It’s an experience that’s all-too-familiar with Google users.
After typing in a search term and viewing the results, you click on a site that seems to be relevant to your search – only you’re met with something entirely different. Whether the site was of an exceptionally low quality, offensive in nature or overstuffed with keywords, accidentally clicking on a site that wasn’t at all relevant to your search has been a frustrating yet ubiquitous part of the online experience.
Until now, that is.
Always one step ahead of its competitors, Google recently announced a new service that promises to give its users “a more personalized and enjoyable experience” by allowing them to block websites from popping up in future search results. The search engine powerhouse claims that not only will this site-blocking service give users more control over their online experience, but it may become a fundamental tool in helping Google determine which sites are worthy of top ranking for their keywords. For example, a site that is continually blocked from users’ search results may be penalized by Google’s ranking system and removed from its top-tier ranking altogether.
“While we’re not currently using the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we’ll look at the data and see whether it would be useful as we continue to evaluate and improve our search results in the future,” writes Amay Champaneria and Beverly Yang on Google Blog.
It’s a move that has online surfers cheering – and online marketers scrambling to learn more about the latest addition to Google’s rigid SEO ranking factors.
So how exactly does Google’s new site blocking service work? Take a look at the following features:
While this user-generated experience means more control over the online world, Google’s latest innovation has online marketers asking one urgent question:
How will this affect SEO rankings?
The official answer is that it won’t – for now. But given Google’s adherence to rigid SEO ranking systems, website owners shouldn’t be surprised if they have a new SEO factor to cater to. To stay ahead of the curve, we recommend that web owners:
According to Google Blog, the new service was launched March 11th and 12th on Google.com in English for people using Chrome 9+, Internet Explorer 8+ and Firefox 3.5+. Other browsers and countries will see Google’s new website blocking service within the coming months.