Search Engine Marketing Industry and Personalized Search

This is the latest in my series sharing observations and insights from the recent SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference in New York. One of my favorite sessions was entitled: SEO Tools of the Trade: What’s in Your Toolbox? The speakers included CEO’s from Searchmetrics, Creativity in Action and Bruce Clay Inc as well as other senior executives from Yahoo and Position Technologies. While, everyone had great things to share with the audience, I was struck by the effect of Personalized Search on the entire toolset that Internet Marketers will need in the future. In other words, our tools to measure effectiveness is destined to change and pretty rapidly. Consider the following facts and factoids:

1. Personalized Search results in different and unique results for identical keyword searches on Google.

2. Few are aware of Personalized Search when Googling.

3. Even fewer are aware of whether Personalized Search is enabled (it is by default, but you have to be logged in to Google which requires a Google account). In other words, if you are logged in, you are using Personalized Search. Even fewer know that they can turn personalized search off.

4. Google Personalization stems from many factors including:

   • Search Behavior or Search History

   • Bookmarking Activity

5. Successful Internet Marketers are actually stripped of a very powerful sales tool. The ability to demonstrate reliably, top ranking sites by searches done by the prospective client. It has been very powerful to be able to show highly competitive keyword searches resulting in top page ranks for multiple keywords and multiple clients. People require proof of performance and this sales tool is very powerful because the “test” is conducted by the prospective client and the results are instant … until now, the results were also predictable. Not so, with Personalized Search.

6. Google also uses your IP address to deliver Personalized Search in the form of local business results, in the form of Google Maps … right in the middle of the page. The searcher no longer has to add geocentric terms to get local results and no longer needs paid ads for local either.

7. Bruce Clay recently said “Page Rank is Dead” and this is a clear reaction from a long time leader of the industry that things are once again changing in a big way.

8. The industry will need to retool. Consider the needs:

   • Performance criteria needs to be even more focused on conversions and the traffic generated from Search Engines, Social Sites, Referring Sites …basically, everything with the exception of direct keying of the website URL.

   • Pay for Performance models need to be upgraded to reflect these criteria as Page Rank, keyword for keyword, can no longer be relied upon as an absolute measurement of performance in the Search Engines.

   • Proxy Software and Processes will be needed to simulate, duplicate search results from any location in the world … otherwise SEO Company and Client or Prospect will not be looking at the same screen or reading from the same page.

Change is the one constant of Internet Marketing. Personalized Search, Universal Search and Behavioral Search are all new deployments by Google as they seek to provide the searcher with “a better search” experience.

The Internet Marketing Industry has to adopt new tools, strategies and techniques to effectively deal with this constant stream of change.

Arthur Cooper

Related posts:

1. Personalized Search and SEO
2. Search Engine Marketing Industry – In denial?
3. Google Personalized Search: Caution – Be Careful how you Search!
4. Search Engine Marketing – Buyer Beware
5. Getting Search Engine Ranking Results – The Pleasure of it All