For the past month personalised search has been the topic on every SEO blog and forum. SEO’s are not relishing the idea of having their sites drop down the rankings because it does not fit a searcher profile?? For those of you not familiar with personalised search it is Google’s new ‘SearchWiki‘ which allows users to comment, rank and personalise their search results through their personal Goolge accounts.
You can read more about personalised search at searchengineland.
All you will hear on blogs is how this is going to kill the search marketing industry and make it ten times harder to perform SEO work for clients, as results are now determined by the searchers actions and not your expertise.
All the moaning really bugs me in fact I think it is rather pathetic, but before I explain why let me just go through a few things.
As search engine optimisers, what should we be aiming to provide our clients with? Well here’s a few ideas (but in no way a complete list)
1) Identifying profitable keywords relevant to products and services
2) Delivering highly targeted and convertible traffic
3) Help our clients understand the SEO process to help build confidence in our services
4) More online visibility
5) More effective brand
6) Pages that spiders and visitors can enjoy
7) Full analysis of traffic
OK there’s a few things from the top of my head that I like to provide as an SEO consultant.
What aspect of these 7 results will the new personalised (I’m so sick of hearing about) search system effect?
The only real negative impact this is going to have on SEO is that it is going to make it harder to collect metrics as personalised search is password protected. Don’t get me wrong I am not writing this off as I am well aware of the importance of metrics, however let’s look at the positive side to this whole debate (for a change)
One massive positive from a search marketing point of view is that it will make it easier for users to find websites they like, this in turn increases return visitors and ,…. yup should also increase conversions.
This is where my argument comes into play, SEO should and in my opinion never has been all about search engine rankings, after all search engines do not buy products and services, they simply act as a funnel to attract business. So as SEO’s and search marketers we should be aiming for;
- building search friendly sites
- providing valuable content
- building user friendly sites
As SEO’s if we kept all these points in mind we should have no problem in driving forward the business for our clients.
Ye sure those SEO’s who simply game the algorithms to get results for their clients may have problems, where as those who are looking to really build their clients business presence from every online marketing aspect will find the new system more beneficial.
If you are building or assisting to build sites that include the above 3 aspects, personalised search should, and I think will enhance the effect of your efforts.
I hope you can take this (I think) refreshing perspective on board.
later,
Tim
