Article - Ranking for Fact-Based Questions with Definitive Answers By Leona Griffin, WebpageFX

Ranking for Fact-Based Questions with Definitive Answers

Leona Griffin, WebpageFX - Accessibility 0 Comments | Add Yours

About The Author:

Leona Griffin, a Senior SEO Analyst at WebpageFX, is a 12-year seasoned SEO veteran. WebpageFX, an Internet Marketing company, specializes in creative, comprehensive online solutions.

Millions of people turn to search engines to answer their questions, from parents with sick children to kids needing homework help. Search engines are the gatekeepers to the plethora of information swirling about on the Web. Keyword density is key for search engines when figuring out what websites to display in their result list and in what order they should be displayed. However, to provide visitors with the correct answers to definitive questions, search engines can’t rely on keyword density.

When you’re targeting specific keyword phrases, such as “green widgets,” keyword density plays a significant factor in your search engine rankings. But density does not have the same value for many information-based sites. As a matter of fact, search engines take the original query and rewrite the request in an attempt to give the visitor exactly the answer they need.

Search Engines Rewriting Search Queries

Let’s say your website provides information on the presidents of the United States. Some of the keywords you’re targeting may actually be questions like “What year was George Washington born?” “When did George Washington become president?” or “What year did George Washington die?”

The goal of Google and other search engines is to return search results that contain the actual answer to the question. To do so, they often rewrite search queries.

If someone searched Google for “What year did George Washington become president?” and Google based their results off keyword density alone, many of the results would not actually provide the answer, leaving searchers frustrated. Instead, Google has algorithms in place so when someone types “What year did George Washington become president?” the returned results contains “1789.”

How Google Gathers the Data, Rewrites the Query & Selects the Results

It’s a known fact George Washington became president in 1789. This can be validated by encyclopedias and history books around the world. Google can also validate this by visiting trusted websites, such as whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.org, and the hundreds of Washington books they have indexed, including George Washington by Henry Cabot Lodge.

Before Google can go any further, it must format the query so it can understand what the key phrases are. Google removes all stop words from the original query, which turns the question into “year George Washington become president.” Using this modified query, Google rewrites it to the answer “George Washington became president 1789”.

Since Google has hundreds of thousands of websites that provide the accurate answer, they can also review and compare how the answer is formed within these resources.

For example, most websites answer this question in the following formats:

• Washington became president in 1789

• Washington was president from 1789 – 1797

• Washington’s presidency (1789-1797)

• In 1789 Washington became president

Google sees the information is displayed a few different ways and creates rules that can be used for this query, as well as millions of other similar queries, which are:

1.   Name – Date
2.   Date – Name
3.   Name (Date – Date)

This format can be applied to people, places or things that use dates and timelines.

Validating Returned Results

Since Google is not a person, it must make sure it doesn’t show the wrong results by verifying specific information, such as:

1. Who are we talking about? George

2. George who? George Washington

3. Who was George Washington? The first president of the United States

4. What year did George Washington take office? 1789

To help Google understand your website accurately defines this question, make sure you provide the actual answer to the question. Then, make sure you work these important words within your pages’ content.