Implications for Search Engine Optimisation

Google’s ascendancy has significant implications for search engine optimisers. XSEO, the company I co-founded with Matt Paines in 2001, has seen big players like AltaVista disappear, and even MSN, with all of Microsoft’s massive muscle behind it has been unable to break Google’s stranglehold.

Put simply, Google is frighteningly good at what it does. Before Page and Brin, people were optimising their sites by repeating word a hundred times over, and Internet searching was pretty much a lottery. It was Google who made it possible for us to find what we want by detecting these tricks.

XSEO has always tried to give Google what it wants, though admittedly finding out what Google wants can be something of a battle. Overall I see Google’s position as a good thing for the good guys. The strength of their recognition algorithms is now such that they can detect more and more of the tricks pulled by the "black-hat" optimisers. We’ve recently seen major UK Insurance players black-listed by Google. As the Google search engine handles more than 80% of UK search traffic, no one can ignore being removed from its listings.

What we’re seeing is an emerging set of standards – something the search engine optimisation industry has been seeking for some years. The EU legislation has failed to force site owners to comply with accessibility guidelines, while Google has enforced accessibility as a by-product of its search engine spider requirements. A site that’s accessible, has good relevant content, and that’s regarded as genuinely authoritative by its peers is likely to be a site worth visiting. It’s no coincidence that Google has aligned its ranking criteria with these three parameters.

So how do I view Google’s increasing power over our online lives? Provided they keep their heads and don’t allow absolute power to corrupt absolutely, I’m more than happy for them to rule. When standards are imposed legislatively they’re often ill-considered and rarely well-implemented. Here we’re seeing standards emerging commercially; if they’re the right standard – and so far I believe they are – then we all benefit.

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