How Can I Take Advantage Of Google’s ‘Query Deserved Freshness’ (QDF)?
We are continuing our Periodic Table of SEO series demonstrating how you can create great SEO for your website. For those of you who are new to the term SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization, which basically is a collection of techniques to help your website get found on the web. We are using Search Engine Land’s Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors (see image above) to showcase different tactics we use to optimize websites and improve their rankings.
Today’s topic is Content Freshness (Cf), listed under the content column of the on-the-page SEO category. Once you’ve mastered implementing keywords into your content you’ll want to strategically target the type of content you produce. Content freshness is not about the publish date or frequency, it’s about real-time relevance. Google uses “Query Deserved Freshness” (QDF) to boost content related to a major event (think elections or a hurricane) or a topic that is extremely popular all of a sudden (like with Pokémon Go). The freshness of the content on your website affects your ranking on Google. Here are three ways you can produce relevant content to take advantage of the Google’s freshness boost.
Set Up Google Alerts
You can receive an email monthly, weekly or even daily that displays content published online and matches the keyword or phrase you subscribed to. Simply visit Google.com/Alerts and get started by entering a subject you would like to monitor the web for. Choose ‘Show Options’ to select how often you want to be updated, specify the source, language and even the region from which the content was produced. Have fresh content ideas delivered to your inbox easily with Google Alerts.
Subscribe to Industry Specific Newsletters
Many websites offer an email subscription which means if you provide your email they’ll send you updates, newsletters, etc. When you find websites with quality content that is relevant to your industry, go ahead and sign up. This way someone else is feeding your inbox with information related to your field of business. Bonus points, they may have thought of a new angle or way of targeting your industry that you had not thought of. Take advantage of information being offered for free by joining a few mailing lists.
Replicate What You See
If you repeatedly notice something in your news feed get creative and find a way to connect it to your business. We all remember when Pokémon Go took over the world. You may also remember how many business and restaurants took advantage of the Poké stops to lure customers in, offering free wi-fi and special deals if a Pokémon Trainer chose your business for a recharge, battle or lunch break. Although the buzz won’t last forever, catching that wave of ‘fresh’ traffic will be beneficial for the visibility of your website.
Brainjar Media helps get your website found through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media marketing. Located in Downtown Gresham, we have over two decades of experience with a successful track record. Everything we do comes with measurable results. If you want more leads, phone calls, foot traffic or sales — call us at 503.492.6500.
