The recent shakeup in Google's search results, which set the SEO
(search engine optimization) community buzzing and saw tens of
thousands of webmasters watch their site ranking plummet, was in
many ways inevitable. Almost all SEO companies and most savvy
webmasters had a fairly good handle on what Google considered
important. And since SEO, by definition, is the art of
manipulating website ranking (not always with the best interests
of searchers in mind), it was only a matter of time until Google
decided to make some changes.

The Problem with Current Site Ranking Methods

There will always be those who are more interested in the end
result than on how they get there and site ranking that is based
on site content (links, keywords, etc.) and interpreted by
ranking algorithms will always be subject to manipulation. Why?
Because, for now, crawlers and algorithms lack the intelligence
to make informed judgements on site quality.

A short while ago, author, Mike Banks Valentine published an
article entitled "SEO Mercilessly Murdered by Copywriters!".
The article rightly pointed out SEO's focus on making text and page
structure "crawler friendly". Other SEO authors have written at
great length about the need for "text, text, text" in page body
content as well as in Meta, Heading, ALT, and Link tags. They
are all correct and yet they are all missing (or ignoring) the
point which is that the "tail is wagging the dog". Search
engines are determining what is relevant, not the people using
those engines. Searchers are relegated to the role of engine
critics and webmasters to being students of SEO.

SEO manipulation will continue and thrive as long as search
engines base their algorithms on page and link analysis. The
rules may change, but the game will remain the same.

Therein lies the problem with all current search engine
ranking algorithms. SEO's will always attempt to position
their sites at the top of search engine results whether
their sites deserve to be there or not, and search engines
will continue to tweak their algorithms in an attempt to
eliminate SEO loopholes. If there is a solution to this
ongoing battle of vested interests, it won't come from
improving page content analysis.

Incorporating User Popularity into Ranking Algorithms

The future of quality search results lies in harnessing the
opinions of the Internet masses - in other words, by tying
search results and site ranking to User Popularity. Google's
"democratic" vision of the Web will never be achieved by
manipulating algorithm criteria based on content. It will only
be achieved by factoring in what is important to people, and
people will always remain the best judge of what that is. The
true challenge for search engines in the future is how to
incorporate web searcher input and preferences into their
ranking algorithms.

Website ranking based on user popularity - the measurement of
searcher visits to a site, pages viewed, time viewed, etc. -
will be far less subject to manipulation and will ensure a
more satisfying search experience. Why? Because web sites that
receive the kiss of approval from 10,000, 100,000 or a million
plus surfers a month are unlikely to disappoint new visitors.
Although some websites might achieve temporary spikes in
popularity through link exchanges, inflated or false claims,
email marketing, pyramid schemes, etc., these spikes would be
almost impossible to sustain over the long-term. As Lincoln
said "You can fool some of the people all the time. You can
fool all the people some of the time. But you can't fool all
the people all the time." Any effective ranking system based on
surfer input will inevitably be superior to current systems.

To date, none of the major search engines have shown a serious
interest in incorporating user popularity into their ranking
algorithms. As of this writing, ExactSeek
is the only search engine that has
implemented a site ranking algorithm based on user popularity.

Resistance to change, however, is not the only reason user data
hasn't made its way into ranking algorithms. ExactSeek's new
ranking algorithm was made possible only as a result of its
partner arrangement with Alexa Internet, one of the oldest and
largest aggregator's of user data on the Web. Alexa has been
collecting user data through its toolbar (downloaded over 10
million times) since 1997 and is currently the only web entity
with a large enough user base to measure site popularity and
evaluate user preferences in a meaningful way.

The Challenges Facing User Popularity Based Ranking

1. The Collection Of User Data:
In order for web user data to play a significant role in search
results and site ranking, it would need to be gathered in
sufficient volume and detail to accurately reflect web user
interests and choices. The surfing preferences of a few million
toolbar users would be meaningless when applied to a search
engine database of billions of web pages. Even Alexa, with its
huge store of user data, is only able to rank 3 to 4 million
websites with any degree of accuracy.

2. Privacy:
The collection of user data obviously has privacy implications.
Privacy concerns have become more of an issue in recent years
and could hinder any attempt to collect user data on a large
scale. The surfing public would need to cooperate in such an
endeavor and be persuaded of the benefits.

3. Interest:
Web search continues to grow in popularity with more than 80%
of Internet users relying on search engines to find what they
need. However, with the exception of site owners who have a
vested interest in site ranking, most web searchers have not
expressed any serious dissatisfaction with the overall quality
of search results delivered by the major engines. Harnessing
the cooperation and active participation of this latter and
much larger group would be difficult, if not impossible.

The future of web search and website ranking belongs in the
hands of all Internet users, but whether it ends up there
depends on how willing they are to participate in that future.
--
Mel Strocen is CEO of the Jayde Online Network of websites. The
Jayde network currently consists of 12 websites, including
ExactSeek.com and SiteProNews.com.