How Search Engine Results Work
Why does my search engine keep showing me plus sizes when searching for clothes It’s rude?
I have been using Google’s new experimental topic picker to get topics to write about. Most of the results have been silly but this one made me giggle.
Digital advertising and search results are run by algorithms, which are a series of instructions carried out by a computer. The algorithm decides what to show you, and it has decided that you are a plus sized human. I can’t tell you why completely. Algorithms like these tend to be kept secret to some degree. Maybe you searched for diets and cheese cake recipes earlier?
On Instagram I found a post about being introverted funny and gave it a heart. Instagram spent months afterwards recommending either ADHD or Autism pages to me because of it. I don’t think the algorithm should be diagnosing me.
While this is all fun, it does give a hint as to how it all works. If you are a small business looking to grow through digital advertising, having an idea of what the algorithm is looking for will help you get noticed by people likely to want your products and services.
Search engines like Google will explain their process so that you can create websites that are easily searched and ranked. Advertising platforms show how keyword combinations and money work together to reach a certain audience number.
These are all necessary windows into how their algorithms work so that users are able to create content that works with it.
But
How does the algorithm know who are decision makers, what their interests are, and what actions are they likely to take? This is the part of the algorithm that’s hidden from view, accessed through keywords or pull down menus, but the magic is still there.
Re-targeting is another way advertisements are chosen. Re-targeting is a method of converting website traffic to sales leads. It takes multiple website visits to get your customer to commit to anything. A way of ensuring that the same customer sees your content multiple times a day is by re-targeting or showing that same content again when they go somewhere else. This is done by setting up a web beacon on your site that connects to the re-targeting company. If you access a site that sells plus size clothing, it will show you the same plus sized clothing over and over again.
If this is something that your business might be interested in, let us know and we will help you get it started.