This term has existed for a long time, although they began to use it relatively recently, with the active development of the Internet in all spheres of life. However, to understand that such relevance is not as difficult as it seems. We regularly determine it on a particular page, without even thinking about what it is called.
How to understand a complex term
Understand that such relevance will help the concept of the English language. The word relevant translates to “relevant” or one that is relevant. The meaning is well revealed in the phrase relevant testimony, which has the meaning of "information in essence."
In simple words, relevance - what is it? This corresponds to the user's request. The higher this indicator on the page, the better it should cover the topic. That is, if after reading this article you have clearly understood for yourself what relevance is, then the publication corresponds to the request and, accordingly, it is relevant. It remains only to settle the technical aspects of the text.
To fully understand what relevance is, you can take an example from life. A tourist came to an unfamiliar city, and he needed to find out how to get to the right hotel. If a passer-by clearly explained everything, showed the route on the map, and the traveler quickly and easily got to the desired building - the answer of the local was relevant to the asked question.
What is relevance for?
The Internet is a bottomless dump of a huge number of different articles and sites, and this list is constantly updated. Every second, thousands of users come to this heap and try to find information on a wide variety of topics. In order for each person entering a request to receive the most accurate answer to his question, he needs relevance.
What is it, in a simple example with a tourist it will be easier to understand. If a traveler asks for directions not from one resident, but from five or ten - almost all of them will talk about different ways to get to the hotel. This does not mean that there is only one true advice. There really are many options to get to your destination: the metro, different route numbers, taxis, “short” walking routes, etc. On the Internet, you will get much more options for solving problems.
Perception of a relevant article by users
But what if, instead of a detailed route to the hotel, a tourist receives a thick guide and wishes for a good trip? Even if there is an answer in the book, the traveler is unlikely to be satisfied, as he asked to save valuable time. Now you have to spend a certain number of minutes to find the right page or other adviser.
If the site has an answer to the requested question, it does not automatically become relevant. Imagine if this page had a towel of multi-page text with a complete lack of structure. You would definitely not read up to this place, if there were at least super information here. The user follows the path of least resistance: it is difficult to find the answer, there are many other resources where this will be easier.
In order to make a site relevant, you need to figure out what criteria affect its evaluation by both users and search engines. With people, everything is more or less clear. We all expect the article to be:
- Easy to read, informative and readable.
- With a clear structure: had paragraphs, subheadings and, if necessary, lists.
- Competently written. It is difficult and unpleasant for an educated person to wade through the jungle of mistakes. And even without knowledge of punctuation, spelling, grammar and style, a bad syllable is felt.
- With a well-disclosed topic.
How Search Engines Rank Relevance
The search engine, unlike a real person, cannot evaluate the material based on the above criteria. In order to give the user answers that are most suitable for the request, she needs to evaluate the technical compliance of each page and the behavior of visitors on the page.
A major role in relevance for search engines is played by:
- Corresponding keywords to the title and content.
- The uniqueness of the text.
- Competent technical design content.
- Lack of repetition of a large amount of text from page to page.
External relevance of an article
External relevance is one that is regulated regardless of the content of the article or site. This indicator depends on the number of article recommendations on other resources. That is, the more often the link to the page is found on extraneous sites, the higher the system evaluates the usefulness of the information. Moreover, the higher the rating of the article that posted the link, the more it affects relevancy. An important factor is the name of the link, which should have a name that matches the request. Everything is just like in life: you are more likely to use the services of that professional, who is advised more often by more authoritative sources.
The external relevance of the site is affected by the number of relevant articles on it. If the site is dedicated to computer technology, but most of the articles on it are about humor, games and repairs, the system will lower the rating of the resource, advising it to fewer and fewer visitors.
The internal structure of the relevant page
Internal relevance depends on the content of the article, without the intervention of extraneous "advisers." This metric is adjusted using keywords.
Consider the basic rules for using keywords.
- How often the phrase is used in the text. More recently, search engines have welcomed the highest possible concentration of keywords in the text. Some authors of articles, obeying this rule, began to write completely unreadable texts consisting of a heap of keywords. Now search engines evaluate the ratio to the number of words. Each system uses its own indicators. Articles that are too spammy are filtered out.
- Use of a key phrase in the article title is encouraged.
- The location of the search query is closer to the beginning of the article. Text is scanned sequentially from the very beginning. That is, the closer to the beginning the word is located, the faster it is recognized. That is why the key query at the beginning of the article is more likely to increase relevance.
- The correct design of the search query. In addition to the mention in the title and beginning of the article, it is important to add the appropriate tags for page layout.
- The presence in the article of synonyms for keywords. By evaluating all content, search engines determine whether an article matches a given keyword. Sites that use keywords inserted without proper surroundings by words that are close in meaning are lowered by systems in search results.
How to conduct a relevance analysis
It is unlikely that the user will like a correctly written article, taking into account all the technical features, but at the same time not fully disclosing the topic or difficult to read. Therefore, start the relevance test by testing it on live people. If you managed to clarify the topic to a person or group of people, you can move on. In extreme cases, it’s good enough to re-read the article yourself, but in this case it will be more difficult to evaluate the usefulness of the content.
A sufficient number of online services have been created to verify technical relevance. Consider the main resources:
- Majento is the most common online service. A link to the page is entered in the field on the left, and a search query on the right to determine its compliance with the article.
- Megaindex checks the morphology and makes a technical analysis of the article. To check, you need to go to the page relevance tab.
- PR-CY gives a general concept of the structure of content as it is seen by search engines.
- Seolib allows you to immediately evaluate the entire site, select its most relevant pages. This takes into account certain search queries. Its functions also include a standard page relevance check. It is possible to download the list prepared in advance in .txt or .csv format.
- Serpstat in the audit report shows the relevance of the word, or which key queries to add to increase the score.
Unfortunately, no online service is capable of analyzing an article or site as well as a search engine. It is necessary to take into account a very large number of diverse indicators for such primitive programs. To create a more complete picture, you need to logically evaluate the content and use several resources for verification at the same time.
Reasons why an article is not relevant
Not the fact that the most relevant pages from a technical point of view will be the most useful in content. Sites from the first page of the search are also not necessarily the most relevant. But there are rules because of the neglect of which the relevance of the site can be significantly reduced.
- Do not use non-unique texts on the site.
- Direct neglect of the relevance of search queries and the content of the article will adversely affect the assessment.
- Do not post false or outdated information.
- Perespam keywords will not increase the relevance of the article, but harm.
When creating and promoting a website or article, you should not use only one method, forgetting about the rest. Success is possible only with an integrated approach.