize their latest diets. However, this doesn’t just impact marketers’ waistlines. It could also affect their SEO content practices in the future if Google rolls out similar features for other products and services.
Google touts Knowledge Graph nutrition information as a way to integrate online content that would otherwise be dispersed across the web and difficult for users to find.
“The graph helps us connect things that are related, even in cases when those foods have a completely different sounding name from what you asked,” the blog states. “For example, when you ask for “summer squash carbs,” we include “zucchini” as a relevant food in the dropdown, because it is a type of summer squash.”
Sounds convenient, right? Google thinks so – and if consumers agree, some marketing sources wonder if similar changes will impact brands’ SEO results.
Econsultancy recently published an article about the Knowledge Graph’s ability to pull qualifying information from internet users’ previous queries to serve better search results. It gives the example of an individual who repeatedly looks up information about “skiing,” and later enters a query for “holiday.” Google might display results for “skiing holiday,” to make users’ planning and booking easier.
If Google does begin to filter results differently, brands will need to adapt their content for SEO strategies to continue ranking for their products and services. Brafton previously covered a Webmaster Help Channel video from Google’s Search Engineer Matt Cutts, who said the company will continue to develop more complex ranking signals to give users better experiences online.
Heeding Cutts’ previous advice, we think brands will continually perform better in search when they keep users in mind. Considering customers’ needs and desires can direct companies’ internet marketing strategies, and content analytics provides the hard numbers that back those gut instincts.
