New Generation Search : My Thoughts
November 19, 2008
It seems that some people were listening when Bruce Clay spoke at PubCon about the newer generation of search and universal search and some of the things it might mean to SEOs and website owners in general. I was not there, but I get the general idea. One of my clients sent me an e-mail asking my thoughts on it. I thought it was a great question. And that it deserved an answer. So I figured I might as well make it public.
Here was the essence of the two part question:
Bruce Clay says that behaviour based searching will become a big part of how the search engines provide results and will dramatically alter how SEOs work. In short, I agree with the first part (we are ALREADY seeing it.) and would like to qualify the second…it won’t be affecting my clients much at all IMO. Especially not in the real estate sector.
If you look at Google and do a search as of today, you may well see a little piece of black text that says “this search customized based on user behavior or some such.” If you click “Search” again, that will go away and you will see Google’s true current search. How much change do you see?
I think in SOME industries and for SOME searches such as more generalized stuff, search engines may even try to help the user get more specific to find them what they actually want. Does this really change how a real estate (for example) site should be optimized. Not really.
Another interesting point. CUIL and SEARCHME jumped into the SE market with much fanfare. And Google increased its market share (according to comscore). New generations of search engines must retain relevance. And they must have the marketing muscle to take on Google if they want to be a long term player. Do you see anyone up to that challenge? I do not.
Could they erode Y! or M! and then try to hang around for a while? More likely.
Part 2 was about “Universal Search”. Again, we are already seeing SOME of this tried. Google occaisionally includes videos from you tube in the results of some searches. Let’s keep in mind that there are two aspects (IMO) to universal search..how the sites are ranked and how they are displayed in the SERPS. I care about the first. Many of the new generation search engines, like cuil for example and searchme display the results in a more visual format, but HOW they rank them (at the nub of it) doesn’t vary all that much.
Does it make sense to syndicate some video and include it in what you do? Absolutely. But this is as much for users as anything, and not solely for SERPS by any means. I have several friends who syndicate out video for the notoriety and traffic, with NO thought as to the search engines’ thoughts on the subject.
The most that universal search can mean in the short run is “do some syndicated video, hang back and we will watch and see. At least that is what I am doing with my own sites.
Hey Eric -
As usual, I agree with you. There’s been a lot of talk about Bruce Clay’s presentation (which I did not attend,) and I would go so far as to say there’s been too much talk about it. I did attend a session where Greg Boser spoke about universal search - his presentation said, “Here’s what universal search is. Don’t worry about it. Crank your traditional SEO.” I completely agree with that. In the service industry, it’s important to be cognizant of local search, but you’re going to see your biggest ROI from traditional, old school, link building.
Remember, as well, that universal search is NOTHING new. SEO speakers have been yelling that the universal search sky is falling for a couple of years now.
Now, one aspect of search that was quietly talked about at Pubcon was user behavior affecting search results. It’s now generally accepted among SEO’s that I respect that Google is using bounce rate to affect SERPs. Bottom line? Make sure you have a sticky site, and you’ll rank. I really don’t understand why no one is discussing that bombshell.
@ Eric Bramlett- Thanks for dropping by! Yep. I was not able to attend PubCon, but I would agree with Greg’s assesment of Universal Search. I would also subscribe to the notion that stickier sites (read: lower bounce rates) will get better love from search engines.
It is pretty obviously not coming directly from Google Analytics’ version of bounce rate, but I am convinced they are measuring it and that it matters.
The amount of data that google is collecting is amazing. It would make sense for google to increase the sophistication of their search engine by apply many of the metrics they are already recording. Just the other day, as proof of google’s god like power, I read in the news that they were taking searches for flu symptoms and using them to identify areas where break outs were happening. They were more accurate than the CDC.