rmation gain and SEO: What is it and why does it matter?
Google granted a patent in June 2022 on the “information gain score”. It’s not a coincidence that a number of algorithm updates, including the helpful Content Update, followed.
Does Google use the information gain score to prioritise valuable content? This includes “original, high quality, people-first, content that demonstrates qualities E-E.A.T.”
Yes, I believe that you are right. Here’s why.
What is a score of information gained?
Information gain is a score that measures how unique and different your content is in comparison to the rest of the corpus. The corpus is all of the documents that Google analyzes to rank for a particular search query.
Most of the scenarios in the patent are calculated after the subsequent searches or views of documents and search results. This is a process of learning that’s specific to each individual or topic.
When the patent review was still ongoing in 2020, Bill Slawski, who died in 2010, wrote a breakdown of technical details.
This is one of the most interesting things that I’ve noticed in , the patent language:
Google has given the option to calculate information gain scores algorithmically, and apply them as training data for machine learning models.
In the future, the need for the first set of documents used to calculate the score on information gain may be obsolete.
In some implementations, the data from the second set may be used as input to a machine-learning model.
What is the impact of information on search rankings?
Google is a good example of this.
- It is possible to calculate how unique your content compared to the other content on that subject.
- Uses a metric based on the level of similarity or difference to promote or degrade content.
The information gain score suggests that a new algorithm component targets AI-generated content and.
Content may be degraded if there is no uniqueness in it, even if the content is composed of words that are arranged differently.
This targeted demotion could include skyscraper-related content.
The system of helpful content and information gain score forces innovation in a world where “perfectly optimized content” is the norm.
Can information gain improve your website visibility?
It is important to use information gained in two ways.
- Analyze your data source.
- Identify market opportunities.
It would be interesting to see the results if an expert or manager was asked to solve a client’s X issue without ” requirements or Google. It could be an incredibly creative and relevant response.
We don’t all have that luxury and we need more structure in order to update, adapt and change how we create our content.
Let’s look at how you can change your approach.
What sources do you use to get your information?
It may seem like you are going backwards, but prepare yourself to spend a lot more time than ever before researching content.
You may be contributing to the problem if you only get your information from the internet and the SERP that you are trying to rank in. It’s something we all do, but it is kind of lazy, right.
It takes time to create content of high quality.
Content that we use to promote ourselves, our companies and our brands should meet the “thought-leadership” mark.
What is required? It is important to have an informed opinion as the basis for thought leadership.
You will need to have an opinion or a position.
To do this, you will need to have the necessary information to support your opinion.
You will find unique data in any business that you can use to create an article or tool you can offer your customers and clients, such as:
- Customer service feedback and logs.
- Your reviews.
- Your sales team will call you with feedback and to make sales.
- If you can aggregate and publish your product usage data.
All of these are content sources that your competitors will not be able to easily replicate.
You can turn them into rich media experiences, which Google cannot create.
Your actual customers’ experiences and feedback will also be considered.
Many of the results that you may “tell” to create are not appropriate for your clients.
By starting with your own data, you’ll be able to filter out content written solely for search engines.
What are the opportunities on the market?
It’s tempting for you to follow the format in the search results of the article that ranks highest on Google. But remember, Google only gives the best ranking to the articles they have.
The content they create (yet), can’t answer what someone is looking for exactly if it’s not already available.
The content ranking may be utter garbage in terms of meeting expertise or providing a solid response, but it ranks because it is the best of worst.
When creating new content, it’s important to consider the topical relevance of your topic and any areas that other writers are not taking advantage.
You can use the following tools to see what topics your competitors are discussing:
You can use the following tools to understand the semantic topic relationships for your primary topic. These may be overlooked by your competitors.
- MarketMuse
- TF-IDF via Ryte
- Keyword clustering using Semrush (paid).
- Create your own topic modelling tool using Latent dirichlet allocation and Python (not tested).
Each tool has its own considerations and trade-offs. You should weigh each against the data compromises that your organization makes.
They’re an approximation to how Google’s ranking system for search engines works.
Google’s real costs are impacted by the recent influx of AI-generated content.
The more content, the higher their electricity bill. They have an incentive to remove as much as they can before it is sent through all three crawlers.
Find ways to create content for your customers as well as Google.
The first post Information Gain in SEO: What is it and why does it matter was published on Search Engine land.