Search Engine Rankings Don't Matter Anymore
Search Engine Rankings will no longer be a good measure of success. Google is adding two aspects of search – geo-targeted search and behavior based search. They are phasing this in, and soon no two searchers will get the same list of search results.
Using geo-targeted search Google will be more apt to show listings near the searchers’ location. If your customers are located near your business, this will work to your benefit as your listing will more likely show up higher on the list of web search results. If you have been drawing customers from all over the country, this will make it more difficult to compete with companies offering the same products or services who are located closer to the customers.
As an example, a company located in Boston that sells cleaning supplies has been enjoying a large percentage of sales to California because of their prominent position in the website rankings. The Google rankings should continue to be good for local customers but may drop in position for searches in California as California companies offering cleaning supplies appear higher on the list of search results.
Using behavior based search techniques, Google will base the results on the searchers’ search history. So we will each see different websites listed in out search engine results page. This will apply especially to shorter searches - one or two words where the intent is not clear.
As an example, let’s look at Major Marine Tours, a company in Seward, Alaska that offers wonderful wildlife and glacier day cruises. If someone has been searching for cruises or tours and then types in “Seward” – they are more apt to have MajorMarine.com listed near the top. If they had been searching for hotels prior to the search for “Seward” they may not see the MajorMarine.com listing at all.
As you can see, your Google listings will appear in different positions for different searchers even for the same search. So any measure of your current search engine ranking will not be valid.
Depending on your business, this may or may not hurt your results. It may actually improve them. However, we cannot determine a fixed search engine ranking any longer and will not be able to use it as a key indicator of our progress.
Since ranking is not a good measure we will use web analytics to look at visitors and conversions per key phrases – visitors and conversions is the goal of good rankings anyway. For my clients, I will continue to report on these key indicators and track progress from month to month and year to year.
Using geo-targeted search Google will be more apt to show listings near the searchers’ location. If your customers are located near your business, this will work to your benefit as your listing will more likely show up higher on the list of web search results. If you have been drawing customers from all over the country, this will make it more difficult to compete with companies offering the same products or services who are located closer to the customers.
As an example, a company located in Boston that sells cleaning supplies has been enjoying a large percentage of sales to California because of their prominent position in the website rankings. The Google rankings should continue to be good for local customers but may drop in position for searches in California as California companies offering cleaning supplies appear higher on the list of search results.
Using behavior based search techniques, Google will base the results on the searchers’ search history. So we will each see different websites listed in out search engine results page. This will apply especially to shorter searches - one or two words where the intent is not clear.
As an example, let’s look at Major Marine Tours, a company in Seward, Alaska that offers wonderful wildlife and glacier day cruises. If someone has been searching for cruises or tours and then types in “Seward” – they are more apt to have MajorMarine.com listed near the top. If they had been searching for hotels prior to the search for “Seward” they may not see the MajorMarine.com listing at all.
As you can see, your Google listings will appear in different positions for different searchers even for the same search. So any measure of your current search engine ranking will not be valid.
Depending on your business, this may or may not hurt your results. It may actually improve them. However, we cannot determine a fixed search engine ranking any longer and will not be able to use it as a key indicator of our progress.
Since ranking is not a good measure we will use web analytics to look at visitors and conversions per key phrases – visitors and conversions is the goal of good rankings anyway. For my clients, I will continue to report on these key indicators and track progress from month to month and year to year.
posted by Ask-Susan at
6:58 PM
<< Home