The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Truth 33. Universal search and personalized search

Just because you are number one in search engine results today, doesn’t mean you will be number one tomorrow. Search rankings don’t just rise and fall because of the routine tweaks and updates major search engines are constantly making to their algorithms and indices. They fluctuate because the nature of search is changing as search engines extend their reach for what many consider to be the brass ring in the search engine’s game: searcher intent.

For example, let say someone searches for “123 Main Street, Mytown, USA 12345”. A couple of years ago, the top result on Google would probably have been a business at that address. Today, the top result for an address search is likely to ...