Just recently I wrote:

If you’re search engine optimization campaign is targeting Google, then what are you doing about the “searches” on Del.icio.us, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Yelp, Wikipedia, Oodle and even Digg? Maybe those searches are not for the mainstream (yet), but it maybe where the Linkerati, the savvy “Influencers”, go?

Now, Google Universal Search makes us ask: What other channels do we need to optimize in (YouTube, Google Video, Google News) to get on the Google SERPs? A reverse question.

As state by David Wilson:

What GUS does in short is reduces the number of organic listings available on the home page. No longer is getting to the first page of Google good enough. Now you need to be in the top 5 or 6 positions as the rest will be taken by video and news.

Seems like we’re practically on the same page here.

SEO no longer means optimizing only one’s website, or links…it means being active promoting and staying relevant through a variety of channels and mediums. It means distributing your content on YouTube, Yelp, Wikipedia, Press Releases etc.

Google Universal Search really presents no new known challenges of SEO. It just brings the message home: Old SEO is Dead, New SEO is a form of Multi-Channel Content Optimization and Distribution.

It’s all been said before:

1. SEO as Website Positioning Strategy? – Updated
2. Quick Post: Editorialization of Google Results, And the Change in SEO
3. Google’s Personalized Search: How Much Should We Care?

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Aaron Wall of SEOBook has a great write-up on the changing face of Google’s Search Results (SERPs). They now include Vertical-Creeps of its various properties and the integration of Google News into the *organic* listings.

Where does this bring SEO?

Going Beyond Vertical Search Creep

We are now seeing Google pulling information beyond its own vertical search engines with the actual integration of editorial information with Google News *inside* the organic listings.

SEO’s purpose is to optimize Search Engine Listings (SERPs), but how people are getting their information is evolving:

• Google/Yahoo’s main Search Page now includes information from Local Search, Real Estate, Maps, Weather, TV Listings, and Google News (inside Google’s SERPs), Yahoo Answers (Bottom of SERPs in Yahoo), etc.
• Than there is the increasing use of specific communities and content where people are also searching: Yahoo! Travel, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.

So again, what does it mean to do SEO? What is the point of doing Local SEO, if you’re local business (or saw local branches) are not listed on Yelp?

How Google and Yahoo are handling search is changing. How people are now using sites like Yelp is also changing. How will SEO Change?

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Last week, it was announced that Google will automatically sign-up Google Account users to additional services by default, including “Personalized Search”, which will gives users unique Search Results (SERPs), basing rankings of websites on past search history and other behavioral data.

So now, what ranks on Google will depend on each Google user, ending the notion of different people being able to see the same search results. While people are asking “How will SEO change because of this?”, another question also needs to be asked is “How much will this effect the average Google Search?”

For example, Nick Wilson puts heavy emphasis on using leveraging Social Media to optimize for Google’s Personalized Services, but how many Google users are actually using social media with Google (E.G. Google Reader)? This is a question that needs to be considered before making changes to how you do SEO.

The Google Personalized Ranking Variables and the SEO Tactics

Here’s a quick recap on the new variables that will effect organic rankings and what SEO needs to do to address them. See Nick Wilson’s SEL article for more.

• Google Search History:
  What it is: Keeps a log of all search queries were conducted and what links on the results page (SERPs) were clicked on
  How it effects SEO: Page titles need to not only help a webpage rank high, but be attractive to be clicked on
  SEO Tactics: Page titles need to concentrate on CTR as much as getting the ranking.
• Google Personalized Homepage
  What it Is: Like Yahoo’s “Personal Homepage”, but with the ability to add various widgets and RSS Feeds
  How it may effect SEO: 1) What widgets are being used; 2) What RSS feeds are being subscribed to and clicked on
  SEO Tactic: 1) Create helpful Widgets; 2) Do Blogging; 3) Engage in promoting Widgets and Blogs via linkbait, WoM etc
• Google Reader
  What it is: Google’s fast raising web-based RSS Reader
  How it may effect SEO: What RSS feeds are being subscribed to, which one’s are being read and to what frequency
  SEO Tactic: 1) Do Blogging; 2) Engage in promoting Blog via linkbait, WoM etc
• Google Bookmarks:
  What it is: Bookmarking tool, like Del.icio.us etc
  How it may effect SEO: What pages are being bookmarked by the user
  SEO Tactic: 1) Create “Bookmark worthy” content and tools; 2) SMO with “Add to Google” Links; 3) Do WoM, Viral, Linkbait etc.

How much will this change Ranking for Google?
From everything I gathered, Google’s new move will only effect those logged into a Google Accounts when doing a search, so…

1. What percentage of users is this?
2. How many of these users use the advance services like Google Reader, Bookmarks, or Personalized Homepage with widgets and RSS feeds? The features that are now used in ranking?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any readily available satisfying answers for Question #1, other than there are ~51 million Gmail users (so at least that many accounts) and there are ~103m US searchers per day on Google. Unfortunately, these statistics doesnt bring us any closer to how many searches were done under a Google Account. And we can’t even deduce users did all 103 million searches per day.

However on Question #2, the use of Google services, even popular services like Google Reader, while fastly growing, are not market leaders (in traffic terms) as of yet. And Google Bookmarks is a virtual unknown, while I would assume Google Personalized Homepage’s more advance features are only slightly more used.

So what about and who should be worried about the new system?

• Search History is one service that is guaranteed to be used, so attractive titles and descriptions are a must to increase CTR.
• If your website is targeting tech-savvy, early adopters (who are likely to use Google Accounts) than you should worry about Google Reader, Google Personalized Homepage Widgets and so on.

Of course, as part of SEO, one must think about blog marketing, widget creation and social media marketing (all what Nick Wilson emphasized), but right now for Google, it doesnt seem to be necessarily needed until services like Google Reader are more popularly used.

What are your thoughts on this?

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UPDATE from February 14, 2007:

I just remember I’ve previously written about this topic in “Google Co-Op, Custom Search and the impact on SEO”, which declared:

“In short, if a website is badly position with the audience, has little content, not crawlable by search engines, not attractive enough to be linked to – than you have a problem with search engines, coop or no coop, personalized or not. If, however, the websites has all this issues addressed, than generally it will be well positioned not only on traditional Yahoo, Google search engines but also in personalized searches as well.”

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There’s plenty of mentions on Google’s Image Labeler. Here’s Steve Rubel’s description:

“what it does is allow individuals to label random images to help improve the quality of Google’s image search results. Participants are paired with partners who are also online and using the feature. Users earn points based on their input. Points are not redeemable for prizes.”

While there’s plenty of mention linking this to “Wisdom of the Crowds” meme, I think its more appropriate to mention how Google has borrowed a page from Amazon’s Mechnical Turk service, which is based on “HITS” and actual cash:

HIT stands for Human Intelligence Task. These are tasks that people are willing to pay you to complete. For example a HIT might ask: “Is there a pizza parlour in this photograph?” Typically these tasks are extraordinarily difficult for computers, but simple for humans to answer.

Hmmm…does this sound familiar to anyone?

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