Is it The End to SEO as we Know It With Google Search Wiki?
Google have chucked a spanner in the works for all SEO’s or have they really? Lets take a look. For those of you who do not know what search wiki is please see below for a snippet from Google
Today we’re launching SearchWiki, a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account. If you are wondering if you are signed in, you can always check by noting if your username appears in the upper right-hand side of the page.
So will this effect how we perceive SEO? Well not really, as Googles new search wiki is only based on a users specified preference. So whatever the user decides to vote up or delete will only be displayed in their personal account. But what I am interested in is how this will actually develop in say a year from now. What is there to say that Google will in someway add this to their algo? So they look at which sites will be getting the most votes and give them a boost? Well that would be hugely prone to abuse and I believe if Google did to something like this, they would leave the door wide open for a new search engine to replace them.
But no doubt they will be using this data for a purpose, who knows yet but I am certain the big G has more suprises around the corner as they look to advance search into the next generation.
Take a look at the video below for an indepth video
Subscribe to our blog to receive new posts and updates by Email 9 Responses to “Is it The End to SEO as we Know It With Google Search Wiki?”
Leave a Reply
Hi,
I am very happy to read your post. You show one part of SEO work.
Thanks
I think it’s a massive step towards killing SEO as we know it. Eventually, surely, google will give some weight to search wiki… maybe not for a couple of years though until they have enough data / research done on how people are using it
Good post, and a catchy title. I totally agree with you - SearchWiki will not be the end of SEO as we know it. As you said, if they did incorporate this into the algorithm then it would quickly become abused. I think it’s just one more feature to encourage people to signup for google accounts. I actually used it on some of the terms that I regular search for, but then realized that I don’t want my selections to be number one. If a new site comes along that is highly relevant, then I could miss it. I doubt that SearchWiki will get wide spread adoption.
If Google add this to their algo.I can imagine the volume of spam comments/votes coming up on the world largest search engine.
BTW that’s what Scour.com is doing it now,with 3 major search engine combine.
Good post…But what is the future of seo?
“So they look at which sites will be getting the most votes and give them a boost? Well that would be hugely prone to abuse and I believe if Google did to something like this, they would leave the door wide open for a new search engine to replace them.”
COMPLETELY wrong. If Google does that Google will stay here with us even more. What people like should come first in a search result. Not what site owners want. Go Google go!
It’d be a shame if this feature were too prone to abuse, but I don’t think it’s the end of SEO either. But if this feature because truly popular it would be interesting to see how SearchWiki graffiti affected CTRs for organic SERPs.
Search Engine Land did an interview with a Google product manager who said that they wouldn’t close the door on using information gotten from SearchWiki in their search results.
I link to the article from the primer I wrote talking about how businesses are impacted by SearchWiki:
http://www.integratedroi.com/businesses-adjust-to-google-searchwiki/
You still find websites on the front page of the SERP’s that seem irrelevant, at the same time there are sites on pages 2 or 3 that provide better information but aren’t aggressively optimised. Therefore I see this ‘experiment’ as a way for Google to use its millions of users to help determine quality content. Of course this will be open to spam and competitor sabotage but Google has good logic and tools to defend against spam.