Search Wiki is this the end of SEO?
Posted by Will Blears on November 11, 2008 in SEO TutorialsGoogle Search Wiki is this the end of SEO?
If your not sure what Search Wiki is well its a brand new advanced and dynamic tool that Google have just released that enables you to customise the search engine results for anyone term when you are signed in to your Google account.
As you can see below my home page is now at the top of the search results for “SEO Tutorials” and it will be for as long as I want it to be there. The edits that I have made to my search results are only viewable in my account though and when I am not signed in to my account they go back to normal search rankings which apply for anyone with out a Google account however my question is will Search Wiki have an effect on traffic and more importantly will Search Wiki factor in to your overall search engine ranking.
Will Search Wiki effect search engine traffic?
Giving users the ability to edit and customise their own search results will surely have en effect on search engine traffic and if your page is not the page that the user likes best then they are not going to rank it, they may delete it or just send it to the bottom of the pile. However to see whether your page is one that they prefer surely they will click on your link and have a look first or maybe not, maybe your title and meta description will become more important than it ever has before.
Now this article doesn’t say what is going to happen I am merely hypothesising and would like your opinions to. I think Search Wiki is a big step for Google and although it looks like a really cool tool I am worried about search engine traffic and whether this will have any negative impacts on it.
These are just a brief out line of some of the advantages and disadvantages I can think of for search wiki from an SEO and blog owner point of view, not a general point of view.
Search Wiki Advantages
- More targeted traffic as they rank your website higher. Now this could go both ways so I shall put it as both an advantage and a disadvantage.
- Perhaps and I say perhaps because I am not sure but perhaps Search Wiki will become an SEO factor so the more people that rank/vote your site higher the better your overall search engine rankings become with out the use of Search Wiki. It will be a great way of increasing popularity and testing whether a certain website ranks above the rest, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Search Wiki Disadvantages
- A decrease in traffic in general terms due to the customisation of people’s search results. This will effect markets differently and probably have the worst effects on the tech savvy markets such as Internet marketing and Technology sites. As people customise their search results they may push or delete your site from the results altogether meaning your SEO is worthless.
- Will Search Wiki effect your SEO in a bad way, perhaps if your voted negatively enough times this will effect your overall search engine results. Can’t imagine why I would be voted down but you never know it could be a new way to knock down a competitor.
Will the search results now become a play ground for people to vote up and down certain websites?
If voting websites up and down will have some sort of effect on your traffic or search engine results is Google likely to become a play ground for all those Digg addicts digging pages up and down. Personally I hope not and I doubt Google would let this happen however with the ability to view people’s customised search results collectively is this going to make viewable the most voted search result at the top and the less voted at the bottom if this is the case perhaps people will become addicted to marketing and promoting their site to be voted up and reach the top positition.
Overall this is definitely in the early stages of development and perhaps Google has yet to think about how this will effect SEO and whether they will include it as a factor of your overall search engine rankings. Being able to see everyones results collectively will be quite an interesting tool for you to check whether your website gets any praise from search engine surfers.
Whats your view on Google Search Wiki, a good move by Google or a bad move? Do you think Search Wiki will effect SEO or traffic?
You can read the official blog article posted by Google here
Google Search Wiki Official post.
Well not quite sure to be honest.It is big step that Google has taken though they have explicitly mentioned in their blog “The changes you make only affect your own searches. ”
Now many of us would still think that Google will use this user behavior to draw inference for their overall SERPs. Till now it remains untouched.
But if they do and add features like review the website (which may be the next step) it will open up a Pandora’s box. It would be easy to hire a couple of hundred people to rate and review their website. I think http://www.scour.com already does that.
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree it would open a pandora’s box if they were to do this lets just hope they don’t.
I think Google are smarter than that and hopefully they will keep tight control on this new search wiki and how far it can be taken advantage of.
Ouch!
This is something scary to me who relies most of my traffic on SEO. Luckily, I’ve used other traffic strategies for one of my blog. However, other blogs are still relying on SEO traffic. I think the most important thing for all bloggers and marketers is to give high quality content.
No more crappy content is allowed.
Thanks for your post Admin. I think high quality content has always been one of the leading factors towards a succesfull website and an unsuccessfull website. I am sure your familiar with the term “Content is King”.
However I think its not only about providing quality content it is ensuring the content is unique and of use to the reader as well as being focused and more.
I don’t think its all about content these days though its about diversfying your traffic so that if one form of traffic lets you down you can always rely on others. I think this is a very important factor that every blogger needs to consider. I will be writing an article on the importance of diversyfing traffic this week so stay tuned.
Thanks for your comment Alex.
I have read the google search wiki today before landing in your page trough a free web hosting site. I do not undestand why google has launched this project. Seachwiki will fail like ‘google referrals’ or ‘google sites’. Who can move a site to the top of his search result for a given keyword to find the same site a the top the next time he search for the SAME KEYWORD to find again the same site or the same set of sites?. I think it’s like a game or like the vote wiki sites. Google is known by its credibility, is known by its knowledge for everybody and its NO DESCRIMINATION POLICY, so google must other projects like: 1- allow others to use google adwords to pay by their local currencies. 2- Allow publishers to withdraw their adsense earning by a worldwide mastercard, visa card, …
Thanks Fathy for your input and well said. I think Google’s Search Wiki will fail. Its a stuipd idea and up to now it seems everyone or most in the internet marketing field think this too. The general idea is that its a useless tool and that it can easily be manipulated.
nice article thank you very for this excellent tutorial
Your welcome I am glad you enjoyed it.
[...] major change in Google has already started with the introduction of Google Search Wiki a very brave way to go in my eyes. However I trust Google are going to stick at it until they [...]