Friday, 21 November 2008
Google SearchWiki - The End of Search Engine Optimisation?
Yesterday google launched a brand new feature called ‘SearchWiki’. Briefly speaking, this new feature allows anyone with a Google account (i.e. a gmail account etc) to fully customise their search results. The video below demonstrates how:
The Start of a Search Revolution
Effectively this is the beginning of the end of traditional search engine optimisation. With Google SearchWiki, a company that ranks on the second page of google for the term ‘spread betting’ can be easily moved to the number one spot on the first page with a simple drag and drop of the mouse cursor. If there are search results that you find irrelevant on the first page, you can delete them. You can also add new pages that don’t appear at all in the search results.
For now this will only work on an individual basis, i.e. each individual google account holder can arrange search results as he sees fit. But it seems very clear to me that this is the start of a massive shake-up in the way google delivers search results. No doubt they will start feeding information from Google SearchWiki back into their main search engine results at some near point in the future.
What does this mean for your business?
This is good and bad. It’s good for businesses that have built up brand loyalty with their customers and brand recognition with their prospects.
It’s bad for businesses that have used sneaky techniques or bought their way to the top of the search results. The quality of the service or product you offer will now determine your ranking more than the number of keywords you’ve packed into your page content.
Another key feature of SearchWiki is that it allows users to make comments on various website search results in google. Although this won’t be visible to non-google account holders, it will be visible to all those who are using SearchWiki. Meaning that disgruntled clients can easily cast a shadow of doubt over your brand.
Search Engine Optimisation in the Future
With Google SearchWiki, a completely different approach to search engine optimisation needs to be taken. Now you can appeal directly to your client base to list your site at the top of their search results. You can get them to add various webpages into google if they aren’t there and if your service is good enough they will even write positive comments about your service.
Google SearchWiki has effectively connected search results directly with human behaviour, cutting out the technical search engine optimisation ‘middleman’. It’s very hard to under-sell the impact of this on the future of google and the future of search in general.
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