SEO
Information Retrieval: An Introduction For SEOs
When we talk about information retrieval, as SEO pros, we tend to focus heavily on the information collection stage – the crawling.
During this phase, a search engine would discover and crawl URLs that it has access to (the volume and breadth depending on other factors we colloquially refer to as a crawl budget).
The crawl phase isn’t something we’re going to focus on in this article, nor am I going to go in-depth on how indexing works.
If you want to read more on crawl and indexing, you can do so här.
In this article, I will cover some of the basics of information retrieval, which, when understood, could help you better optimize web pages for ranking performance.
It can also help you better analyze algorithm changes and search engine results page (SERP) updates.
To understand and appreciate how modern-day search engines process practical information retrieval, we need to understand the history of information retrieval on the internet – particularly how it relates to search engine processes.
Regarding digital information retrieval and the foundation technologies adopted by search engines, we can go back to the 1960s and Cornell University, where Gerard Salton led a team that developed the SMART Information Retrieval System.
Salton is credited with developing and using vector space modeling for information retrieval.
Vector Space Models
Vector space models are accepted in the data science community as a key mechanism in how search engines “search” and platforms such as Amazon provide recommendations.
This method allows a processor, such as Google, to compare different documents with queries when queries are represented as vectors.
Google has referred to this in its documents as vector similarity search, or “nearest neighbor search,” defined by Donald Knuth in 1973.
In a traditional keyword search, the processor would use keywords, tags, labels, etc., within the database to find relevant content.
This is quite limited, as it narrows the search field within the database because the answer is a binary yes or no. This method can also be limited when processing synonyms and related entities.
The closer the two entities are in terms of proximity, the less space between the vectors, and the higher in similarity/accuracy they are deemed to be.
To combat this and provide results for queries with multiple common interpretations, Google uses vector similarity to tie various meanings, synonyms, and entities together.
A good example of this is when you Google my name.
To Google, [dan taylor] can be:
- I, the SEO person.
- A British sports journalist.
- A local news reporter.
- Lt Dan Taylor from Forrest Gump.
- A photographer.
- A model-maker.
Using traditional keyword search with binary yes/no criteria, you wouldn’t get this spread of results on page one.
With vector search, the processor can produce a search results page based on similarity and relationships between different entities and vectors within the database.
You can read the company’s blog här to learn more about how Google uses this across multiple products.
Similarity Matching
When comparing documents in this way, search engines likely use a combination of Query Term Weighting (QTW) and the Similarity Coefficient.
QTW applies a weighting to specific terms in the query, which is then used to calculate a similarity coefficient using the vector space model and calculated using the cosine coefficient.
The cosine similarity measures the similarity between two vectors and, in text analysis, is used to measure document similarity.
This is a likely mechanism in how search engines determine duplicate content and value propositions across a website.
Cosine is measured between -1 and 1.
Traditionally on a cosine similarity graph, it will be measured between 0 and 1, with 0 being maximum dissimilarity, or orthogonal, and 1 being maximum similarity.
The Role Of An Index
In SEO, we talk a lot about the index, indexing, and indexing problems – but we don’t actively talk about the role of the index in search engines.
The purpose of an index is to store information, which Google does through tiered indexing systems and shards, to act as a data reservoir.
That’s because it’s unrealistic, unprofitable, and a poor end-user experience to remotely access (crawl) webpages, parse their content, score it, and then present a SERP in real time.
Typically, a modern search engine index wouldn’t contain a complete copy of each document but is more of a database of key points and data that has been tokenized. The document itself will then live in a different cache.
While we don’t know exactly the processes which search engines such as Google will go through as part of their information retrieval system, they will likely have stages of:
- Structural analysis – Text format and structure, lists, tables, images, etc.
- Stemming – Reducing variations of a word to its root. For example, “searched” and “searching” would be reduced to “search.”
- Lexical analysis – Conversion of the document into a list of words and then parsing to identify important factors such as dates, authors, and term frequency. To note, this is not the same as TF*IDF.
We’d also expect during this phase, other considerations and data points are taken into account, such as backlinks, source type, whether or not the document meets the quality threshold, internal linking, main content/supporting content, etc.
Accuracy & Post-Retrieval
In 2016, Paul Haahr gave great insight into how Google measures the “success” of its process and also how it applies post-retrieval adjustments.
You can watch his presentation här.
In most information retrieval systems, there are two primary measures of how successful the system is in returning a good results set.
These are precision and recall.
Precision
The number of documents returned that are relevant versus the total number of documents returned.
Many websites have seen drops in the total number of keywords they rank for over recent months (such as weird, edge keywords they probably had no right in ranking for). We can speculate that search engines are refining the information retrieval system for greater precision.
Recall
The number of relevant documents versus the total number of relevant documents returned.
Search engines gear more towards precision over recall, as precision leads to better search results pages and greater user satisfaction. It is also less system-intensive in returning more documents and processing more data than required.
Slutsats
The practice of information retrieval can be complex due to the different formulas and mechanisms used.
Till exempel:
As we don’t fully know or understand how this process works in search engines, we should focus more on the basics and guidelines provided versus trying to game metrics like TF*IDF that may or may not be used (and vary in how they weigh in the overall outcome).
Fler resurser:
Featured Image: BRO.vector/Shutterstock
SEO
How To Boost Key Product Page Rankings With Link Building
When shaping your SEO strategy, your success metrics come down to bottom-line results – what’s going to move the needle for your company and make a real impact?
Which SEO strategies can you employ to hit your KPIs?
In order to succeed in competitive markets, you must go beyond on-page optimization and sound technical SEO – you need a full-funnel approach.
With the right mix of link building and content creation, you can directly affect the rankings of key product pages while boosting overall performance.
6-Step Process For Boosting Product Page Ranks
To consistently boost your product page rankings, try adding these 6 steps to your SEO strategy:
- Review the product page(s) for link opportunities.
- Audit existing content and ensure topical relevance to the product page with strategic internal links.
- Identify high-intent keywords, a.k.a. your new content opportunity, for the product page.
- Discover linkable topics with a tie-in to the product page, but make sure they are broad and useful enough to not be advertorial.
- Skapa content based on findings, and build external links to the broader topic, with strategic internal links to the high-intent keyword content and product pages.
- Measure the impact on the primary product page against the keyword ranking KPIs initially identified. Monitor rankings, traffic, and links across the entire funnel as additional KPIs.
Don’t worry, we wouldn’t leave you hanging without more information.
Gå med i vårt kommande webinar to learn exactly how to do these steps.
Join Cory Collins, Business Development Manager at Page One Power, and Nick Katseanes, Sales Director at Page One Power, as they show you how a funnel of links and content can result in stronger SEO campaigns.
Learn how you, too, can combine link building and content creation to drive product page rankings in addition to secondary KPIs.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to grow product page rankings after technical SEO and on-page optimization are completed.
- Understand how content marketing and link building strategically tie back into product-level SEO KPIs.
- Gain insight into the difference between high-intent keyword content and linkable content, and how to use the two together.
Can’t make the live webinar? Sign up and we’ll send you the recording and all the resources after the event.
SEO
Inuti The Decentralized Social Media Platform
Are you interested in the new social media platform aiming to compete with Twitter?
Bluesky is a decentralized social network led by CEO Jay Graber, with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on its board of directors.
What Is Bluesky?
In December 2019, Dorsey announced through a series of tweets that Twitter would fund a small independent team of up to five people to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media.
The aim was for Twitter to become a client of this standard one day.
Dorsey highlighted several factors prompting this move:
- The challenges posed by centralized control include difficulties in global policy enforcement to address abuse and misinformation.
- The shifting value of social media from content hosting and removal to recommendation algorithms. These algorithms, which currently are typically proprietary, direct users’ attention. Dorsey hopes Bluesky would allow for alternatives to be built.
- Existing incentives in social media often draw attention to controversial and outrageous content instead of promoting informative and healthy conversations.
- Recent technological advances, like blockchain, have made decentralized solutions more viable. These solutions could lead to open and durable hosting, governance, and monetization.
We’re calling this team @bluesky. Our CTO @ParagA will be running point to find a lead, who will then hire and direct the rest of the team. Please follow or DM @bluesky if you’re interested in learning more or joining! 🌐💬💙
— jack (@jack) December 11, 2019
Blå himmel strives to make social networks function similarly to email, blogs, or phone numbers as open systems that facilitate online interactions.
Bluesky developers created the AT Protocol, which is nearing completion. The AT Protocol aims to make modern social media and online public conversations more akin to the early Internet era when anyone could create a blog or use RSS to follow multiple blogs.
The Bluesky app demonstrates the features of this protocol.
Bluesky hopes this will lead to new advancements in social media, enabling researchers and communities to solve issues currently faced by social networks, as tweeted by Dorsey.
Social Media Problems Bluesky Hopes To Solve
Most traditional social networks are closed platforms controlled by a central authority that dictates user and developer permissions.
If a user decides to leave a traditional social network, they must begin anew, losing their connections and content. For developers, creating a new app requires overcoming network effects and rebuilding the social graph from the beginning.
Additionally, they risk being shut down abruptly if they try to build using these companies’ APIs.
Similarly, content creators may lose their audience if the platform changes its rules.
The AT Protocol is designed to change this scenario, offering a more open, democratic, and innovative environment for users, developers, and content creators.
How To Get A Bluesky Invite Code
There are several ways to get an invitation to Bluesky.
You can sign up for the waitlist and wait for an invitation to join from Blå himmel.
You can ask your friends on other social networks if they have an invite.
You can search Bluesky invite code on Twitter. Check the latest results and reply quickly to get an invite. (This is the method that worked for me.)
Screenshot from Twitter, May 2023You can even buy an invite code for Bluesky on eBay.
Screenshot from eBay, May 2023How To Create Your Bluesky Account
Once you have your invitation code, you can create your account on the website or the Bluesky app from the App Store eller Google Play.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023You can choose the default Bluesky server ([email protected]) or follow these directions to use your own domain ([email protected]). You can change to your own domain later in your account settings.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023Next, enter your invite code, email, password, and birthdate.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023Finally, choose a user handle. You can change this later in your account settings.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023How To Edit Your Bluesky Profile
Once you’ve completed your account setup, you will want to visit your profile and edit it before connecting with others.
You can add a cover photo, profile photo, display name, and 256-character description.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023While there is no specific field for links to your website or other social profiles, you can place a link in the description.
How To Post An Update On Bluesky
Bluesky allows you to post 300-character updates with text, up to four images, and links.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023Note that all profiles and posts are public, and the user content you share is subject to Bluesky’s Terms of Service.
Within the Terms of Service, Bluesky notes that when you share any content (such as text, images, or videos) on a platform or service provided by Bluesky, you give Bluesky and its related companies the right to use and share that content.
With these terms, Bluesky can use, copy, modify, distribute, and display your content in various ways, including promoting Bluesky and its services through social media channels.
I’m going to try to clarify here. First of all, Jack is 1 of 3 board members of Bluesky, and does not have any personal license to any content.
The “rights to user-generated content” term lets us do stuff like this — use screenshots of user-generated content in the app store. pic.twitter.com/yp4SOgJfBS
— Jay Graber (@arcalinea) 28 april 2023
They can do this without paying you. On the upside, they won’t use your content in any sponsored content without your permission.
How To Build Your Bluesky Network
To find people to connect with, use the search to find posts and users with specific keywords.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023You can reply to, repost, and like posts by other users. The three dots offer additional options, including translating and sharing with other networks.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023Switch to the Users tab to find related accounts to follow.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023When you visit another user’s profile, you can follow them or use the three dots to find more options, including one to add the user to a list.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023Bluesky Lists Vs. Twitter Lists
It’s essential to note Bluesky lists are not like Twitter lists.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023On Twitter, you add users to lists when you want to follow them more closely.
On Bluesky, you add users to lists to mute their activity.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023When you create a Bluesky mute list, it will be visible on your profile. You can, however, follow other users’ mute lists to ignore the same group of users privately.
In addition to public mute lists, you can access more ways to moderate the content you see on Bluesky in the Moderation section.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023Here, you can update your content filtering settings, mute an account, or block an account.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023My Feeds
My Feeds allows users to create custom algorithms for displaying content.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023This feed, created by the Bluesky team, shows updates from those you follow and the people they like.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023How To Change Your Bluesky User Handle Or Domain
As mentioned, you can visit your account settings to change your user handle.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023You can also update your user handle to use your domain instead of @bsky.social.
Screenshot from Bluesky, May 2023The Next Step In Decentralized Social Media
Bluesky may present an approach to decentralized social media that could mitigate many issues plaguing traditional social platforms today.
Bluesky appears dedicated to ushering in a new digital communication era with the AT Protocol’s continued development.
With the issues it aims to solve and the open standard it seeks to establish, Bluesky could be the blueprint for the future of social media. It remains to be seen how well Bluesky will perform once it comes out of beta.
Featured image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
SEO
3 steg för att bygga en vinnande holistisk sökstrategi
A multi-channel, holistic approach to search marketing is a must in today’s digital marketing space.
You can maximize digital shelf space by removing silos between teams and finding synergies on how paid and organic search can work together.
On May 10, I moderated a webinar with Wayne Cichanski, Vice President of Search and Site Experience at iQuanti, and Erin Wilson, VP of Marketing at HomeEquity Bank.
Cichanski and Wilson demonstrated how to combine insights and data from paid and organic channels to create a cohesive search strategy that enhances online visibility.
Här är en sammanfattning av webbinariet. För att komma åt hela presentationen, Fyll i formuläret.
Step 1: Learn The Power Of Integrating Your Paid & Organic Search Strategy
SEO & SEM each have different roles, places, and advantages.
But these differences help provide insights into gaps that the other marketing school of thought has.
As such, these two channels can work very well together given a cohesive strategy that integrates both of their beneficial aspects.
So, how do you go about understanding the data that each process brings to the table?
How do you tap into the power of these two channels without needing to increase bandwidth?
One way is to start maximizing your digital shelf space.
[What is digital shelf space?] Find out – Instantly access the on-demand webinar →
Start By Maximizing Your Digital Shelf Space
Between paid results, organic results, People Also Ask (PAA), stories, local map packs, the AnswerBox, video carousels, and more, there are many areas in which you can own a higher market share of a SERP.
So when you think about a cohesive strategy, you’ll need to consider these are these steps:
- Review total digital shelf space.
- Know what keywords trigger what.
- Build assets to acquire.
[Discover how to do each step] Instantly access the on-demand webinar →
After going through these steps, you can now start merging strategies.
Bring Different Tactics Together
Next, focus on synchronizing your research and common messaging across organic site pages, paid search ads, social, display, email, and thought leadership.
You can do this by:
- Carrying the messaging across the entire funnel.
- Using dual rankings to elevate impression share.
- Increasing the halo effect by driving paid to organic.
- Modifying bidding strategies for branded, non-branded mid-funnel vs. lower.
- Discovering and building a common foundation between paid and organic.
[Dive deeper] Instantly accesses the on-demand webinar →
Step 2: Understand The Roles Of Your Marketing Channels
Understanding the roles and expectations for each channel sets them up for maximum contribution.
But before you start, understand that customer centricity is vital. Always consider your customer’s needs, preferences, and behaviors.
Then, leverage each channel for different stages and behavioral needs of the user.
Screenshot by iQuanti, May 2023Knowing each channel’s defined role means you’ll know what to expect and measure in each corresponding stage.
[Learn how HomeEquity Bank leverages each channel] Instantly access the on-demand webinar →
Step 3: Deliver A Connected Search Program
To understand the roles and expectations for maximum contribution, start attacking the SERP positions and journey milestones collectively by:
- Measuring them together.
- Identifying key themes along the journey.
- Developing bid strategies.
[Learn what each step entails] Instantly access the on-demand webinar →
Increase Conversions With Paid Branded & Non-Branded Search
Angående Branded Search, focus on maximizing conversion & reducing leakage by occupying a secondary position from a neutral test bed site to push down competitors.
In other words, you can push the competitors down from the top by having a high-visibility listing.
I en Non-Brand Search, a good approach is to segment intents by conversion potential. This quadrant better explains this:
[Slides] 3 Steps To Building A Winning Holistic Search Strategy
Här är presentationen:
Bildkrediter:
Utvald bild: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
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