Linking Strategies

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On February 2, Google's Sep Kamvar and Marissa Mayer posted on an official Google blog "Personally speaking" (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/personally-speaking.html). Since then, there have been cries of "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" from SEO/SEM folks all over the country. The primary worry? How can you optimize a page or website for searchers if every searcher receives different results? It's a fair question, but personalized search results isn't likely to mean the end of SEO as we know it.

Personalized Search Results (PSRs)

Personalized search results (PSRs) are when different searchers get different results when searching for the exact same term. We each search for the term "Beatles" and you get results about the car, I get results about the band, and someone else gets results about the insect.

That's a very simplified explanation, but sometimes simple examples are best.

So far, Google is the first search engine to make significant noise about personalized search results. Google will augment your search results with sites it feels are specific to your personal interests. These personalized search results will be driven by what I call "signals" that we send to Google when we use three particular Google services.

• Google search results -- what you click on and what you don't.
• Google Bookmarks -- the sites you save to your Google bookmarks account (www.google.com/bookmarks).
• Google Personal Homepage -- the subject matter and type of content you add to it (www.google.com/ig).

The most obvious change for you to make is to make it easier for people to add your content to Google (or Yahoo!) Bookmarks. Consider placing text links like this: Add a Google Bookmark or Add to Y! on the pages of your site that are most likely to be bookmarked. If your site offers RSS feeds, use buttons or chicklets like these.

When you click on any of them, you'll see that each adds my link building tips feed from EricWard.com directly to your personal homepage at the corresponding service. 

Also, if the searcher's behavior dictates which sites an engine thinks the searcher wants to see, your link building should include topic specific targets. Don't just rely on links from general directories that don't help the engines determine intent, interest, or locale.

Speaking of locale, if your site is germane to a specific geographical area, you'll want to acquire links from appropriate targets in that geographic area. I am told that geographic signals are easiest for the engines to recognize. Thus, high trust links from a specific city, state or region will be important. You have a site for a tourist destination in Nashville? Start seeking links here.

Personalized search results won't replace link-based methods for ranking sites, but will augment them as dictated by the individual searcher. To read in greater detail what Google has in store, I recommend the following four articles/blog posts:

• Personally speaking - Sep Kamvar, Google
• Marissa Mayer Details Personalized Search
• Google Ramps Up Personalized Search - Danny Sullivan
• Google Personalized Search Leaves Google Labs - Chris Sherman - November 10, 2005

Eric Ward (www.ericward.com) is the best known linking building expert in the world since pioneering the link building industry in 1994. He is the author of The Ward Report, a private monthly report on the latest link building and publicity tactics for web content (www.ericward.com/wardreport.html). If you are concerned about your linking strategy, send him an e-mail, and as his schedule allows he can go over your particular situation.