The Death of Ranking: Universal Search – Behavioral Search Are SEO Game Changers

by Jack Humphrey on Apr 17

Search is changing for the better. At least, that is, if you are producing content on and off your site that is multimedia and highly engaging. Combined with personalization of search results, universal search means spammers are already in a world of hurt, and site owners are being forced to get off their own site and engage with video, audio (podcasts), social and even photo sites like Flickr.

Bruce Clay did an interview with WebProNews in November predicting a lot of major changes in Google search results.  You may have already seen the funkiness in some search results based on whether you’re logged in to Google or not.

In November at PubCon, this is what Clay had to say about the changes:

Here WebProNews catches up more recently with Clay as he talks more about “behavioral search” results that are showing up in Google regardless of whether you are logged in or a Google user at all…

Amanda Watlington talks her about Universal Search and the sweeping changes it is making to search results at Google…

WebProNews has some other really good video content on their video blog. They’re a great example of using video for “higher engagement” of their visitors.

Regarding links being “dead” because they are now less of a measurement in the overall algorithm: if you were only doing link building to game Google, that’s going to be over very soon as a viable tactic alone. Actually I believe it’s already a zero sum game. Links are, and always were, for direct traffic. They are meant to be in high traffic areas where people see and click on them. Links are all about getting direct, targeted traffic from visitors wishing to learn more about you or your content.

At least that’s what I’ve been telling people for the last several years. Now it’s a fact of SEO that you can’t simply buy links without being hyper-sensitive to the amount of direct traffic those links are going to send you, regardless of whether or how Google sees and values those links. Because they aren’t going to help you with rankings if they don’t lead to quality, engaging content for your visitors.

*Special thanks to @seniortweet for asking about my reaction to the first video, which led to this whole post on the subject!

Tagged as: algorithm, behavioral search, bruce clay, Game Links, Game Search, google, Google Search Results, Last Several Years, Measurement, Personalization, Pubcon, Search Google, seo, seo videos, Sweeping Changes, Tactic, targeted traffic, Traffic Areas, universal search, Video Content, web pro news, Webpronews, World Of Hurt, Zero Sum Game

  • http://www.nicolasprudhon.com Nicolas Prudhon

    With Google striving to provide the best possible results for its users, it’s only natural to consider that the users’ voice should take more weight in the balance equation than an automated algorithm.

    The change is coming, it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”.

    Nicolas Prudhons last blog post..Implementing Tactical SEO

  • http://www.andrewgoulding.com/ Andrew Goulding

    Both the Bruce Clay videos (about 25 mins in all) are highly recommended for anyone interested in the future of SEO.

    Amanda’s interview (4 mins) is a little different with some great info what an SEO has to do these days, becoming “more like a symphony conductor” than a soloist.

    Fantastic stuff.

  • http://www.evowebdev.com/blog Ray Gulick

    Really interesting stuff. So, now video increases rank?

    Ray Gulicks last blog post..Blog Readers Only Come for the Jelly Beans

  • http://www.fitnessblackbook.com Rusty Moore

    Jack,

    Thank God that I took your advice from your course “Power Linking” two years ago. I still get half my traffic from Google, but like you said…there is much more traffic in between websites than there is in search.

    To this day, I try and comment on blogs as much as possible, make new connections at a few key social sites, etc. I haven’t paid attention to “No Follow” or “Do Follow”…I try to get my link out there for direct traffic.

    If all of the Search Engines died today, I would still be fine. Thanks for preparing me WAY ahead of time for the impending changes!

    Rusty

    Rusty Moores last blog post..Workout Intensity and Fat Loss – Hitting the Sweet Spot

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