Is Suggestion Ranking the Next Frontier for SEO?
The rankings, and the algorithm behind them, are the same as before, although some SEOs have made the observation that Google Instant reduces the screen space available for results, making the top 3 rankings more important than ever. But what users click on is not the only thing of interest here; as Matt McGee at Search Engine Land put it (emphasis added): "More than SEO, [Google Instant] should impact how users search and find valuable information and/or the products and services they’re seeking."
And how users search will depend heavily on what Google offers them in real time: search results, yes, but also search suggestions. In spite of the mixed reaction to Instant, Google's not about to stop refining its suggestions anytime soon, and it's possible that when it comes to short-tail, high-competition keywords, what Google suggests for long-tail searches will gain significance.
Take Georgia's Republican candidate for Governor Nathan Deal. Typing "Nathan Deal" into Google search prompts it to offer "Nathan Deal ethics", an incredible blow to his Gubernatorial campaign. Indeed, type just "Nathan d" and you'll find that "Nathan Deal ethics" is nearly as relevant as "Nathan Deal" himself. But this is not just an illustration of how suggestions work, with or without Instant on. There's SEO behind this search suggestion - tactics that were targeted specifically at influencing what Google suggests when users type in the name of this particular candidate.
The story of this political search optimization effort has been making the rounds in Atlanta over the past few weeks ever since the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that an Atlanta lawyer specializing in the area of search engine optimization has been creating landing sites like http://www.NathanDealEthics.com and flooding the internet with articles optimized for the keyword term "Nathan Deal ethics" in order to make sure that when users type in the Georgia candidate's name, Google recommends looking into some of his alleged ethics scandals.
The lawyer, Seth Persily, is the executive Vice President of an SEO firm. His campaign has been pro-bono and has relied largely on the contribution of volunteers, who, like him, are upset with Deal's anti-gay politics, including a promise by Nathan Deal to outlaw gay adoption in Georgia. Persily is a gay father of two. He laid out his entire campaign strategy, as well as his reasons for doing it, on his Nathan Deal page. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the private SEO campaign "the first of its kind, one that opens up an entire new field of worry for political candidates."
Perhaps more important, it is a low-cost area of activism open to any small group of people with access to a computer, a keyboard and time.
The Deal campaign has been employing counter-measures to manage their candidate's online reputation, although they have not succeeded in making Google offer positive suggestions about him, nor knocked the 'ethics' suggestions off first place.
So - is search suggestion ranking the next frontier for SEO? Google Instant might not heavily affect what searchers click on, but will it have a significant impact on what they search for? The optimization industry has a good idea of how Google ranks results, but how much do we know about the factors that influence its suggestions? To what extent are the suggestions personalized according to location or search history? Share your thoughts below.
Guest post by Zach Matthews - the Director of Marketing for Premiere Tree Services of Georgia. Since 2004, Zach’s focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) have helped countless clients increase their revenue streams. He decided to go in-house in 2009, and now works full-time for Premiere Tree Services. For more information, you can reach him at info(at)premieretreeservices.com.
new playing field for SEOs
This sure opens up an entire new playing field for SEOs. Suggestion optimizing is too new so there aren't any widespread info about how to influence it. The biggest gains will be for those who crack it first. My guess is it is based on mentions and links form different sources with the same phrase. However, for competitive terms it will be hard to enter suggestion dropdown.
possibilities are huge
This is very interesting topic. And the possibilities are huge. however, in competitive niches with high traffic volumes, it must be REALLY hard to rank term for search suggestion.
Suggestion Ranking - Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Hi Zach,
Terrific piece. Something tells me though that what we saw with Seth's example was just the tip of the iceberg. Because as this game of cat and mouse that SEO's and Google like to play heats up there's really no telling what whats in store for us.
On a separate note what this story also illustrates is a new dimension of SEO where instead of simply placing their messages along the path of the solution seeker marketers can now do that while simultaneously taking a more active approach to getting their audience's attention. Things are getting more exciting by the day…
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