Google’s latest tweaks

Google really is constantly refining its search results, on a never-ending quest to make them perfect. That’s great news for end-users, and slightly more perturbing for small-business owners who may feel that they just don’t have the time to make the refinements to their websites that will take advantage of the new algorithms.

Just this week, for example, Google announced three new features. First, add ‘hours’ or ‘menu’ to a search for say, a restaurant or museum, and where available, Google will display them right in the results.

Second, “rich snippets”: add these brief summaries to upcoming events pages or reviews, and Google will show them. The example it gives is concerts in San Jose, which currently displays three upcoming events right below the map.

And thirdly, “answer highlighting”. A large proportion of search queries are questions or based on the desire to find out a fact. Now, queries such as ‘author War and Peace’ will return results where the answer is highlighted in the snippet of text below the title.

All small tweaks which ought to enhance our search experience while we hardly notice it – but is your business website primed to take advantage of them? Having hours and menus appear in the search results could be a massive boon to your business, saving your customers the hassle of clicking on your site. Others will see the potential of the rich snippets feature.

If you’re not sure how to ensure your site will benefit from these – and the countless changes that Google makes every single month – there is a good case for coming to us. After all, it is our business to keep up with the latest search engine innovation, and we can pass that on to you.