For some time now, we all have noticed a significant change in Google’s search engine result page. Google is seen to produce answer boxes for any kind of query, be it a map, a graph, contact number details, the Big G has answer to anything you type for.
Look into some of the interesting things I have found out:
What’s interesting is that Google aims to directly respond to specific queries. If it can’t find relevant data to answer, it pulls information from third-party websites. This can be seen as an opportunity for websites to take the top spot on the results page. Additionally, you benefit from appearing twice.
Before you start working to achieve this golden opportunity, there are certain answers which Google Answer Box needs to produce.
However, before the Big G can come up with this, lets have a proper understanding first.
How Does Google’s Answer Box Understand What You Want?
All this becomes probable, when Google takes the help of the Hummingbird algorithm. With this algorithm, Google is assured to understand you properly. On the other hand, if any situation may arise, where it is unable to produce you with any relevant information, then it will display an answer box containing text and picture along with a disambiguation section right below, just in case you are to look for something different. See for yourself. Go ahead and type “what is a hummingbird?”.
Now that you are getting a clear picture about the ‘behind-the-scene’ work, lets get to know about how Google functions to bring you the relevant answer box.
How Google Identifies Information To Your Query?
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Identifying The Attributes Of Entitles
If you are typing “Who is Angelina Jolie’s husband?”, then here Angelina Jolie is the entity, while husband is the attribute. Google keeps a database that list several entities along with their popular attributes. Listing the popular attributes is entirely based on how many times an attribute is searched for.
Google uses the following patents to extract entities from queries, respond to queries by returning factual answers and retrieving informations.
When you type down a query, Google selects the phrase that represents and matches it with the information. This helps to determine whether a certain query is factual. Google tries to identify those results that seem potential and rank them accordingly. This ranking is done using a scoring system that remains unknown. In response to your search query, the answer box can produce that answer, which has the highest score.
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Identifying The Five “Ws”
Google’s answer box algorithm seems to perfectly understand the five “Ws”. These are ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘when’. A small demonstration for you-
Google is working more on this section and will bring out dramatic results over time. For now, if you are searching for the price of certain things like gold for example, you will get an estimated price analysis. The information is derived from magazine or news sites, which provides an in-depth factual study.
What To Keep In Mind To Reach The Answer Box?
- As was mentioned above, Google seems to be identifying certain phrases that start with “what is…”, “where are…”, “how…”,etc. Using these specific key phrases or words, helps Google to come up with specific definitions. Try to find out which definitions still do not produce any keyword and work on it to capture that space. You can use special tools that can suggest keywords/phrases,which are preferred by Google. It is also important to know how to work on the keywords. For example: “How much does an iPhone cost?” and “What is the price of an iPhone?” might be the same to us. However, Google considers them different from one another.
- If you type down to know what is a back pain, then Google will extract generic answers that will give you an overview, so that you can understand. On the other hand, if you type a specific term related to back pain like sciatica, then Google tries to extract informations which are more topic based. It is then that it has to depend on high authority third party websites for such. This is the reason why Google uses Panda 4.0, to separate topical content websites from the generic ones. It is good to remember that Google tries to bring you information,which is based on the intent of the user. So, sites that bring out in-depth articles rather than simply covering the issue,receive an added boost.
Sites that are marked as ‘Topical Authority Content Site’, appear more often in the answer box. You can increase your chances by writing more articles on a particular topic.
- Google always searches for relevant and well trusted information. So, you must create a landing page for your website that provides a clear definition and is supported with the best references to support your concept. Also, your content must be such that it is accompanied with a title consisting of a question and is followed by an answer in close proximity. Note this- you can always use reference to some top authority websites. This can help to provide Google with information at first hand.
Things To Remember About The Answer Box
1. Google displays information, which are in-depth and can be trusted.
2. Pages containing some traces of the question, followed with the answer answer directly to what Google is tracing for.
3. It prefers sites that are trustworthy, to answer to search queries. If it does not get an answer from Wikipedia, then it extracts information from third party websites producing non-biased information.
Google’s answer boxes indeed throws an array of challenges for websites to overcome. With only a proper understanding on its scientific and technological background, one would be able to reign this pinnacle position. However, winning this crown means complete spamless effort. With a ‘feedback’ feature situated on the down right corner of the answer box, you can easily be cut out from this precious position.