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I just came back from a great Internet marketing conference called PubCon. Every major search engine was represented and the future of search was discussed in great detail. One speaker in particular caught the attention of the entire convention with his outlook on the future of search. Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay, Inc. basically made the statement that ranking is dead because as each of the search engines move closer towards personalized search, every result will therefore be personalized for that user. This is best explained in his example:

 

Let`s say you and I both searched the word "Java." My results might come back with web programming results and yours might come back with different coffee suppliers depending on our previous search experience or how we both navigate the web. Similar to how Amazon uses cookies to personalize your bookstore, the search engines can do the same with your search results. They can also personalize your search based on geographical location - so if I search pizza place here in Michigan, I`ll get different results than your same search in Alabama.

 

The bottom line is that we as marketers need to recognize that we may need to tweak or clients expectations when it comes to measuring the success of their internet marketing campaign. No one will be able to make the claim that they are #1 for a particular search because that same search could be different for every user. So we will need to focus more on Website traffic and conversion as our measurements for success.

 

If you want to see an interview with Bruce about this topic, click here: http://videos.webpronews.com/2008/11/17/pubcon-bruce-clay-ranking-is-dead/

 

I look forward to your thoughts and perspectives on this shift in search.

 

All the best,

Corey Perlman

www.eBootCampBook.com

eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business is due online and in major retailers this January!

Very interesting.  Thanks for posting!

I`ve often thought of search engine rankings in a similar way to something I heard when I was younger. I was at work, and my boss tended to be frazzled a lot, focusing on crisis management rather than business processes.

At one point, still somewhat new to the job, she came in and told me this one thing was Very Important, and I should work mainly on that. It was "the highest priority."

I then asked about the ranking of priorities of all the rest of the work. She told me "It`s all the highest priority." I laughed and said, "Oh...so then none of it has a priority?" I almost got fired.

The bottom line is that when everyone is doing the same thing, and everything is equal, then nothing is important. With everyone trying to sell something based on rankings, then rankings no longer matter.

Thanks for the great information from the conference.  The internet world of web 2.0 is ever changing.  Just when we thought that we may have started to figure out some of the SEO ranking information.   Great intel.

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All the best,

Corey Perlman

www.eBootCampBook.com

So, is the question I need to answer is "How can I get more people to my site?"

I thought that was always the goal.  I run a health care office, and have found that people search locally and very specific for me (at least the ones I talk to).  I would hope that I would still be relevant on the searches and would show up near the top.  Is that too simplistic?



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Brandon
De Novo Pittsburgh Chiropractic & Health
Treating Pittsburgh`s Athletes
www.denovopittsburgh.com

Where the search engines have the big problem is in the difference between "pizza" (or chiropractor), and "cooling rack" (like for baking).

How does the computer know that you`re looking online, anywhere in the world for an inexpensive backing rack, but you only want to look locally for pizza or car tires.

:-) Sure would be nice if computers had "judgement," and the ability to "interpret" language... That`ll be artificial intelligence, and I suppose we`ll see that soon, too!

I don`t think ranking will ever be dead.  There will always be searchers who haven`t searched for something before.  I do however agree that search will become more personal and local in nature.  The ultimate is for Google to know what kind of Java you are looking for based on what you have done in the past.  However, I do think this is a while off.  One search engine that is moving closer to that direction - closer than Google at the present time is Cuil.  They provide an interesting array of different results and options based on what others have searched for and clicked on during previous searches for similar terms.