The periodic table of SEO success factors part 4

In this article, I will continue to explain the first column in the periodic table of SEO success factors.
Cf: Content Freshness

First of all, it is important to understand that the Search engines love new content. That’s usually what we mean when we say ‘fresh’.

You cannot change your pages to be fresh and having a better ranking but with adding new content such as blogs or articles you can reach this goal and have always fresh content.

The best way to think about this is a term like ‘hurricane’. If there’s no active hurricane, then the search results will likely contain listings to government and reference sites. But if there’s an active hurricane, results will change and may reflect stories, news, and information about the active hurricane.

If you write the right content, on the right topic, you may enjoy being in the top results for days or weeks. Just be aware that after that, your page might be shuffled back in search results. It’s not that you’ve done anything wrong. It’s just that the freshness boost has worn off.

Sites can take advantage of this freshness boost by producing relevant content that matches the real-time pulse of their industry.

Cv: Vertical Search

The other factors on this table cover success for web page content in search engines. But alongside these web page listings are also often “vertical” results. These come from “vertical” search engines devoted to things like images, news, local and video. If you have content in these areas, it might be more likely to show up within special sections of the search results page.

Not familiar with “vertical search” versus “horizontal search?” Let’s take Google as an example. Its regular search engine gathers content from across the web, in hopes of matching many general queries across a broad range of subjects. This is a horizontal search because the focus is across a wide range of topics.

Google also runs specialized search engines that focus on images or news or local content. These are called vertical search engines because rather than covering a broad range of interests, they’re focused on one segment, a vertical slice of the overall interest spectrum.

When you search on Google, you’ll get web listings. But you’ll also often get special sections in the results (which Google calls “OneBoxes”) that may show vertical results as deemed relevant.

Having content that performs well in vertical search can help you succeed when your web page content doesn’t. It can also help you succeed in addition to having a web page make the top results. So, make sure you’re producing content in key vertical areas relevant to you. For more information, see some of our related categories:

• Google: Maps & Local
• Google: Images
• Google: News
• Google: Shopping
• Google: YouTube & Video
• SEO: Image Search
• SEO: Local
• SEO: Video Search

Ca: Direct Answers

Search engines are increasing trying to show direct answers within their search results. Questions like “why are the sky blue” or “how old is Barack Obama” might give you the answer without needing to click to a webpage.

Where do search engines get these answers? Sometimes, they license them, such as with menus or music lyrics. Other times, they draw them directly off web pages, providing a link back in the form of a credit.

There’s some debate over whether having your content being used as a direct answer is a success or not. After all, if someone gets the answer they need, they might not click, and what’s the success in that?

We currently consider sites being used as direct answer sources to be a success for two main reasons. First, it’s a sign of trust, which can help a site for other types of queries. Second, while there’s concern, there’s also some evidence that being a direct answer can indeed send traffic.