Case Study:
Google’s understanding of the Finance sector

August 2020

Executive Summary

Google uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) routines to convert its understanding of text into topics and concepts (Entities). We looked out how much understanding Google misses using this approach in the Finance sector.

InLinks analyzed the page content of the top 10 Google results (in the Singapore Market) ranking for the phrase Gold Price and compared the Named Entities recognized by Google’s NLP API with the proprietory routines designed by Inlinks to uncover gaps in Google’s machine learning in the Finance sector

The results showed that 20.2% of entities seen on the results in the Finance sector SERPS (search engine Results pages) were positively identified by Google.

This compares to 21.4% average across all analyzed industry sectors.

How the Sector Compares

Different sectors tend to be analyzed with a different degree of accuracy by the search engines. This stems from two main challenges.

1. The more demand there is by consumers within a given sector, the more the need for search engines to apply more sophisticated entity recognition to better answer user queries.
2. The more sophisticated the industry is in creating search-friendly content, the more search engines can surface topics and concepts.

 

How the research was conducted

Google’s Search API returned URLs for the following sites competing for this phrase:

#sbma.org.sg, #bullionstar, #cmcmarkets, #ig, #meysonjewellery, #mustafa.com.sg, #straitstimes

The texts of each page are then sent to Google’s NLP API, in order to determine which entities are identified by the search engine. These are important for search since Google is then able to link these to its Knowledge Graph to feed its services including Google Discover, Google search, Voice Search and Google News. (Although, correct identification does not guarantee inclusion in these results)

Here is first of all the synthesis of the results returned by Google:

• 25 organizations, including London bullion market (detected 3 times) The Straits Times (2) Over-the-counter (finance) (2)
• 17 geographical areas, including United States (6) Singapore (5) Asia (2)
• 15 concepts, including Gold as an investment (2) WeChat (2) Obituary (2)
• 2 cities, including London (2) Sydney (1)
• 3 persons, including John Maynard Keynes (1) Mustafa Centre (1) Sunil Kashyap (1)

Errors in Google’s Detection Rate

Here are some errors in the categorization of entities:

• Taiwan categorized as a concept instead of geographical area

Most important entities (provided by InLinks), compared to those identified by Google:

• Price (seen 7 times) => NOT detected by Google
• United States (5) => detected by Google
• Bank (5) => NOT detected by Google
• Metal (5) => NOT detected by Google
• Singapore (5) => detected by Google
• Gold as an investment (5) => detected by Google
• Stock market (5) => NOT detected by Google
• Contract (5) => NOT detected by Google
• Futures exchange (4) => NOT detected by Google
• Contractual term (4) => NOT detected by Google
• Business (4) => NOT detected by Google
• Investment (4) => NOT detected by Google
• Central bank (4) => NOT detected by Google
• Sales (4) => NOT detected by Google
• Gold (4) => detected by Google

How can the Finance Industry benefit from this report?

By understanding where Google is failing to recognize important concepts within the industry, there is an opportunity for companies in the sector to write clearer content that Google can better understand.

Another option is to explicitly state these concepts in Webpage schema for machine learning algorithms to take into account. This would require using Schema.org/WebPage and the "about" and mentions" properties for important concepts such as Bank, Stock market, Futures exchange, Central bank.

Internal linking of topics topages dedicated to each important topic will also help to reduce cannibalisation of content in Google’s understanding of contect within your content.

In Summary

Google's understanding of the Finance market, based on its NLP algorithms remains limited at 20.2% for this industry. Businesses either need to improve their schema or make their content more understandable by Google to improve its level of understanding.

SERP results

https://www.bullionstar.com/charts/gold-price-today

Gold as an investment, Spot contract, London, Futures contract, Over-the-counter (finance), London bullion market, United States

https://www.ig.com/sg/commodities/markets-commodities/gold

IG Group, Singapore, United States, Discover Financial, Wall Street, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Belgium, Contract for difference

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/gold-shops-see-dip-in-customers-as-gold-prices-surge-to-record-highs

Singapore, The Straits Times, AsiaOne, WeChat, Obituary, Tamil Murasu, Jurong West, United States, China

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/gold-prices-surge-to-9-year-high-may-support-singapores-exports

Singapore, AsiaOne, The Straits Times, Exchange-traded fund, North America, Europe, WeChat, Tamil Murasu, Obituary, Enterprise Singapore, Singapore Exchange, Bloomberg L.P., London bullion market, Sydney, Asia, Goldman Sachs, United States, SPDR Gold Shares, India, China

https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-sg/news-and-analysis/diversifying-risk-to-combat-volatility-in-gold-prices

United States, Barrick Gold, CMC Markets, John Maynard Keynes, Share (finance), Franco-Nevada, Newmont Corporation

http://www.sbma.org.sg/media-centre/publication/crucible-issue-2/hedging-strategies-with-gold-derivatives/

Gold, Singapore, United States, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Exchange-traded fund, Over-the-counter (finance)

https://www.mustafa.com.sg/

Japan, Malaysia, DBS Bank, POSB Bank, Mustafa Centre, India, Bahraini dinar, Danish krone, Pakistani rupee, Jordanian dinar, Norwegian krone, South African rand, Bangladeshi taka, Bangladesh

http://www.sbma.org.sg/media-centre/publication/crucible-issue-1/developments-in-the-lbma-gold-price/

Gold as an investment, Gold, London bullion market, Singapore, Sunil Kashyap, Precious metal, Asia, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan, Malaysia, Russian language, London, Canada, Australia, Swiss franc, United Kingdom

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