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The frenetic pace of development at Google seems relentless at the moment. The roll out of personalised search to all users, whether logged in or not, and the inclusion of real time results in the standard search listings are just the latest in a long list of new launches that Google has announced in the last few weeks, and arguably the most important.
Getting Personal
Personalised search has been around for a while – Google account holders have had their results modified based on usage since 2005, but the new launch gives everyone, whether logged in or not the ability to have their results re-ordered based on what they click on.
The roll-out of personalised search to all users has more or less polarised the SEO community, with some commentators describing it as yet another nail in the coffin of small businesses who want to get search visibility, while others have been more restrained, focusing on the changes that the launch will have on the industry.
Although the new personalised search function in Google delivers a similar experience to users – results that they have clicked on in the past are promoted in the search results – the method by which this is achieved is different. The anonymous data is tied to a unique cookie that Google stores on the user’s machine, rather than tying it to their Google account. This Cookie has a lifetime of 180 days, meaning that the data is only stored for about 6 months.
The fact is, for many searches the average user won’t see any difference, unlike SEOs, most users only search for things like “car insurance” once a year – we check it several times a day! In addition to this, many searches – around 20% according to Google a few years ago, are entirely new, so these are unlikely to be affected too much. Indeed, even when you look at the most popular search terms for 2009 in Google, eight out of ten were purely navigational, so people are only ever likely to click on the top result.
Keeping it Real Time
Real time search is much more interesting for both users and marketers – the inclusion of the most recent twitter entries that include a particular keyword means that users will be able to see instant information about what people are saying on a particular subject.
Real time search has the potential to create a paradigm shift in user interaction with the search results. Instant feedback means that brands of all sizes will need to engage more thoroughly with their customers, and monitor closely what kind of attention they are getting. While in the past it took time for negative material to appear in the search results, they can now appear as soon as the comments are made. Social Media monitoring and online brand management need to be an essential consideration of
The development is not without risk for Google either. As soon as real time search got into the wild, online marketers began to look at what opportunities were available to exploit it, and use the feeds to drive traffic. Some, like Rae Hoffman at Outspoken Media have already discussed the potential risks of Real Time Search for users, while others are already reaping the benefits in terms of additional traffic.
As more people start to use Real Time Search as a traffic vector, we will almost certainly see abuse – remember the Skittles home page fiasco – and we will definitely see people jumping on hot topics to drive traffic to their websites.
In theory, real time search is a fantastic addition to the Google suite – instantly updated news items providing users with insight into what is happening right now, however there are many hurdles that Google need to get past before it can happen. Authority is everything in search Google’s PageRank algorithm has been the bedrock of determining website quality for more than a decade, but applying the same metrics to something as ephemeral as Twitter is a massive hurdle for Google to overcome. They cannot ignore less well known users as they will still add value, but there needs to be some level of quality control applied to ensure that the content that users are exposed to is useful and valuable.
If a breaking news story of international importance is instantly overwhelmed by unscrupulous marketers peddling Viagra, then real time search will become no more than an irritant, and will be quickly forgotten. By the same token, if Google get the quality control right, and overcome the various challenges that they face in keeping the real time results fresh, relevant, and clean, then it will transform user experience instantly and create a more connected and interactive web.
And What it Means for us
It is important to remember that with both Real Time search and Personalised search, the fundamentals of SEO remain the same. Google will still display their standard algorithmically ordered natural search results for users the first time they search for a particular subject. This means that the same tactics of on-page and off-page optimisation are required to get pages ranking in the Google top 10.
The big change from an SEO point of view is that the focus now, more than ever needs to be on translating great rankings into clicks. The use of AB testing of different creatives on PPC and using these learnings to create a more compelling call to action in the natural search results is business as usual within a holistically managed search campaign, but now, it takes on even greater importance in ensuring that your result is positioned front and centre for your customers every time they search.
Checking rankings is no longer as easy as it was – if you search for a particular term every day, and click on different results, you will end up looking at a completely different landscape from your customers. While it will be immensely satisfying to see your website ranking at number one for every keyword that you track, it won’t mean much if your customers (don’t) see you in the mid thirties.
Keyword rank checking will still be important, but it will need to be done on a click by click basis – custom filters in Google Analytics allow you to track where your result was when a user clicked, and this is far more useful in the long run for establishing how successfully your website is performing in the natural search results for users.
Search has enabled consumers to become more fickle, and many people will never look beyond the first few listings for any search. Ensuring that you get the click first time will ensure that you are there the next time a user looks.
In the future, we may well see the rich get richer– a well known brand will always have the potential to gain additional traffic simply because the user recognises the name, but this does not mean the end for small businesses who want to increase traffic from Google. It will undoubtedly make the job harder, but over time, the benefits will still be there for people who are prepared to put in the work.
(James Lowery)