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FEATURE ARTICLE: The Future of WebSite Ranking
By Mel Strocen Copyright © 2003
Web Source.net
The recent shakeup in Google's search results, which set the
SEO (search engine optimization) community buzzing and saw tens
of thousands of webmasters watch their site ranking plummet,
was in many ways inevitable. Almost all SEO companies and most
savvy webmasters had a fairly good handle on what Google considered
important. And since SEO, by definition, is the art of manipulating
website ranking (not always with the best interests of searchers
in mind), it was only a matter of time until Google decided
to make some changes.
If you've been asleep at the SEO switch,
here are a few links to articles and forums that have focused
on the recent changes at Google:
Articles:
http://www.sitepronews.com
http://www.searchengineguide.com
http://www.searchenginejournal.com
http://www.accordmarketing.com
Forums:
http://www.webmasterworld.com
http://www.jimworld.com
http://www.searchguild.com
To date, most of the commentary has been
predictable, ranging from the critical and analytical to the
speculative. Here's a typical example from one of our SiteProNews
readers: "I'm not sure what has happened to Google's vaunted
algorithm, but searches are now returning unrelated junk results
as early as the second page and even first page listings are
a random collection of internal pages (not index pages) from
minor players in my industry (mostly re-sellers) vaguely related
to my highly-focused keyword search queries."
So, what is Google trying to accomplish?
As one author put it, Google has a "democratic" vision of
the Web. Unfortunately for Google and the other major search
engines, those with a grasp of SEO techniques were beginning
to tarnish that vision by stacking the search result deck
in favor of their websites.
Search Engine Optimization or Ranking Manipulation?
Author and search engine expert, Barry Lloyd
commented as follows: "Google has seen their search engine
results manipulated by SEOs to a significant extent over the
past few years. Their reliance on PageRank(tm) to grade the
authority of pages has led to the wholesale trading and buying
of links with the primary purpose of influencing rankings
on Google rather than for natural linking reasons." Given
Google's dominance of search and how important ranking well
in Google is to millions of websites, attempts at rank manipulation
shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. For many, achieving
a high site ranking is more important than the hard work it
takes to legitmately earn a good ranking.
The Problem with Current Site Ranking Methods
There will always be those who are more interested
in the end result than on how they get there and site ranking
that is based on site content (links, keywords, etc.) and
interpreted by ranking algorithms will always be subject to
manipulation. Why? Because, for now, crawlers and algorithms
lack the intelligence to make informed judgements on site
quality. A short while ago, author, Mike Banks Valentine published
an article entitled "SEO Mercilessly Murdered by Copywriters!."
The article rightly pointed out SEO's focus on making text
and page structure "crawler friendly."
Other SEO authors have written at great length
about the need for "text, text, text" in page body content
as well as in Meta, Heading, ALT, and Link tags. They are
all correct and yet they are all missing (or ignoring) the
point which is that the "tail is wagging the dog." Search
engines are determining what is relevant, not the people using
those engines. Searchers are relegated to the role of engine
critics and webmasters to being students of SEO. SEO manipulation
will continue and thrive as long as search engines base their
algorithms on page and link analysis. The rules may change,
but the game will remain the same.
Therein lies the problem with all current
search engine ranking algorithms. SEO's will always attempt
to position their sites at the top of search engine results
whether their sites deserve to be there or not, and search
engines will continue to tweak their algorithms in an attempt
to eliminate SEO loopholes. If there is a solution to this
ongoing battle of vested interests, it won't come from improving
page content analysis.
Incorporating User Popularity into Ranking
Algorithms
The future of quality search results lies
in harnessing the opinions of the Internet masses - in other
words, by tying search results and site ranking to User Popularity.
Google's "democratic" vision of the Web will never be achieved
by manipulating algorithm criteria based on content. It will
only be achieved by factoring in what is important to people,
and people will always remain the best judge of what that
is. The true challenge for search engines in the future is
how to incorporate web searcher input and preferences into
their ranking algorithms.
Website ranking based on user popularity
- the measurement of searcher visits to a site, pages viewed,
time viewed, etc. - will be far less subject to manipulation
and will ensure a more satisfying search experience. Why?
Because web sites that receive the kiss of approval from 10,000,
100,000 or a million plus surfers a month are unlikely to
disappoint new visitors. Although some websites might achieve
temporary spikes in popularity through link exchanges, inflated
or false claims, email marketing, pyramid schemes, etc., these
spikes would be almost impossible to sustain over the long-term.
As Lincoln said "You can fool some of the people all the time.
You can fool all the people some of the time.
But you can't fool all the people all the time." Any effective
ranking system based on surfer input will inevitably be superior
to current systems. To date, none of the major search engines
have shown a serious interest in incorporating user popularity
into their ranking algorithms. As of this writing, ExactSeek
is the only search engine that has implemented a site ranking
algorithm based on user popularity.
Resistance to change, however, is not the
only reason user data hasn't made its way into ranking algorithms.
ExactSeek's new ranking algorithm was made possible only as
a result of its partner arrangement with Alexa Internet, one
of the oldest and largest aggregator's of user data on the
Web. Alexa has been collecting user data through its toolbar
(downloaded over 10 million times) since 1997 and is currently
the only web entity with a large enough user base to measure
site popularity and evaluate user preferences in a meaningful
way.
The Challenges Facing User Popularity Based
Ranking
- The Collection Of User Data: In order for web user data
to play a significant role in search results and site ranking,
it would need to be gathered in sufficient volume and detail
to accurately reflect web user interests and choices. The
surfing preferences of a few million toolbar users would
be meaningless when applied to a search engine database
of billions of web pages. Even Alexa, with its huge store
of user data, is only able to rank 3 to 4 million websites
with any degree of accuracy.
- Privacy: The collection of user data obviously has privacy
implications. Privacy concerns have become more of an issue
in recent years and could hinder any attempt to collect
user data on a large scale. The surfing public would need
to cooperate in such an endeavor and be persuaded of the
benefits.
- Interest: Web search continues to grow in popularity with
more than 80% of Internet users relying on search engines
to find what they need. However, with the exception of site
owners who have a vested interest in site ranking, most
web searchers have not expressed any serious dissatisfaction
with the overall quality of search results delivered by
the major engines. Harnessing the cooperation and active
participation of this latter and much larger group would
be difficult, if not impossible.
The future of web search and website ranking belongs in the
hands of all Internet users, but whether it ends up there
depends on how willing they are to participate in that future.
About the Author:
Mel Strocen is CEO of the Jayde Online Network of websites.
The Jayde network currently consists of 12 websites, including
ExactSeek.com and SiteProNews.com
Please take a look at the four
service packages we offer. If you have any questions
please visit the questions and answers
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