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The impact of the Google SearchWiki on search engine optimization (SEO) and Ecordia

Posted by Ecordia in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on Nov 21, 2008

Google has released a new search feature called Google SearchWiki. A lot of commentary on Google SearchWiki has appeared online including an excellent article in Search Engine Land on how it works (Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide article); and on eWeek.com on how businesses can use this SearchWiki (Google SearchWiki a Genius Stroke to Keep Us in Google, Seeing Ads article). Also you may read about the launch of the Google SearchWiki on Google's blog.

How will this new Google SearchWiki affect search engine optimization (SEO) and specifically postings in Ecordia?

First, the Google SearchWiki is only available to those who are logged in to a Google account. While this is a tremendous amount of users, it is not the whole universe of those who use Google.

Second, it does require the user to interact with the search results page. For some, this may be more than they want to do if they are researching a topic and quickly want to view the information from the source.

Third, the default view that is presented to users is still based on Google’s personalized search options – which have always been specific to the expected needs of the user.

And finally, although an obvious point, it is worth remembering that Google does not own 100% of the searches out there; this will not affect searches on Yahoo!, Live Search, Ask and the other search engines.

Content is Still King
Good, relevant, unique content is still the #1 most important element in any search engine optimization and Ecordia campaign. While Google SearchWiki enables results to be altered on a personal level, the search results presented are still based on CONTENT! The more geographic centered the content, the better -- as this is part of the Google algorithm.

“When possible, Google will customize your search results based on location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you're signed in to your Google Account, you may see even more relevant, useful results based on your web history.” – Google

Headlines and description content, however, are more important than ever before with this new feature. Irrelevant or vague headlines and descriptions will be removed by users and replaced with headlines that have more description. If anything else, we may see the death of the old “Home Page” title that populates so many search results.

One of the unique features of Goolge’s SearchWiki is the ability to add a URL to your search results page. If you are writing compelling content then users may opt to remove a search result and add your pages instead.

Suggestions on how you may take advantage of Google SearchWiki

If you do not have a Google account, get one! You will need to be logged in to Google in order to see this new feature.
Start researching your keyword list in Google and do the following – move your listings up! Although you will be the only user who sees your listing up at the top of your page, your listing will get added to the “all notes” public page for that particular search term. In a sense, this notes page will become a secondary SERP page based on user behavior. Although Google says that the user behavior will not influence the search algorithm for other users, they very well could change that in the future.
Add comments to your listings in the SERP SearchWiki. This is THE MOST important thing you can do RIGHT NOW. Comments are available to other users and form an extra layer of content for your listing. You MUST be aggressive in this as others will comment as well.

It will take some time to track down your keywords, promote your pages to the top and add comments. However, it is an opportunity to get additional organic rankings for those Google users who start looking at the SearchWiki notes for keywords. It is too early to determine if this new Google SearchWiki will alter the SEO field forever. Certainly it will force all of us to re-examine the role of rankings.

Bottom line for SEO and Ecordia, content still matters and with this new Google feature, good content will still rank well – you just need to keep creating it and posting it on Ecordia!

by Sean Jackson, CEO, Ecordia

Lead Maverick is now Ecordia