Big data is having an impact on the way people do business. There is a constant need for data to support the decision making process in an organization. SEO is one of the areas that has been impacted by big data. Google has billions of pages and it takes a lot of resources to crawl. Webmasters want to know the determinants of ranking. Since Google has never made the exact information public, analyzing big data is seen as an alternative way of finding answers.
Explaining Big Data
Before we can explore how big data has impacted SEO, we need to understand what the term means. Big data can be described as the collection of huge sets of data that can be analyzed for improved decision making. There are a couple of reasons why big data is changing SEO and playing a big role in the decision-making process. Google is considered to be the main source of data on the internet. For SEO’s, it is crucial to have the necessary data so as to make an improvement. Here are some of the ways in which big data is changing SEO.
Content is Becoming Big Data
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Content is being produced on a daily basis and is becoming big data at an exponential rate. Google has over the years emerged as the biggest curator of content. There are over 700 million websites and the majority of them are content-driven. This is because searchers are looking for useful information. When content is turned into data, search engine algorithms become better at analysis so that users are being presented with the most relevant information. SEO’s have to keep up with Google’s learning curve. There will always be changes as the amount of content being produced grows.
Big Data Offers Better SEO Insights
Not long ago, internet marketers used to take Google’s guidelines as the gospel truth. With big data, you’re able to identify patterns and establish a correlation between different data sets. Google has been having a challenge of piecing content into quantifiable data. Marketers are taking advantage of the same techniques to come up with better insights to inform the decision and not just relying on what search engines are recommending. With big data, marketers are able to keep track of what is happening with search engines. Any volatility can be detected before it becomes apparent.
Customer Analytics
The goal of any marketing endeavor is to get leads. As a marketer, it is important that you’re making informed decisions when it comes to marketing. Big data can help in establishing correlations between the different elements such as traffic, conversation, and landing pages. There are different web tracking analytics tools that can be used to monitor the different variables.
Social Media as a Ranking Factor
There have been numerous research experiments to show the correlation between social signals and ranking. There is a weight that Google assigns popularity. A web page that is getting shared a lot is likely to be rewarded with high ranking. Social media platforms like Facebook produces content at exponential rates. With billions of users on social media, social signals are playing an increasing role as a ranking factor. That is why marketers recommend having a mix of social shares when trying to push particularly to rank on search engines.
How Do You Invest in Big Data
As a business, you might not have the resources to build your own scraper from scratch. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t scrap the internet. There are vendors that have versatile solutions like Zenscrape API which you can use for customized scrapping.
There could be restrictions on crawling. You need to be very specific with the variables that you’re looking for. Building your own crawler will be resource-intensive and there are legal implications to think about. The best solution would be to look for a vendor that you can focus on the core functions of the business.
Conclusion
Google will keep its analysis of search to themselves. As much as there are guidelines to follow, they don’t always tell the whole story. A good marketer will be aware how the big data is changing SEO and their role in SEO.
It has made it easy for search engines to crawl and analyze content so that searchers are getting the most relevant information for their queries. For you to create valuable content, it is crucial that you’re aware of what people are looking for. Other than Google, there are other programs like Ahrefs that can be used for technical analysis.
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