Crisis Information Systems are the second signal in Google Search Ranking System. If you still need to read about the first signal, understand BERT first.
This article about CIS will have five parts. Let’s discuss it!
What is Crisis Information System?
Crisis Information System is a Google-owned group of multiple systems that shows specific and relevant information to the searcher from any Google-indexed webpages during any emergency or critical situation.
For example, a small town has a less-known news publishing website, and most people only read that website a little. And that small website is indexed on Google but doesn’t appear in the SERPs either because it is getting less traffic.
Let’s assume that the small town gets hit by an earthquake. Now people start searching for that small town’s earthquake update, and this is when Google will up rise the rank of that small website of that small town.
Because, at the time of that earthquake crisis, that small town’s website will offer the most accurate updates about the incident, compared to any big news website.
CIS ranking signal is a trigger-based ranking signal.
I mean that the Crisis information systems ranking signal will be activated as soon as some incident happens and then deactivated when the incident becomes a story from the past.
What are the triggers? Keep reading; I’ll discuss that later in this article.
What are the main crisis situations?
1- Personal Crisis
The personal crisis situation system is triggered when someone searches for suicide, sexual assault, domestic violence, poison, etc.
When people search for this type of critical query, Google shows them specific results that are not commonly shown for regular search queries.
In the search results, Google shows contact details and helpful phone numbers that needy people can contact and ask for help.
To gather this helpful information, Google partners with multiple companies/NGOs and health organizations in multiple countries so that people can get help as soon as possible.
Currently, Google shows such helpful details in 35 countries worldwide. Learn about how personal crisis information is displayed in Google Search.
2- SOS Alerts
SOS alerts crisis situation system is referred to natural calamity, earthquake, etc. types of alerts. These alerts mostly appear in areas that are going through any crisis situation.
For SOS crisis situations Google gathers the relevant data from multiple online places, such as websites, social platforms, and of course, Google’s products.
These alerts are usually shown in English, as well as in the local language, by Google. Learn more about how SOS alerts work.
3- How do Crisis information systems work?
When a person searches for a natural/unnatural disaster or personal crisis, Google shows the contact information of the relevant person or companies/NGOs in that area that can help the person.
How do Crisis information systems affect SEO?
Crisis information systems do not affect SEO on any website. But if you are in any of the following niches:
- Physical Abuse Niche
- Mental Awareness Niche
- Mental health Niche
Then, your website won’t be able to rank at the time of crisis for related search queries because Google will show just the personal crisis and help-related information for those related search phrases.
Small and medium-sized websites can decrease their ranks during crisis times because Google shows contact details and helpful numbers on the first page for the government, disaster situation-related institutes/organizations, and News channels.
But if your website is related to the area where the disaster occurred, then there are chances your website also appear in the top results.
Conclusion: How to make your website ready for CIS ranking signal?
Google partners with multiple organizations in each country, Google shows their contact details and the relevant information from their websites on top of search results.
If you want to show your website on the main page, you’ll have to partner with Google because Google has no partnership limit for any area/country. That is how you can rank your website in a crisis/disaster situation.
For reference: Here is the list of → All 19 Most Important Google Ranking Signals for 2023.
