Search Engine Optimization News Blog

Google assures us that search result quality will continue to improve, and promises they won’t mess with a good thing in a post by Ben Gomes.

In response to a webmaster’s worried inquiry into new ‘tweaks’ to Google’s algorithms, Gomes was quick to point out that no, you don’t mess with a good thing. He then proceeded to lay out the ways that Google search has improved with the focus on anticipation of consumer needs.

Google has long touted their algorithm as being geared towards giving searched what they really want rather than what they might in ignorance ask for. The query refinement suggestions at the bottom of ambiguous result pages help users learn how to phrase their queries for more accurate or specific results.

The automatic spelling prompts don’t just run off of the dictionary, thousands of queries on the web are analyzed to pick up on spellings of names and places to make sure all possibilities are taken into consideration.

The post didn’t touch on linking, content, PageRank or other webmaster issues, focusing instead on search from the consumer’s point of view. Gomes did take a detour in mentioning the part that localized and vertical search have had on the way people look for results. Sitemaps were gone into in slightly more detail – this is the real nugget that webmasters can take home from the blog post. Sitemaps enhance the user experience, claims Google, which displays them readily to allow searchers to land withiong your site at the appropriate point for their needs.

The one quote that stands out from the overall posting was a trifle wry: “… a search engine [is] radically different from most other sites on the web, which measure their success by how long their users stay. We measure our web search success partly by how quickly you leave [!]”

The ability Google has to gather information through the sheer size of its user pool helps immensely when it comes to constant improvement. They can roll out betas that include thousands on thousands of users and still only affect a fraction of a percent of searchers. This allows them the freedom to try out hundreds of new applications, features and upgrades before any formal launch of an upgrade is made.

Searchers keep using Google, so it can be assumed that either they are doing something right – or that they have simply become such a brand name that there is not and never will be a true chance for competition to gain a foothold.