Google Rants and Emergence of the "Long Tail" Search Query.

There has been much talk in the domain, search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine marketing (SEM) industries about the quality of ‘The Big Three’s’ (Google, MSN, and Yahoo!) search results over the past couple of years. As you know, there are many factors that go into the algorithms for search result queries. Until recently, Google has been considered to have an unbreakable algorithm, one which could not be manipulated by “Blackhat” SEO’ers (those who manipulate the algorithm, often under nefarious pretenses, for better search results). However, times have changed and many appear to have cracked the code…

Tell me this, have you noticed a decline in the quality of your search results at Google? I know I have. That’s because smart people have cornered the market on keywords, not only in easier-to-manipulate engines like MSN and Yahoo!, but Google as well. The emergence of parked, little to no value pages are also finding there way into top search results in Google. The predicament for Google is; they often supply the advertising platform to the majority of these pages. Google may claim it is best to provide rich content to your site visitors, but are they turning a blind eye if said pages lack originality but are bringing in copious amounts of money?

Not all is lost, however…
Google has begun hiring “Search Query Analysts” to manually review websites for quality standards related to typical keyword queries. They realize an exodus has begun – Google users moving to or supplementing with competitive search engines more frequently over the past two years. My feeling is Google understands the threat and plans on having specific sites of quality mixed in with the not-so-good high paying sites when a person types in a specific keyword.

Has Google backed itself into a corner? They claim to be working toward maintaining all the worlds' information in one place so everyone can easily access the information at any time (methinks Jimmy Wales has taken control of this space). At the same time, they profit from advertising not search queries. Does Google want it’s users to find the best information available on their research topic when they type in a keyword or do they want the sites with the highest traffic and highest paying keyword advertisements to resolve on top? So, we the searchers are penalized with poor search results because, as usual, capitalism takes over.

Ok, so now what? How do we deal with it?

This is no secret. There is a way around the declining quality of search results and I am sure you are aware. It is called the “long tail” search query. A long tail query usually takes a bit of thought on the searchers part. Opposed to a single or commonly paired keyword(s), a searcher uses multiple words or uses full sentences, like questions, to dig deeper into the search engine database.

For example, traditionally I may have typed “web developers” if I was seeking out a company to help me build an eCommerce or full-blown website. In this case, I did and the database returned a number of results on the first page; one of which looks to be a no-brainer to review. I clicked on the second result, which happens to be webdeveloper.com – this must be the place, right? It appears to be a well-established site with information about web development. However, I quickly realize two things as I start to peruse the site. Firstly, there is a huge banner ad on the right-hand side of the page provided by DoubleClick. Didn’t Google acquire DoubleClick this year? Furthermore, this site is owned and operated by Jupiter Media, which happens to have a considerable amount of traffic in their network of sites. Traffic = Cash Flow.

So, what if I go the long tail route for my query? I typed in “quality web development” and received a completely different set of results – based upon sites which contain all of the words I typed for my query. I added one extra keyword and altered another. I chose the second result (to be fair) and ended up at; smtusa.com – a well-designed site with an actual web development company operating within! There are no advertisements and most probably have less traffic than webdeveloper.com.

This is only one example, but I am sure you have experienced the difference.

This doesn’t mean generic keyword category defining domain names should be excluded from query results. I am simply pointing out a long tail query is more likely of offering results to pages the searcher is interested in finding out about. I feel the default result for any keyword search should be based solely on all possible interpretations of the searchers query. In other words, create an algorithm which anticipates what the searcher is thinking. If the keyword(s) has 10 different possible interpretations, then present the 10 best sites which represent all possible interpretations. To my knowledge this has never been implemented into a search algorithm. Until it is considered, the long tail search query is your best bet for finding quality sites which match what you are looking for in search results.

Stuart.