Thứ Hai, 24 tháng 9, 2012

Why SEO in Context Matters for Business

By Lloyd Roberts


For a a large number of people, Siri has affected the way they use smartphones. Siri, Apple's voice assistant and information navigator, can check the weather, find a McDonald's in the area or calculate the square root of 13 without you even having to type into your iPhone. It's very handy, and Siri has in stock a variety of witty responses for people who believe they can play around with her.

Many people think Siri has not yet developed into her full potential. Experts like Ed Dale also believe that context-aware software such as Siri can reshape the Internet world altogether. For Dale, Google and SEO were in big trouble--up till the smart blokes at the Silicon Valley giant introduced Siri's No.1 competitor: Google Now for Android 4.1 oalso known as Jelly Bean) phones. Of course, Google Now can't just catch up with Siri. It has to move ahead of the game once more.

Google Now is so much more than just a voice-activated assistant; it is intelligent software that has the ability to anticipate what you're doing and what you need right now based mainly on three things: time, location and habits. In other words, Google Now searches for information based primarily on SEO in context.

Let's check out the following example. When you wake up in the morning, Google Now tells you the weather and traffic conditions in your regular route to the office. If traffic is bad it finds for substitute ways you can take and tells you the length of time it takes for you to arrive at your office. If you choose to take the metro instead, Google Now searches a schedule of trains and tells you when the next train is going to go. When you arrive at work, Google Now checks your calendar and reminds you of the things that have to be done. It's different from a regular task alarm that you create yourself because with Google Now, you don't create anything. You don't search for anything. Your phone anticipates your requirements based primarily on context. It does SEO in context.

How does Google Now know all this information about you? It's in Google's privacy policy, which not a lot of people take the time to mull over. Google has made public that it's integrating content across all Google properties. This means whatever you post on YouTube can be accessed thru other Google-owned websites, for example Gmail, Google Docs, Google Translate, Google Maps and Google+. The world's biggest search engine isn't just creating a privacy row. It's making a pool of info that's ALL ABOUT YOU, and Google Now can use that information to supply the stuff it expects you to search.

Here's another example of SEO in context. Let's say you are going to Bali for a holiday. Google Now knows that because it's in your Calendar and it hands you a list of flights to Bali. Once you're booked, your smartphone makes suggestions about accommodations that you might like and looks up Google+ Local for the very best visitor attractions in the area. By dinner time on day one, Google Now turns on your phone's GPS to trace where you are, looks for cafes in the area and even specifies directions on the right way to get there.

Searching primarily based on SEO in context is a really smart move to make, even for a smartphone. And while everyone else gawks at Google's revolutionary piece of smartphone software, smart marketers think on their toes and get an early lead. Technology research firm Gartner, Inc. Vice President William Clark says that by 2015, around 1.8 bln people all over the world will own smartphones, 40% of whom will be using context service providers. That's around 720 million smartphone users who supply up to $96 bn. in consumer spending. By that time, if your local gas station isn't listed in Google+ Local and so not optimised for SEO in context, even if your business website is totally optimized for mobile (By the way, Dale asserts that around 50% of all Google searches will be made through mobile in 2015.), a cross-country driver who has to fill his tank won't find you.

This effectively changes not only how people search but also the way enterprises do SEO in context . The impact of context searching has still to be felt as top rivals Google and Apple rush to develop Google Now and Siri. It's crystal-clear ,however, that context will define our searches in the future because it makes it a ton less complicated for users. It's like Facebook revamping the way we communicate because we don't need to be physically present to do it, or Amazon changing the way we shop for goods because we can now do it in a single click.

So what can local businesses do with the forthcoming boom of SEO in context?

Get yourself on Google+ and update your business page. Google has been announcing it over and over again: Google+ isn't a social network--it is Google upgraded. Shift your focus from plain SEO to SEO in context. Sign up for a listing for your business on Google+ Local and other local listing websites and have your clients to follow your page, check in with their phones and write detailed reviews. It also helps if they like your Facebook page and tweet about their experience with you. Why even bother with sites that are not Google-owned? Because context searching isn't limited to Google Now and Siri uses different sources to see for information shared in social places. Although Google dominates the worldwide smartphone software market, Apple is not lagging far behind.




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