How do synonyms in
Google results affect your rankings?
Google has announced a major change in the way that they handle
search results by including synonyms for some words that may
be used in queries. How does this affect the position of your
web pages in Google's search results?
Why is it important that Google can deal with synonyms?
Google aims to display the best results for your search.
For that reason, it is important that Google's algorithm understands
the words that are used in the search query. An important
part of understanding the words is to understand synonyms.
Synonyms are words that can mean the same thing, for example
"pictures" and "photos". People searching
for "sunset pictures" are probably also interested
in web pages that contain the words "sunset photos".
A problem is that words that can have different meanings.
For example, the word "case" can mean "occurrence",
"instance" or "example". It can also mean
"box" or "container".
The word "guitar box" might be a synonym for "guitar
case" but "O.J. Simpson box" is not a synonym
for "O.J. Simpson case". Google's measurements show
that synonyms affect 70 percent of user searches across the
more than 100 languages Google supports.
What has changed?
According to the posting in Google's official blog, Google
has improved the way that they detect synonyms. For example,
the algorithm can now find 20 possible meanings of the search
term "GM".
GM can mean General Motors, George Mason in [gm university],
gamemaster in [gm screen star wars], Gangadhar Meher in [gm
college], general manager in [nba gm] and even gunners mate
in [navy gm], etc.
Google also made a change to how the synonyms are displayed.
The searched words and the synonyms are now displayed in bold
in the search results. Web pages that contain only synonyms
of the searched word can also be displayed in the search results.
Do you have to change your web pages?
If you optimized your website as explained in previous issues
of our newsletter and as explained in the IBP manual then
you don't have to change anything. Here's a reminder:
1. Think out of the box.
Don't just use the technical terms that you use in your
company. Think about the words that other people would use
to describe your product. For example, don't just use "rhinoplasty"
but also "nose job" and "nose surgery".
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