Search Personalization Will Not Kill SEO

Many people are syndicating the story that search personalization will kill SEO. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each time search engines add variables to their ranking algorithms they create opportunity. Plus as the field gets muddier those who understand how communities interact with search will have more relative influence over the marketplace. Quality SEO is not based on using a rank checker for arbitrary terms and cranking out meaningless ranking reports. It is based on measuring traffic streams and conversions. If the search engines are sending you more leads or better converting leads then your SEO is working.

Customers worth having don't care about ranking reports. They care about conversions. Other than to create a straw man scenario for self promotional stories, why have rank checkers suddenly become important?

Published: January 29, 2007 by Aaron Wall in seo tips

Comments

January 29, 2007 - 9:19pm

Hi Patrick
That is sorta the point...that the non-news was nothing but self serving posturing. That, or maybe someone had to fill up a column when they had nothing to say.

Patrick
January 29, 2007 - 9:33pm

I just followed a few of the links and read about the personalization of search.

Okay, so the point is personalization will make algorithms and SEO more complicated and you won't be able to quantify results in a head-to-head race manner like 'Im better than you I'm #2 your only #3...plus my manhood is longer than yours...' type of way ;), but you'll have to care about money in the bank (traffic + conversions).

..which from a business perspective is the only important thing when it comes to SEO anyways?

Who is saying this will harm (let alone kill) SEO? Has anybody who is involved with SEO (and not renowned for link baits) said that?

Patrick
January 29, 2007 - 9:36pm

oh okay so a big deal about nothing?lol

P.S: sorry bout posting twice..the page wasnt loading, so I thought it wasnt working...wouldnt mind if u removed the double posting of course...

January 30, 2007 - 3:02am

Custom search is awesome for modern Seo. It really puts the power back into the hands of users. This in turn brings LSI indexing to the forefront. As you know semantic indexing is the best step to getting solid search results while killing spam. If more people used custom search Seo would be back to 100% true form vs. abuse of links and feeds. Glad to see you posting so much on it.

P.S.
Also a fast extra note. As I love using your tools even above my own you may need to check this on your keyword tool Mr. Arron "Seo Book" Wall .

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to www.inventory.overture.com:80 in /tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/clsOvertureSuggest.php on line 37

Had to drop you another variable on your fav link :)

Mich D Feinx
Web 2.0 Seo

Patrick
January 30, 2007 - 3:25pm

What is this web 2.0 thing everybody's talking about btw? Just a label for the web 'on another level' ..like search personalization or more efficient in general?

January 31, 2007 - 6:53am

SEO is measured by ROI and increasingly about positioning (distribution, community - as Aaron mentioned , PR/WoM and overall quality/usefulness).

These issues wont go away just because of Google Co-Op or Personalization, as I wrote on SEO and Personalization in 11/06:

In short, if a website is badly position with the audience, has little content, not crawlable by search engines, not attractive enough to be linked to - than you have a problem with search engines, coop or no coop, personalized or not. If, however, the websites has all this issues addressed, than generally it will be well positioned not only on traditional Yahoo, Google search engines but also in personalized searches as well.

Good to hear we're on the same boat. I can imagine SEO being described as a form of PR that can actually be roughly tracked down to ROI and other KPIs. Unlike say other forms of online PR.

Patrick
January 29, 2007 - 4:10pm

I dont know much about personalized search, but I have this little theory about SEO disappearing:

- As long as there is search, there will be SEO

- There wont be any completely automated software that replaces SEO, because then everybody would use the same software and get the same results...so even if its getting more automated over time it wont disappear. Plus this whole everythings getting automated thing ..well ever used machine translation?

- PPC replacing organic search completely..yeah right. Search would become irrelevant and new search engines would pop up..that would be relevant again..

sorry for 'sort of' hijacking this ;)

January 29, 2007 - 4:45pm

IMHO SEO is not dying, it's just evolving, it is a constant process, Search Technology is changing, so is SEO.

Patrick
January 29, 2007 - 5:26pm

Thats the way I see it, too...though I have to admit I dont know enough about it yet to have a strong opinion....all I know is that I dont think search is gonna disappear unless the internet disappears...and it seems to be here to stay...

that's my rather neutral view on this topic, as I see SEO more as a means than an end.

January 29, 2007 - 6:41pm

Aaron I agree totally with your views.
As long as there is search and the more personal the better, there will be an opportunity for SEO.
Bring on the "Search Personalization".
I love it!

Patrick
January 29, 2007 - 8:48pm

I just followed a few of the links and read about the personalization of search.

Okay, so the point is personalization will make algorithms and SEO more complicated and you won't be able to quantify results in a head-to-head race manner like 'Im better than you I'm #2 your only #3...plus my manhood is longer than yours...' type of way ;), but you'll have to care about money in the bank (traffic + conversions).

..which from a business perspective is the only important thing when it comes to SEO anyways?

Who is saying this will harm (let alone kill) SEO? Has anybody who is involved with SEO (and not renowned for link baits) said that?

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