Looking back over the 15 or so years that SEO has been
researched, discussed and practiced, it's difficult to find any
significant period of time when it wasn't changing.
Before Google came onto the search scene around the turn of the
millennium, the search engines at the time were ranking websites
based primarily on the sheer volume and density of keywords on
the page. So ranking for "blue widgets" meant little more than
finding ways to stuff those two words into every inch of your
page possible while still maintaining at least the semblance of
a user experience. The result was a plethora of webmasters who
found creative ways to stuff keywords into every corner of their
sites. Then Google changed the game. With PageRank, Google introduced a new way of evaluating the
relative authority of a website or page - links. PageRank, to
put it in simple terms, provided a link map of the web. The more
links pointing to a site or page, the more power or authority
that page took on. And the anchor text of a link, the words that
occur as clickable text, offered a clue as to what the linked-to
page was all about. As Google garnered more market share, links
became more valuable on the web. A whole new form of webspam was
born - free-for-all links and link selling schemes. Google has
yet to find an effective way to completely crack down on these
tactics, but in the 3rd quarter of 2007 they took some
signficant steps including directly penalizing specific websites
which were believed to be selling links for SEO benefits and
relieving "free-for-all" directories of their power to pass
PageRank altogether. There should be no question that more big changes are coming in
SEO - only a question of "what next - and how do I prepare for
it?" Here's what's next: Personalized Search. In fact, it's
already here - more likely than not you're already seeing
personalized results when you search in Google. Google has continually added to their impressive list of free
services. To name a handful: * GMail
* Google Analytics
* Google Reader
* FeedBurner
* Google Desktop
* Google Chrome
* Google Toolbar
* etc. Every one of the above services sends usage data back to Google.
Publicly, Google states that this data is "anonymous" and they
don't attach personal information to it. Where legal issues are
concerned, we have no reason to suspect they are doing
otherwise. However, we know for certain that Google is using
personal search history to skew search results that individuals
get when logged-in to their Google account - they are quite
clear on that point.
So What does Personalized Search Mean for You and Your Website? 1. You can no longer assume that rankings as you see them are
global. Anyone logged in while they search is potentially
seeing a different set of results for the same keyword. You
can log out of your Google account to search or turn off
personalized results, but it won't do much good since every
other user is potentially searching with personalization. 2. If Google is incorporating usage data from other sources
such as the Google Toolbar, Google Chrome and Google
Analytics, it means that the user experience is going to
play a heavier role in SEO. Keep this in mind: for Google,
the user experience is everything. Doesn't it then make
sense for them to incorporate available usage data when
ranking websites?
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Mike Tekula is the President and Founder of Unstuck Digital,
Inc., a Long Island SEO company (http://www.unstuckdigital.com/
search-engine-optimization-seo/) that provides clients with
effective and affordable search engine marketing strategies.
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