New Google Feature Alert 🚨

Today, I’m talking about a new Google search feature that is starting to roll out and what it means for your business.

Google is rolling out a new label in search results for pages that are recognized as highly cited sources. The label will appear next to pages in the Top Stories section of Google results and is designed to help people find credible information.

The Top Stories section is typically reserved for recent news and is a continued effort by Google to prevent the spread of misinformation.

So unless you are a media company and appear in the Top Stories section a lot, this might not have a lot of implications on your business… But that’s where you’d be wrong.

Google made this statement with the announcement of this feature:

The widespread availability of information – from all different kinds of sources – is great for learning new facts and perspectives from around the world. But it can also make it difficult to sort out what information is credible and what isn’t.

While the feature change in the search engine results page likely doesn’t affect you directly, this statement does.

Google knows it’s difficult to sort out credible information. They need help to do so.

That’s where backlinks (links from other credible sites to your site) help them determine what is credible.

But generating backlinks in order to position yourself as credible is hard work without leverage and sufficient evidence that you are in fact trustworthy and an expert in your field.

That’s where a content-first approach comes in. Here are some tips for creating content that positions you well for creating linkable assets that boost your credibility:

• Create in-depth, unique content that raises the bar for what’s available online for any given topic you are involved with.
• Conduct original research and identify interesting statistics for your industry. Other website publishers love to cite original research. It’s a great way to generate more backlinks.
• Create content like a podcast, YouTube channel, etc. Other forms of content like this get shared and linked differently. But be sure to post and organize this content on your website, as well.