Personalization of Search - A Simple Solution to a Complex Challenge

Personalization of Search - A Helpful Solution to a Complex Challenge

By John Alexander

If you have not read parts 1 and 2 and 3 of this article you should review these first.

Personalization is not some new shifting of the algorithms, but rather it is a personalized shuffling of results based on each users search history. This means if 3 people sit down at the same computer, they could potentially see completely different results (even for the same keyword phrase) based on their own search history. The next thing to be aware of is that ranking "in the traditional sense" of the Top 10 or the Top 30 results can no longer be determined, since the search engine is delivering up results based on each individuals search history.

"Ranking" is not dead - it just needs to be understood in a different light. I'll say it again, ranking is not dead - it's just different than you thought it was. In the future, it will continue to become more different and for SEO professionals and business owners to be truly successful and maintain visibility, it will be a question of how your Web pages rank, FOR the biggest percentage of the most correct audience AND for what percentage of the time?

But there are some powerful solutions to help you that don't have to be too complicated to understand.

If you understand the challenge, then what is the best solution?

One of the keys we teach our students are the details surrounding how personalization of search works and how a search engine actually uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to "understand" the context of what a search engine "thinks" based on AI. We get into the details of explaining "concept networks" and a whole lot more.

At your local Search Engine Academy we teach on these and other very advanced topics to help students of SEO really get their minds around the why factor.

But this week I promised to show you an easier solution to help you get your pages found despite the growing and imminent effect of the "personalization of search."

Background:

If you remember how powerful the original ThemeMaster tool was, it had the ability to show you groups of important secondary supporting terms based on "what a search engine understands" through AI as opposed to what a human being understand and "thinks" might be related through a Thesaurus.

ThemeMaster was the true grand daddy of all LSI based tools and while the original program was a joy to use, unfortunately it no longer exists these days. It's now long gone and part of SEO history.

But here is something brand new for 2009:

Introducing SEM SCOUT
by Mathematician and LSI expert Michael Marshall.

Search Content Optimization Using Themes
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/semscout.html

One of the cool things that SEM SCOUT does that ThemeMaster did not do, is that it allows you to analyze the Theme for any page to find the best supporting terms. Then it allows you to change your content and shows you in real time how improved you are on a scale of 1 to 100.

Another very cool thing that SEM SCOUT has is a personalized video tip system where you can listen and watch Michael Marshall give you new tips about optimization and using the tool. Each time the button goes green, there will be a new short video where can listen to LSI expert Michael.

One of the sharpest things I like about this tool is that it works in real time and it even allows you to make changes to your content within the tool and know for certain which most important related terms are missing from your page. It's like pulling up the missing pieces to a puzzle "based on most important terms" to "lesser important terms."

Then it also highlights the words that are missing from your Web copy in a red text font.

Come attend one of our local community Search Engine Academies for in-depth skills on solutions to these issues and all of the other issues that are keeping your Web site from performing.

In the meantime, for those of you who are looking for a tool to really help make sure your content is getting found despite the personalization of search try SEM SCOUT.

Find local upcoming dates and locations. We have lots of new things to show you.

About John Alexander
John Alexander is Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses. John is author of an e-book called Wordtracker Magic and has taught SEO skills to people from 87 different countries world wide. John is also Director of Search Engine Academy with localized Search Engine Academy training centers where the Complete SEO Mastery Workshop and 6 Month Mentoring program is taught locally to business owners and individuals in communities across North America and Internationally in Asia.

We'll keep you advised on all of our future training dates the moment things are firmed up.
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Personalization of Search - A Helpful Solution to a Complex Challenge

John Alexander

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