Search Rankings Are Dead

[djbaxter]

Search Rankings are Dead: Long Live Search Placements
by Tom Schmitz, Search Engine Land
Jan 19, 2012

Recently, I gave a presentation on Google’s Search+ in which I said ranking reports no longer matter because there is no such thing as consistent Google rankings.

What you see in the Google search results and what I see, for the exact same query, are likely to be two different sets of results, thanks to:

• Personalized search results based on our own search history
• Influenced search results based on our friends’ search histories
• Local search results
• Brand mentions in social media and on web pages
• Query deserves images, video, products, news or other types of search results
• Query deserves freshness
• Query deserves diversity
• Brand mentions on social media and the web
• Over 500 algorithm changes a year

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