We all remember those nature shows we would watch in science class as kids after the teacher would wheel in the big ol’ TV on the gigantic cart into the classroom. Some of those were more interesting than others and sometimes it didn’t really matter what we were watching, we were just excited to not be “working” but there was one that I watched that stuck with me, it was one about symbiotic relationships in nature. I was amazed by how this whole system worked and how nature just had somehow figured it all out, in fact I still am. These days when I think about a symbiotic relationship, it’s not just about why certain birds nest above where alligators hang out, though if you want to know more on that check this out, my interest these days is more peaked by the symbiotic relationship between Google and you, or more specifically your site and what you do with it.
Increasingly Google has made changes to their algorithms that have been directly about benefiting the user experience, providing them with what they are looking for and answering their questions. All of these are about user experience which will increase your business as you will have happy visitors, but what does Google get out of it? Well, quite simply, Google gets happy searchers, aka searchers that aren’t going elsewhere, aka market control. There’s a perk for both sides here, though by definition symbiosis does not require both parties to benefit equally and at times this is true both in nature and online, but for the most part when we think of a symbiotic relationship we view it as one that benefits both parties. I believe that almost always this is true these days when we are talking Google and you, the site owner. Let me point out, I did just say “these days” and that is for the purpose of recognizing that this has not always been the case. If we look back to a pre-Panda and Penguin world, well that hot mess was more like a lion hunting in the night; the bigger badder guy was guaranteed to win. Now we are living in a more peaceful state, though some are most definitely still recovering from the lion fight and stuck in the corner licking their wounds.
We know, because Google has openly said so (in fact they have shouted it from the mountain tops), that things like quality content, bounce rate, site speed and mobile friendly sites are ranking factors. Why? Because it all improves the user experience. Google wants to provide THEIR users with good results and in order to do that they need YOU to provide YOUR users with good quality relevant content. Tada – the symbiotic relationship between Google and you. If you provide what Google users want then Google will guide them to you, simple. Create an online presence that is useful, easy to navigate, fresh and high quality and you will be singing Kumbaya with Google in no time.