December 2014 Archives - SEO by the Sea ⚓

Featured Snippets – Using Query Intent Templates to Identify Answers

Almost a year ago, Search Engine Land published an article titled Google Search OneBox Answers Are Getting More Detailed.

Search Engine Land has been referring to question-answering type results as Featured Snippets, since they don’t seem to follow the normal rules of search results that return documents matching keywords in a query. Instead, they were using an approach to try to take advantage of both question answering and keyword matching, as shown in the image below:

Intent-based Answer plus Keyword-based
Snippet Results

This post is the third of a five-part series that takes a look at natural language answers showing up in search results, possibly under Google’s patent application, Natural Language Search Results for Intent Queries.

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Featured Snippets – Taken from Authority Websites

Answers from Authority Websites

Part One of this series – Featured Snippets “Natural Language Search Results For Intent Queries”

One of the most important parts of the “Natural Language Search Results for Intent Queries” patent application is how it describes both queries and search results as being in “natural language.”

By natural language, it means ordinary conversational words and sentences, rather than some formalized and highly structured request for results like you might see in a programming language.

As the patent tells us:

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Featured Snippets – Natural Language Search Results for Intent Queries

Natural Language Search Results

In November, Google published an international patent that describes providing natural language search results answers to queries.

Those answers focus less on providing web pages on the about those queries, and more on showing natural language search results for the queries.

Here’s an example, from the patent filing of a set of natural language search results to a query about “symptoms of mono”.

Natural Language search results on a query for 'Symptoms of Mono' from authoritative sources. — Natural Language search results on a query for ‘Symptoms of Mono’ from authoritative sources.

The patent has a number of interesting and complex issues, and rather than trying to cover it all in one day, I’m planning on breaking it down into five parts to start the year off.

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Have a Magical Christmas, and a Happy New Year

In the days leading up to Christmas, Barbara Starr sent me a link to a patent with a note that it would make a tremendous Christmas blog post. I absolutely agreed, and am writing and sharing that post with you now.

This picture of my great nephew hiding from the camera is a memorable moment for me. — This image of my Great Nephew hiding from the camera is a memorable moment for me.

When you see a patent where it’s based upon sharing joy and happiness, it is the kind of thing that makes you want to share, and to find more like it. In this case, it’s a patent that Google acquired when they purchased Nik Software in 2012, so that it could be used with Google Plus, to automatically edit some photos into animations and into stories.

The particular patent that Barbara sent me a link to is Automatic identification of a notable moment. This seemed to be the passage that we both found interesting in the patent, and commented upon to each other almost simultaneously: Continue reading “Have a Magical Christmas, and a Happy New Year”

A Replacement for PageRank?

Representatives from Google announced recently that they would no longer be updating their PageRank toolbar annotations for web pages. Google had been updating those 3-4 times a year for over a decade.

Does this news indicate that Google is no longer using PageRank, or that PageRank has changed in some significant way? (The ranking signal isn’t the toolbar annotation itself, which was too infrequently updated to be an accurate reflection of what PageRank might have been for a page)

We've been told that Google will no longer be updating this annotation or proxy for PageRank. — We’ve been told that Google will no longer be updating this annotation or proxy for PageRank.

Could it be a sign that Google has found something different?

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Which Sea For SEO by the Sea?

SEO by the Sea started out as an idea that found its way into my head as I was watching sails bounce up and down, through a window, on the Chesapeake Bay.

I’ve been looking at some different waters over the last week, thousands of miles away.

A Public Beach Access information sign provides details about nearby beaches.

These beaches aren’t much like the Jersey shore I grew up with. But they are pretty nice.

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