Do you get lost in search?

There used to be a time when you simply entered your one or two keywords into the search bar, clicked the button, and you got a great result; what’s more you read the first three pages of results before even thinking of trying anything else.

Notice I said clicked the button – doesn’t everyone use the short cut and simply press the Return/Enter key these days?

How things have changed. Perhaps the most noticeable change is the virtual disappearance of stand-alone websites and the near total domination of the critical first page of search engine results (SERP) by specialist directories – within the search industry they’re known as verticals.

Whole search segments, such as real estate, travel, jobs, cars and hotel accommodation, not to mention the largest ‘local’, are served by these single purpose portals – many of them now household names, e.g. SEEK and Wotif.com.

But ‘local search’ has probably changed more than any other area and the US giants Google and Yahoo! are commencing an
all-out-war with the Aussie locals, Yellow Pages, True Local (and numerous smaller players) over this most prized possession and holy grail of advertising spend. 

Of course, the major search engines would seem to have a major advantage insofar as they can always place their own paid advertising (in the form of sponsored listings) on top of all the natural/organic search results.

However, this strategy does have a downside, and it could ultimately become their Achilles heel.  Let me explain.

For starters most searchers actually prefer to look at natural results because they reason that the Sponsored Listings are paid advertisements. 

But the only trouble is it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between a paid or unpaid result; after all most are just a title/headline, a few words (called a snippet but only in natural results) and the bottom line on all types, a now green URL, i.e. www.whatever.com  to hyperlink to a website.

When Google started putting sponsored listings at the top of their pages (used to be on the right hand side only) and also attached them alongside their maps at or near the top of SERPs, the previous distinction became increasingly blurred.

If, and I emphasise if, the results from these sponsored listings become sufficient for most searchers the days of natural search are effectively over.  And the unthinkable has happened.  The automated search engines, which were only invented to overcome the processing difficulties associated with the rapidly increasing size of hand edited directories, will have reverted and themselves become paid directories (albeit without most of the humans).

This outcome will likely be avoided simply because Sponsored Listings will, in my opinion any way, never be generally accepted as an alternative to natural results - it would be a bit like using the Yellow Pages (hard copy) as an alternative to an encyclopedia.

My prediction is that there will in fact be an increase in trusted directories. If you need an example, think of Wikipedia, (www.wikipedia.org) which Google uses to make up for a lack of good compiled information on its indices, on virtually any topic.

When it comes to local search (my bailiwick) there are now dozens of directories in this country, which simply do not provide adequate results – notwithstanding they appear near the top of all SERPs.

There are in fact many ‘top down’ local directories (some international) which appear in the so-called Top 10 which contain only one, or a very small number, of paid entries when common sense tells you there should be dozens to choose from.

In the short term this has been to the detriment of local search. Generally, however, the emergence of trusted, comprehensive, up-to-date, human edited directories used in conjunction with all search engines will most likely be the way forward.

I fervently hope so, but only time will tell.