10 replies to this topic

[Heather]

My client is frustrated because when he searches from his business computer on MSN, he's on the second page, and it's the internal directions page instead of his home page.

When I search from several states away, he's listed #1 on MSN, and it's his home page.

I've tried to explain different IP addresses/different data centers, but he thinks since he is searching in his state, and his state is part of the keyword phrase that he should be listed as highly as he is when I search from a far away state.

Is there any other explanantion I can give him?


Thanks

[Heather]

An article is a good idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I just him a few articles this morning on another topic.

Thanks

[Scottie]

Is there any other explanantion I can give him?
Thanks

That no one controls the search engines, and you do everything the best you can and hope it all works out?

It's really, REALLY important to set the expectation upfront that you can't make the search engines do anything. Your job is to optimize the site for the best possible results, but you can't guarantee that anyone will be on page 1 all the time for any phrase.

[ciaran]

I don't think that its the issue in this case, but something that I have noticed more of recently is where people who have user accounts with search engines (Gmail etc..) start to see their own site rank higher than I do. Essentially its down to the engines providing personalised results.

In other words, because people often search for their own sites (to check rankings) and they then click on their own sites, the engines start skewing the results to give them what they (the engines) think they (the user) wants to see...

So client 1 will see their site in #1 on Google for keyword search "example widgets" simply because everytime they do that search (whilst logged in to Gmail or whatever) they click on their own site. As I'm not logged in to Gmail, I see the site in it's "real" position.

Just when you thought life couldn't get any more confusing.....

[Jill]

That's a really good point, ciaran, and one that I think we'll be seeing happen more often because of personalized search.

[adiante]

All the google services, like google toolbar, google desktop, gmail etc help google in collecting tonnes of information about user preferences. Even checking your gmail account from your home and office pc will help google make the connection between the activities from those IPs. If you have google toolbar installed, you are surely passing on a lot of info. All this together is going to help google provide personalized search results.

[jehochman]

people often search for their own sites (to check rankings) and they then click on their own sites, the engines start skewing the results to give them what they (the engines) think they (the user) wants to see...

I love this. It makes my job easier.

Personalized search will hopefully decrease the amount of rankings envy that many website owners suffer.

[Randy]

Yeah, personalization will do exactly that.

Here's my worry...

USEO (Unscrupulous SEO) signs up client for tens of thousands of dollars guaranteeing them that they can get them to Page One for whatever phrase(s) they want. Part of the instructions to Client is to sign up for a Google account, make sure they're logged into their account and scroll through page after page to find their site. Once they find it they need to click on it because this "tells Google the site is important" and should be ranked better. Client needs to do this at least 3 times per week.

A couple of months down the road Client sees their site sitting at #3 in their personalized results, is very, very happy because they don't understand any better and think their USEO is doing a wonderful job. Reality is the site is still not in the top 100 for anybody else. Client doesn't find out what's really happening til years down the road and many, many thousands of dollars later.

I really hope that Google etal have put some thought into how they're going to display personalized results. It sure does open a big can-o-worms for those who have no morals to take advantage of.

[Jill]

Good tip there Randy.

[as everyone scrambles to email their clients.]