Over 85% of online searches start with Google and showing up on the first page of the Google results is the holy grail for any business. In May, 2021, Google announced a major and important change in their algorithm and companies need to recalibrate their digital marketing strategy as a result.
On this week’s episode of The Playbook, host Mark Collier, area director for the UGA Small Business Development Center, sits down with Kelly Biggs, Principal Consultant for WSI (We Simplify the Internet). Today, she’s going to share important strategies on how businesses can best navigate the Google algorithm changes.
Transcription:
Mark Collier:
Welcome back into The Playbook Kelly,
Kelly Biggs:
Thanks so much for having me, glad to be back.
Mark Collier:
All right. Google, they are the 800-pound gorilla in the search engine space.
Kelly Biggs:
Absolutely.
Mark Collier:
And if they make a change businesses better be aware of it.
Kelly Biggs:
That is so true.
Mark Collier:
So the artificial intelligence change that Google has made, first of all let’s start with what is the change and why do you think Google made it?
Kelly Biggs:
Yeah, so both great questions. Google announced MUM, M-U-M, which stands for multi-task unified model.
Mark Collier:
Interesting. Okay, so they got a name for it.
Kelly Biggs:
Yes, exactly. Google MUM. They actually replaced BERT, which had a name too, it had been around for two years.
Mark Collier:
All right.
Kelly Biggs:
And the reason for the change is I think twofold.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
The first reason is to save Google money. I think they would say it’s not in that order, but it’s business.
Mark Collier:
We all know how businesses operate, right?
Kelly Biggs:
It’s business, that’s exactly right. The second though is for user experience and I’ll give you an example. So when you type in a search in Google you expect the results to be there.
Mark Collier:
Correct.
Kelly Biggs:
And Google goes out prior with BERT and got you every bit of information that they ever had about that subject.
Mark Collier:
Got it.
Kelly Biggs:
And if you remember when I was here the first time I talked about people really don’t scroll past the first page for information.
Mark Collier:
No, they don’t.
Kelly Biggs:
And when they do they’re willing to go to about three pages and then they’ll refine their search.
Mark Collier:
Sure.
Kelly Biggs:
And what they found also is that they will refine their search probably if it’s something complex about eight times before they get the answer.
Mark Collier:
Yeah.
Kelly Biggs:
So if you think about that server load every time you search for something they are taxing their server load, and taxing their server load. So if you’re having to do that eight times, even though it comes to us in milliseconds, for them is still a cost.
Mark Collier:
Because you’re multiplying that over the billions of people that are doing searches.
Kelly Biggs:
That’s exactly right.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
And so with MUM their goal is to give you user intent. So meaning, okay, this is what Mark is looking for, here’s what we’re going to deliver. We’re going to deliver the most relevant information on the very first page because that’s where he’s going to go anyway.
Mark Collier:
Absolutely.
Kelly Biggs:
And you won’t see those pages and pages of outcomes.
Mark Collier:
Okay. All right. So with that being said you did a great job kind of explaining what it is and why they did it, so how would this new algorithm affect the website’s search engine results for individual companies?
Kelly Biggs:
Yeah, so that’s another great question. So traditionally when we did SEO, search engine optimization, to get on that beloved first page, the Holy Grail as you called it, what you would do is you would just try to get keywords and you would try to get so that your text would appear in those 10 lines that they have for you, so that’s SEO. Well now Google is going to deliver a couple of different things. So one, and you’ve probably noticed when you type in something, they’re going to say people also ask this.
Mark Collier:
I have noticed that recently. Okay, all right.
Kelly Biggs:
Yeah, and that’s the refined search that we talked about, right?
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
So the oh, here’s the eight different… They’re trying to get that eight down to maximum two times that you have to do it.
Mark Collier:
Right, right.
Kelly Biggs:
And you’re like oh yeah that’s it, that’s what I meant. I didn’t mean that. Yeah, this is exactly what I’m looking for. So that’s one thing.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
The second thing really when you’re thinking about user intent is let’s just say you typed in Spain from Atlanta, Georgia. And they’ll say is he really trying to get information on Spain, or maybe he might be thinking about going on a trip to Spain? And so they’ll deliver some information there but they’re not going to confine it to English language, they’ll go out to something that’s written in Spain, about traveling to Spain, translate it, they can translate over 75 languages now, deliver it back in your native language, and so then that’s optimized. And the third and really I think really important is if you want an image before you had to click on images, same thing with video, now they’re going to deliver that. Depending on your search they’re going to deliver that above those 10, right, so all of those things go before you get to the traditional SEO, which may make you want to rethink the way you’re thinking about SEO.
Mark Collier:
Now is that because there’s a renewed emphasis on video content and imaging, is that why they’re doing that?
Kelly Biggs:
Yes. So video tells us a story right, and so we want to make sure that where possible if you see that yours is coming up for video that you do video. And they also know that different people learn differently and different people want to consume information differently.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
So for Google it’s really about making sure their users come back to them, right?
Mark Collier:
Absolutely.
Kelly Biggs:
Because with the number two search engine, which they still own is still YouTube, right?
Mark Collier:
I wasn’t aware of that.
Kelly Biggs:
Yeah. So they own both but they’d rather you be on Google so they can still sell their ads.
Mark Collier:
All right. So I want to put this from the perspective of the business owner, do you think the most recent Google updates have helped or hurt small businesses?
Kelly Biggs:
Okay, so your audience is not going to like me.
Mark Collier:
Well, you know what? The truth oftentimes is not pretty.
Kelly Biggs:
That’s exactly right.
Mark Collier:
But it’s still the truth.
Kelly Biggs:
It’s still the truth.
Mark Collier:
All right.
Kelly Biggs:
So I don’t think it’s helped small businesses.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
However, there is hope. I think it can.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
The reason I think that it hasn’t is because most of them aren’t even aware of the change.
Mark Collier:
That’s true. Well that’s why this interview is so important.
Kelly Biggs:
Thanks. Well, the one thing is this happened almost a year ago, that’s a lifetime in IT, right?
Mark Collier:
Yes, it is. Yes it is.
Kelly Biggs:
And so if your viewers are still using the information that they were doing to optimize for BERT, right?
Mark Collier:
Right.
Kelly Biggs:
That’s not going to be as effective with MUM.
Mark Collier:
Got it.
Kelly Biggs:
So the good news is all they have to do is learn what they need to do, make those couple of changes and they’re back on track.
Mark Collier:
Well I think that’s the importance of the value that you deliver to small business is because you stay on top of these developments, you stay on top of these technological advances, so you can best guide your clients as to how they can best optimize their search engine results.
Kelly Biggs:
Absolutely.
Mark Collier:
All right. So let’s talk about a few tips and tricks. So what should small businesses in light of the change of last year, what should they be doing differently now from what they had been doing prior to the MUM inception?
Kelly Biggs:
Right. So MUM Google has said is a thousand times more powerful than BERT, and so if they’re using MUM for user intent then what small businesses can do is create content designed with user intent in mind.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
I’ll give you an example of how they can do this. One is as they’re talking with their clients just capture questions that the client is asking them.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
Because more likely that’s the way your potential client is going… That’s what’s on their mind.
Mark Collier:
Yeah.
Kelly Biggs:
Those are the questions they’re going to ask when they go in that search, right?
Mark Collier:
Absolutely.
Kelly Biggs:
And so if they can capture that then turn it into content. So how would we turn it into content? You could create a blog post, you could do frequently asked questions on your website. You could create some social media, which kind of brings me to my point number two, across all of your own assets you want to make sure everything is consistent.
Mark Collier:
Right, got it.
Kelly Biggs:
So you don’t want to be talking about a car wash service over here and talking about a florist over here.
Mark Collier:
Right, that’s marketing 101, brand consistency.
Kelly Biggs:
That’s exactly right. So you just want to make sure you do that. And that’s an excellent point because it’s not that you’re doing something for the algorithm, it’s just really smart business.
Mark Collier:
Sure.
Kelly Biggs:
And the other thing that I would say is stop using, I won’t say stop all together, but avoid using stock images exclusively.
Mark Collier:
Got it.
Kelly Biggs:
Use something more personal and that’s going to help you because as much as people want to say B2B, B2C, I think it’s H to H, which is human to human.
Mark Collier:
I agree.
Kelly Biggs:
And so the more you can show your human face, the more you can show how you interact, that’s important. And then do it through videos.
Mark Collier:
Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. Well that’s a great segue to my next question. With these changes text content versus video, that never ending battle, which now is more important.
Kelly Biggs:
Both.
Mark Collier:
Both? Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
Both. Well because again, text can still get you there, users still like visuals, but also I think video gives us a unique opportunity to jump ahead of some of the big players there, people who have invested all this money and SEO and time, if you see that you put in your search results and nobody’s doing video it’s a great way for you to jump in front of the line.
Mark Collier:
No, that makes sense.
Kelly Biggs:
Make sure it’s structured correctly and then you might start to see yours show up in those search results.
Mark Collier:
Okay. All right, makes sense. All right. So let’s kind of shift gears. So another change Google made was around Google Analytics, which is very, very important to small businesses. Google recently announced that universal analytics would be sunsetted in June of 2023. Is this something else that businesses need to be concerned about and why?
Kelly Biggs:
Absolutely they should, and the reason is so universal analytics served its life very well, it has been around for over 20 years.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
And what you use Google Analytics for is just to measure traffic going to your website.
Mark Collier:
Yep.
Kelly Biggs:
And it tells you what to start, stop or change after you look at it. The fact that it’s going away is huge.
Mark Collier:
All right.
Kelly Biggs:
So that means you got to figure out… There will not be a pass. It will stop.
Mark Collier:
Okay, ended.
Kelly Biggs:
Ended.
Mark Collier:
Dead in the water.
Kelly Biggs:
Yes, yes.
Mark Collier:
All right, all right. All right, so what prompted Google to make that change and what, if any, it’s going to replace? Tell me what it’s going to replace and is it going to be a replacement that’s going to benefit small businesses?
Kelly Biggs:
Yeah, so all great questions. So the reason they made the changes because it’s a dinosaur.
Mark Collier:
Okay.
Kelly Biggs:
But the primary reason, I think the biggest driver why they’re doing it now is that it’s the privacy issues that we’re running too.
Mark Collier:
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Kelly Biggs:
So fewer people are opting in, which means if you’re looking at, oh, I want to see how much traffic came to my website, you’re going to think oh it dropped when it maybe didn’t, it’s just people stopped wanting you to see them, right?
Mark Collier:
Got it. And so now instead of just reporting historical we need something that’s going to be more powerful to model things. So you’re going to have a subset, but you can still gather insights and use it to move your business forward right?
Kelly Biggs:
Right, right.
Mark Collier:
Because all you care about are patterns.
Kelly Biggs:
Okay.
Mark Collier:
And so I would just say.. So it’s Google, it’s called GA4.
Kelly Biggs:
Okay.
Mark Collier:
And that is going to be the replacement. And I think it’s going to be some growing pain initially for all businesses, including small, but in the end it’s going to give us a lot more insights that we can use to grow our businesses.
Mark Collier:
All right. So GA$, let’s get a little bit more granular now.
Kelly Biggs:
Okay.
Mark Collier:
Are there some specific tips that you can give small businesses that they should be doing now to prepare for GA4?
Kelly Biggs:
Well, the biggest tip I can say is make sure it’s on and running, because what’s going to happen when they turn off universal analytics, if you don’t have GA4 on you will not see your historical data.
Mark Collier:
Oh, and that’s a big deal.
Kelly Biggs:
It’s a huge deal. And GA4 will only… So universal analytics let you have three years of historical data, the max you will have and probably is cost savings again, but the max you’ll have in GA4 is 14 months.
Mark Collier:
Got it.
Kelly Biggs:
So that means turn it on now and you’ll have the maximum amount of information that you would need and you can use that. And then I would just say start playing around with it. You or your team. Google GA4 four measures events versus behaviors, which is what the predecessor did.
Mark Collier:
Right.
Kelly Biggs:
And so then you can just start to play with and say Google gives you the information, you can go out to Google and we’ll share that with your audience.
Mark Collier:
Right.
Kelly Biggs:
And they’ll tell you oh, here’s the latest update, here’s the link. Just be familiar with that and make sure that you’re set up for success.
Mark Collier:
Got it. Kelly Biggs, principal consultant with WSI Digital Consulting. I just want to thank you for taking time out of your busy to come in. You have imparted some critically important information for small businesses, and I’m sure that your phone should be ringing off the hook because they need to take advantage not only of what’s happened now but what’s coming down the pipeline in 2023, and you are well positioned to guide businesses through those changes.
Kelly Biggs:
Absolutely, happy to do it. Thanks so much for having me back Mark.
Mark Collier:
All right.
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