Written by Peter Stewart, Clickthinking Search & Digital research

Recently, Google launched SearchWiki which allows the searcher to manage their search results and importantly provide comments which can be viewed publicly by others .You can find out more about this feature here on the Google blog.

We see this as having major significance and the first step in Google announcing their intent to depart from their current methodology of rewarding web pages.  Whilst they state that this feature will have very little influence on the current ranking algorithm, we believe that it will simply be a matter of time before it does. More importantly, its a step closer to rewarding web pages and their ranking based on user behaviour.

Google – is this the next big step in Online search?

No doubt, some of our clients have become sick and tired with our search team over the last 36 months telling them that the next big step for Search would be the migration from a relational  formula to a behavioural algorithm when rewarding and displaying web pages. We have being singing from this hymn sheet for some time.

Over the last 10 years, search engines have rewarded web pages based on their relation to a number of criteria. This has included amongst others, attributing value to a website based on the number of “qualified” websites that link back to that website. This is similar to the Academic citation approach where an academic paper gains credibility the more that it is referenced by other papers. Incorrectly, many attribute Google as the originators of this application to commercial web search and delivering relevant results. There were a number of forerunners including Infoseek who factored in Link popularity and Excite who used theme based formulas to rank web pages which preceded Google.  Unlike Google, their methods were fairly easy to game (manipulate) resulting in the relevance of their results being compromised. Of course, irrelevant search results lead to searcher frustration and poor advertising ROI. Hence many of the forerunners including the two mentioned failed to deliver.

Google’s timing was impeccable. Whilst others attempted to bring in revenue through cluttered banner advertising and diversifying into Ecommerce and content, Google focused on pure search. The presentation of their home page and subsequent results was clean and uncluttered. No advertising was displayed. Furthermore, their link popularity formula labelled Page Rank factored in quality and was head and shoulders above anything else that had been trialled. The results returned were simply far more relevant. Yahoo!, the human categorised directory could compete on quality but lacked variety and volume.  There was simply a HUGE gap in the market for a search engine that could deliver relevant results. At the time, Googles results were sensational and the rest is history!

The problem with relational formulas and current search engines

It didn’t take long for the search marketing industry (predominantly driven by black hat SEO’s) to search for vulnerabilities. A culture of trading and purchasing links soon became prevalent as spammers aggressively accumulated in category links pointing back to their clients websites with the objective of improving their clients search rankings. In many respects, a deficient method of ranking and rewarding web pages was replaced with another. Google has been brilliant at maintaining the quality of their results and improving their spam detection. As a result, the competition has really struggled to close the gap on Google’s dominant position.

With the advent of Blogging and content syndication, new opportunities presented themselves in terms of gaining and being rewarded for incoming links to your website.  These have included both legitimate methodologies such as investing in online P.R and illegitimate techniques such as automated comment spam on  inactive blogs.  Regardless of the method, it has continued to bring into question the approach of rewarding relevancy based on data relationships.

The next generation of search  - delivering the right message at the right time based on customer behaviour

It is no secret that understanding consumers and delivering the right message at the right time in the appropriate format is what it is going to be about over the next 5 years. Google’s acquisition of Double click (the biggest online advertising network), their investment in web analytics (purchase of Urchin and subsequent development of Google Analytics) and YouTube back this up. Microsoft have made similar acquisitions.

To deliver the right message at the right time, Google and any competitors will need to inherently understand how a person  forages for information and what constitutes a successful and non successful event during any search for information or products. Prior to delivering the right message, it is very important that Google takes into account the full set of influencers which persuade or dissuade  a searcher through the decision making process.

This is best illustrated through an example. Imagine that you are planning a holiday. You have 2 weeks break due to you and you have some ideas and destinations in mind. You decide to go online to start planning your trip. You start at a search engine and embark on the exciting task of selecting an appropriate holiday destination. You start typing in fairly generic search phrases “Thailand”, “Tigers India”, “Paris”. You conduct multiple searches visiting a variety of websites which appear at the top of the search engine pages, many of which fail to deliver. You continue to research modifying your search phrases. At Clickthinking, we refer to this as the education phase of your search journey.

Your search gains momentum as you begin to refine your holiday planning. You type in very specific phrases such as “luxury tiger safari”, “Name of accommodation” etc. Finally, you have narrowed your search to 2 travel options. Your final selection will be based on price discount and the alleviation of fears, “Can I afford it?”,” is it safe?”, “will I be able to communicate?” The website and company that best answers these questions  and persuades you to act will win the business.

In the majority of searches, searchers will visit a number of inappropriate websites which fail to match their expectation from a quality and context perspective. Furthermore, the majority of websites tend to be very poor in guiding a prospect through their customer journey often treating repeat website visitors  or loyal customers the same way as a new prospect with no previous engagement or involvement. End result, a high bounce rate (exit) from websites they visit and a long and protracted and infuriating search for the desired information. In the worst case scenario, the search prospect fails altogether and abandons his or her search often blaming the internet as a useless medium.

Gearing up for the new search landscape

How do we change this? It starts with the search providers changing their methodologies and moving from relational to behavioural formulas. Why shouldn’t Google track my behaviour and compare my search habits with others who have followed similar paths. The key objective being to provide me with the right message which would be the most relevant website suited to my requirements and not to invade my privacy. Relevancy should be  based on the success achieved by previous users similar to me. Furthermore, wouldn’t it be great if the search provider factored in real opinions by real people and displayed these opinions and votes for all to see?

The good news is that the search providers have been working on exactly this. Google have recently launched search wiki which allows searchers to comment about and accredit websites – in time I expect this data to be factored into their algorithms. This has been trialled before by a company called Direct Hit but the technology proved to be deficient when tested against savvy search marketers and the commercial web audience – I don’t anticipate Google to make the same mistakes.  I am very excited about Search Wiki because it clearly demonstrates Google’s intent to move beyond the relational methodologies which in my opinion are fundamentally flawed.

Hopefully the other search providers will move aggressively into this space in 2009 and through competition, we will witness real innovation within online search where successful websites will be rewarded based on how well they interact and treat their customers as opposed to superficial criteria not influenced by the customer journey. Where does this leave you? Start investing in your website today with a continuous improvement and conversion philosophy. If your websites outperforms your competition from a customer satisfaction and conversion perspective, you might well occupy a dominant position in the organic (natural) search results within your category.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Site Performance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.