Personalization of Search and SEO: Lost in the Shuffle
Personalization of Search and SEO: Lost in the Shuffle
Important components of search marketing have always been and will always be increasing quality traffic, increasing sales, and increasing profit. These are the ultimate indicators of success for any search marketing campaign. The introduction of personalized results for users does not change the importance of these indicators or goals in any way.
Notwithstanding the above comments, what should not get lost in the cacophony of opinions about the personalization of search is the fact that something significant is different in this new era. What you have with personalized search results is not a totally different set of pages returned from user to user for the same search, but rather a shuffling of the results. If the former were the case, then search engines would need a different algorithm for each user.
What is lost with the personalization of search:
This shuffling is what poses the main challenge to search engine optimization. The challenge posed is that you won't have just one ranking anymore. The all important indicator upon which traditional rank checking depends is lost in the shuffle. Traditional rank checking is not connected directly to the important indicators of success first mentioned above. However, if you are not successful in getting the kind of traffic from natural search that you need, the solution is higher visibility which means higher positioning.
When you cannot tell where you are positioned (or if that notion becomes meaningless), you will need another means of determining your competitive strength for your target keyphrases. Typically, you achieve greater organic traffic from search engines by pursuing higher positioning in the results list. Traditionally, the pursuit of higher positioning relies on examining a number of competitors positioned above you, an attempt to discern from that examination important elements of the search engine's algorithm, and leveraging that information to improve the caliber of your pages.
If knowing who is positioned where gets lost in the shuffle, you can peruse your traffic analytics and sales driven from the organic search results all day long and that won't tell you what specific search engine optimization steps to implement that will improve the competitive strength of and increase the visibility of your pages. The analytics will only tell you if you are doing well or poorly at getting the right traffic, but not why you are doing poorly or how to do better at getting the right traffic. That has traditionally been the role of methods and tools that rely on rank checking. To the degree that the search results are shuffled by personalization, to that same degree those methods and tools are adversely affected.
The effectiveness of those methods and tools gets lost in the shuffle.
Personalization of Search and SEO Lost in the Shuffle - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Marshall's Website.
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What is not lost with the personalization of search:
Important components of search marketing have always been and will always be increasing quality traffic, increasing sales, and increasing profit. These are the ultimate indicators of success for any search marketing campaign. The introduction of personalized results for users does not change the importance of these indicators or goals in any way.
Notwithstanding the above comments, what should not get lost in the cacophony of opinions about the personalization of search is the fact that something significant is different in this new era. What you have with personalized search results is not a totally different set of pages returned from user to user for the same search, but rather a shuffling of the results. If the former were the case, then search engines would need a different algorithm for each user.
What is lost with the personalization of search:
This shuffling is what poses the main challenge to search engine optimization. The challenge posed is that you won't have just one ranking anymore. The all important indicator upon which traditional rank checking depends is lost in the shuffle. Traditional rank checking is not connected directly to the important indicators of success first mentioned above. However, if you are not successful in getting the kind of traffic from natural search that you need, the solution is higher visibility which means higher positioning.
When you cannot tell where you are positioned (or if that notion becomes meaningless), you will need another means of determining your competitive strength for your target keyphrases. Typically, you achieve greater organic traffic from search engines by pursuing higher positioning in the results list. Traditionally, the pursuit of higher positioning relies on examining a number of competitors positioned above you, an attempt to discern from that examination important elements of the search engine's algorithm, and leveraging that information to improve the caliber of your pages.
If knowing who is positioned where gets lost in the shuffle, you can peruse your traffic analytics and sales driven from the organic search results all day long and that won't tell you what specific search engine optimization steps to implement that will improve the competitive strength of and increase the visibility of your pages. The analytics will only tell you if you are doing well or poorly at getting the right traffic, but not why you are doing poorly or how to do better at getting the right traffic. That has traditionally been the role of methods and tools that rely on rank checking. To the degree that the search results are shuffled by personalization, to that same degree those methods and tools are adversely affected.
The effectiveness of those methods and tools gets lost in the shuffle.
Personalization of Search and SEO Lost in the Shuffle - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Marshall's Website.
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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