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INTERNET TECHNOLOGY

INTERNET TECHNOLOGY. Innovations in Local Search How people find local information online. Andrew Connery, Managing Director of Your Online Community Pty. Ltd. Introduction. Most locals use a global search engine Information is provided indirectly by a human edited directory

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INTERNET TECHNOLOGY

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  1. INTERNET TECHNOLOGY Innovations in Local Search How people find local information online Andrew Connery, Managing Director of Your Online Community Pty. Ltd.

  2. Introduction Most locals use a global search engine Information is provided indirectly by a human edited directory Local directory-type search queries are usually only two keywords

  3. 1 of 3 Domain Size Search engines index all web pages by matching keywords A search engine creates a SERP comprising all web pages indexed in descending order of importance (PR) SERP = Search Engine Results Page. Is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a query. PR = PageRank. The way that Google measures the relative importance of a website. PR 0 - PR 1 is average, and PR 10 is the most important.

  4. EXAMPLE • As at January 2009 • Google indexes 4,170,000 web pages with the keyword ‘wollongong’ • Google indexes 443,000,000 web pages with the keyword ‘golf’ • BUT only indexes 212,000 web pages with the keywords ‘wollongong’ and ‘golf’ • AND indexes 211,000 web pages with the keywords ‘golf’ and ‘wollongong’

  5. 2 of 3 Domain size When searching locally, the domain sizes involved are relatively small – hundreds of thousands of web pages versus tens or hundreds of millions Page ranking algorithms originally developed to sift through millions of indexed web pages become biased towards non-local websites

  6. 3 of 3 Domain size Most locals try to access information about their area using a global search engine (Google, Yahoo etc) first, rather than a locally based web page or an online directory / community portal

  7. 1 of 3 The role of Directories Current local search is the dominated by directory listings Nearly all the critical first page (usually 10 listings) of Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) observed show no standalone websites

  8. TABLE A – Google SERP Using keywords ‘abrasive blasting Parramatta’

  9. 2 of 3 The role of Directories AussieWeb, Yellow Book ranking above SMARTPAGES shows Google’s preference for longer established and/or higher ranking directories, despite lack of relevant content

  10. TABLE B – AussieWeb Note: Top position, 1 listing (PR5)

  11. TABLE C – Yellow Book Note: Second position, 1 listing (PR3)

  12. TABLE D – SMARTPAGES.com.au Note: Third position, 15 listings (No Rank)

  13. 3 of 3 Role of Directories This domination of SERP results by large players is a reflection of the ‘rich get richer’ factor so readily observed in traditional media This is at odds with the supposed egalitarianism of the internet: “Uniquely democratic - Google Technology official literature 2004”

  14. TABLE E – Human edited directories, typicals PRs

  15. 1 of 2 TABLE F: Comparison of PageRanks DO: DIRECTORY ONLY, DR: DIRECTORY AND REVIEW, CD: COMMUNITY PLUS DIRECTORY

  16. 2 of 2 TABLE F: Comparison of PageRanks DO: DIRECTORY ONLY, DR: DIRECTORY AND REVIEW, CD: COMMUNITY PLUS DIRECTORY

  17. Limitations and biases Search engines index (compile) web pages in a number of ways The most important factor is the use of keywords in the URL and Title This factor virtually guarantees that directories appear above standalone web pages

  18. Search first page only Nearly 70% of all searchers do not go past the first page of SERPs About 15% continue to the third page The order of keywords can also negatively impact the quality of search finding (order in SERP)

  19. 1 of 2 Location as second keyword A search engine would prefer to use a post or zip code as a location reference for indexing purposes Users find these numbers non-intuitive Users do not limit their search to a small area and much prefer to make their choices from a larger selection, within easy driving distance

  20. 2 of 2 Location as second keyword Directory advertisers want to reach the maximum number of potential customers The critical minimum viable size of a local directory is yet to be determined A number of approaches have been attempted in this country, and the optimum solution has yet to emerge Community based directories do have some natural advantages

  21. PageRank (PR) A high PR web page will appear on the SERP above a low ranking website with more relevant and/or unique content A Wikipedia (PR9) related web page will nearly always dominate a SERP

  22. 1 of 2 Content issues The quality (comprehensiveness and freshness) and number of relevant listings within a directory is not currently used as a determinant of PageRank, when indexed by Google and other search engines

  23. 2 of 2 Content issues Internationally based directories with very small numbers of relevant listings usually rank higher on SERPs than more comprehensive local directories This factor is a major impediment to improving the quality of local search, which currently does not match the standard of global search

  24. 1 of 2 Other factors Recent innovations in local search such as mapping, Google ‘street scenes’ has: 1. increased the mix in favour of paid placement; and 2. reduced the area available for organic / natural listings on the critical first page of SERPs Searchers hardly ever use advanced searching options and almost never view more than one page of results

  25. SERP Web searchers All Page 1 51% All Page 2 35% All Page 3 15% TABLE G – Pew Life Project & others (2004)

  26. 2 of 2 Other factors Spelling mistakes and non-grammatical formulations Unless listings appear in the first three pages of SERPs, they are virtually invisible 80% of searches use three keywords or fewer and the average is only two

  27. Local search bias High PR websites will jump lower ranked websites with proper keyword domain names Using the default web search button ‘.com’ domains also skew results unfavourably Wikipedia has a Page Rank of 9/10 (PR9) virtually guaranteeing a top spot on single keyword search and ranking very highly on most multiple keyword local search queries

  28. TABLE H – The URL Anomaly Searching for keyword ‘tlc’ a local training organisation

  29. Wikipedia PR9 is the top linkwww.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLC (the band). Top listing plus Indent Discovery Channel is second using a sub-domain, PR7–www.tlc.discovery.com Third is Trinity Lutheran College, PR4 – www.tlc.qld.edu.au/ Tender Loving care homes, www.tlchomes.com.auis fourth with a PR4 Tlc (tender loving cuisine) is fifth with PR4, www.tlc.org.au

  30. www.tlc.com.au PR2 is the second entry on second page – on ‘the web’ radio button, ie the default www.tlc.com.au is a perfect keyword match and should have been No.1 spot (using a PC with Australian IP address) NOTE: www.tlc.com.au is second from bottom of Page 1 when using ‘pages from Australia’ search radio button

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