If you use the Google My Business offering from Google (and you should), then there’s a new feature to play with. ‘Google Posts’ (at least we think that’s what it’s called) is a way of putting up-to-date announcements right on the Google search results page when people look for your company. As an example, if you search for us, you should see some ‘posts’ in the panel on the right. My guess is that these have a limited shelf life, but they’re a good way of dropping important news or offers in front of people.

The feature first saw the light of day over a year ago, in a strictly limited format. The Ars Technica website described it then as being like “a Google+ reboot just for brands”. Now it’s being offered to everyone. There’s more at Search Engine Land here.

Most of us don’t have the volume of search engine traffic to be able to make many meaningful tests of different page titles, which provide the ‘headline’ in Google’s natural (or ‘organic’) results. But we can learn from those businesses which do. One interesting recent piece of research suggests that on Google’s results pages, different rules apply to search ads at the top and the ‘natural’ (free) entries below.

“Users who click on paid ads are not a random sample of searchers”, says the report. “They are a biased group. We know they behave differently from overall searchers because they are in the minority of users who click on ads.

“And it turns out they respond differently to titles than users who click on organic results — specifically, it appears that promotional messaging (‘on sale’, ‘discount’, ‘free shipping’, ‘50% off’) performs far better in paid ads than it does in organic results. Titles that performed best in ads often drove organic users away.”

Now, some people use their AdWords ads to test out page titles. This is a reasonable technique. But the research suggests that they shouldn’t assume the same results will work for their page titles too.

The conclusion is that for your general product pages, don’t try to be too clever or too pushy. Indeed, the report’s author goes as far to suggest that in sales, it’s “incredibly difficult” to beat a simple title formula of ‘Product | Supplier Name’. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus more on the benefits in the headline on the page.

Here’s a bit of extracurricular reading for those of you interested in the strategic direction of search engine optimisation. How machine learning impacts the need for quality content on Search Engine Land explains how search engines are constantly being reprogrammed to produce better results by improving their understanding of what a web page is actually saying.

What makes ‘quality content’ which will make a page rank increasingly higher in the search results? According to author Eric Enge, it’s content which meets the needs of the people being sent there. In turn, this means that:

• The product/service/information they are looking for is present on the page.
• They can find it with relative ease on the page.
• Supporting products/services/information they want can also be easily found on the page.
• The page/website gives them confidence that you’re a reputable source to interact with.
• The overall design offers an engaging experience.

Note that these basic requirements do not necessarily mean lots of ‘content’ (i.e. words). It’s about having the right thing in place, clearly labelled and confidently presented. How the machines go about identifying this is challenging, but there are some of the most brilliant minds in the world working on it.