In late 2008 Google decided that it would allow people to rearrange their search results using a feature it implemented called “SearchWiki”. Well, as usual, most SEOs freaked out and I’m pretty sure some actually committed suicide. Why? Well, because just as the SEOs get used to doing something that works Google decides to change the rules. For the life of me I can’t figure out why this is a bad thing. This time I’m on Google’s side. In fact, I think what they’ve done is exactly what Google needs to fight spammers and blackhat SEOs. I admit that this isn’t breaking news (SearchWiki was implemented in late 2008), but it does need to be reassessed as most SEOs have completely forgotten about it and how important of a role it should play in SERPs. Originally, SEOs were freaking out because they thought SearchWiki in google would ruin all of their hard-earned SEO work. Just like any change that happens with google SEOs typically freak out and make huge issues of practically nothing.
Google has some of the finest technology brains working for it. You can bet that there isn’t one guy making the decisions. It’s a group of very educated and intelligent people joining forces to do some pretty amazing stuff when it comes to providing relevant search results for keyword based searches. I’m not saying Google’s results are perfect, but they’re pretty damn good. Needless to say, if I’m searching for something I usually find it. If I can’t find it – it doesn’t exist on google (yet).
Anyway, the point of this article is WHY I think Google did a great job with SearchWiki and why most SEOs completely disagree with me.
SearchWiki is a feature that allows you (provided you have a free Google account) to adjust the rankings of websites based on keywords. So, for instance, you search for a website about cars and you get 10 nice results from Google. You can click on the “promote” button under the description of the website listing and this will move that website to the top of the Google search for you as long as you are still logged into your account. Pretty neat huh? So now you’ve found a good site and it will always show up for you when you’re searching that related term. It’s kind of like bookmarking, but better! Also, you can even put a comment about the website that will show up as long as you are logged into your Google account. Hey, that’s neat! Now I can remember exactly what I liked about the site. Finally, if you run across a site that doesn’t meet your standards for the keyword you searched for or a site that is spammy you can “demote” the site. This removes it from any of your other searches in the future and lets another site take its place! So, after a few weeks of work you’re actually making your Google search more efficient by promoting the good sites you find and demoting the crap sites you find. YAY! Nice work Google!
Since Google does have the finest minds working for you it’s pretty silly to think that they would roll out a feature on their world-wide search engine without considering all of the possible issues that might arise. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that the new SearchWiki can be spammed and competitors can write bad things about your site for the whole world to view. Well, I suppose that is true. But honestly, do SEOs really think Google didn’t consider that SearchWiki could be spammed? Well, if Google hadn’t considered that why did they implement a java-based (or jquery-based) comment submission form that is extremely tough to automate? Do you think they just did that for fun? Furthermore, why do you think you need to have a Google account to be able to post?
I’ve also heard quite a bit about users having too much control over their searches and not being shown new and relevant pages of data on searches. Well, this is a crap argument. I suppose it would be a reasonable argument if the websites you choose to promote are NEVER updated, but who has a website that’s never updated? That’s ridiculous. Even if you aren’t getting new and fresh data every time you search how many people actually go search for another site like the one they like often? I mean, if you like petmeds.com and you’re a steady customer do you really need to see new petmed websites every time you want to order? No. You’re not even going to look for one. If you tend to get your news from FoxNews.com are you going to Google for another news outlet just because? No. You’re going to go to FoxNews.com! Even better, if you’ve promoted FoxNews.com and you search for a current even on Google FoxNews.com will show up higher than the other sites! Well, isn’t that what you wanted? You want your news from FoxNews.com right? Well, now you have it! Easy! Awesome! Thanks, Google!
So, why do I think Google made this change? It’s really simple. Google is about data collection and crunching numbers. If you think Google doesn’t watch everything you do you’re wrong. They watch what you do, what you click on, how long you are there, how many times you click, and how long it takes you to return (if ever) to their search results. Having users promote and demote websites lets Google know, from a real human being, who likes what sites and what sites are junk and need to be scrapped from the search results. If you’re going to give me the bs argument that somehow your website might get scrapped (or sandboxed) because 5 of your worst enemies demoted your site… grow up. Google has millions, maybe billions of searches a day. No way is it going to sandbox you if your enemies decide to demote your site. Now, after a year of constant demotions would it consider putting you in the sandbox? I think so. And I think that’s a good thing. It makes sense. Reward the promoted sites and penalize the demoted sites. Easy enough. When you have billions of users contributing its easy to distinguish the good from the bad.
The truth about SearchWiki and the SEOs and most of the people condemning it is that the SEOs are scared it will hurt their rankings. If SEOs did whitehat SEO no small changes in Google’s aglo would make any difference in your rankings. In fact, any small tweaks will only help your rankings. Stick to whitehat SEO and you will never have to worry about Google changes.
So, Google, I like what you’ve done and what you’re doing. SearchWiki is actually really useful and a nice feature. If more people understood how to use it they would see that it is pretty neat.