Generating lists of keywords through social

media, emailing, and search history for

personalized indexes of search engines
Jasmine Williams
Karen Kuralt
RHET 7340
June 2013
What is an index?
a retrieval device, an
access aid
a readers most
important map for
locating information in
a document that is
read in a random-
access style
Directs the reader to a specific topic

Enables the reader to find topics according to the
readers way of thinking

Shows how a topic is related to another topic

Helps a reader use a document even if the reader
has topics confused

Allows readers with different degrees of knowledge
to locate topics
Today, many of these functions overlap those of an index.

Search engines:

direct users to a specific topic based on their query

respond to queries according to the terminology of a user

show all content including keywords

help a user find a topic even if the user has topics confused

allow users with different degrees of knowledge to locate topics

Many of the functions and purposes of an index are similar to
those of search engines.
This super-charged form of indexing is often
called reverse indexing and its apart of
search engine optimization (SEO).

So, why do we search and why should
we optimize the process?
Search engine optimization by definition
consists of designing pages in a web site so
that they rank highly on search engines for
targeted queries (Levene 2010).

According to this, by definition, search
engine optimization involves creating content
embedded with keywords that are likely to be
used by a user and thus more valued by a
search engine.

Indexing

Analyzes content of
document to create a list of
keywords
Search Engine
Optimization

Uses keyword tools to
find common terms

Customizes content to
match common terms

Embeds keywords that
interest qualified traffic

Conduct an audience analysis to assess needs

Determine content/words relevant to audience

Select a limited amount of keywords per page

Use unique keywords specific to content

Today, more than ever, we are more involved
in writing, sharing, and communicating with
the world through the internet.

Finding what we need in this fast paced
society has become more important than
ever.

Understanding why we search is critical to
understanding what we search and how we
will find results.
Alexander Havalis, author of Search Engine
Society: A Digital Media and Society Series
(2008) states there are two primary purposes
to search:
1. To inform an individual who wants to be a
part of a larger social conversation and
provide a tool for gaining social efficacy
2. To link people together to build social
capital and develop collective intelligence

Today, the latter seems to be more important.

technology that draws explicitly on
connections among people in order to find
information more effectively (Levene 2010)

The future of search is depended upon social
networking and information searching.
Optimization of keywords requires social elements for promotion and
connection.






Through social search, if
SEO users can identify
their interests in goods
and services prior to
searching the term, the
company of interest will
be more likely to
populate within their
search results from a
search engine query.

It is equally important for websites to have a social presence
with their consumers as embedding keywords within the
content of the page.
Web search
Involves navigational
queries in search of
a single web page
Acts as an index
Allows for particular
terms to be located
anywhere on web
Social search
Involves interest in
browsing a page on
a particular topic
Evaluates content or
collect sites favored
by communities
Uncovers more
relevant pages

Measure the
communities
evaluation of sites

Infer information
from links

Take into account
searchers social
networks
The future of indexing as SEO has already
arrived. In fact, SEO is in midst of change as we
know it.

For the remainder of this presentation, I will
reference the popular search engine Google to
explain the links between indexing, SEO, and
social media for personalized indexing.

Google Instant search results
Traditionally search engines have used
algorithms to rank websites.

For example, Google has used a system
known as PageRank.

In 2005, rank results became obsolete
because the rank of a website to the
search query is dependent upon the
needs of the audience (Sherman 2005).

Google began to use personalized
results to meet the needs of their
audiences (Personalized Search for
Everyone 2009).

This is most evident in Google Instant
which populates most common
keywords based on most common
previous searches (About Google
Instant).
Email and the mass expansion of social media has led
to a rise of tagging and social bookmarking as a
dominant indicator of our interests.

With this information, dominating multinational
internet services cooperation have access to enough
information to determine your interests and
customize results to the user.

The user generates their own keywords through email
usage, tagging, social bookmarking, and previous
search history while search engines index the
information and generate personalized results to
queries.


Emailing
keyword scanning
Social Networking
social bookmarking
tagging
sharing
Collaborative
Filtering
recommendations
relationship analysis

Googles Gmail
How Google customizes
to meet your needs:

Priority inbox is a
Google tool that sorts
your email into
categories to determine
what is most important.


Gmail uses an automated system to scan your important emails for
keywords.

You receive relevant advertisements based on those keywords.
Google states on their online help system:

We are always looking for more ways to deliver
you the most useful and relevant ads - for
example, we may use your Google search
queries on the Web, the sites you visit, Google
Profile, +1s and other Google Account
information to show you more relevant ads in
Gmail (Ads in Gmail 2013).

Social signals

Major search engine like Google uses social
signals as a larger part of the algorithm used to
generate search results.

Google wants content that is relevant, shareable
and that engage audiences online. Interactions
must be real and have community value. Those
interactions will help bring a brand up in their
search engine rankings (Levene 2010).

Social bookmarking, tagging
and sharing
Social networking, emails, and collaborative
filtering are all a part of online community
collaboration.

The social networks established through
online interaction enable local communities
to expand into larger online communities.

The expansion of social networking results in
expansion of analysis techniques to a focus
on larger units.
Professor Stanley Milgrams small world
experiment provides a basic model for how
online interaction occurs.

Overview of Milgrams experiement (Levene
2010)
217 participants chose someone they knew on a
first name basis to send a message to a target
64 of the messages reached their target
The average chain length was six people
Thus, the hypothesis of the six degrees of
separation was generated
Most common choice of person to reach the target was
determine by two factors (Leven 2010):
1. The geographical proximity of the target
2. The occupation of the target

For example, I would to get a message to John
Spearman a SEO I dont know persoally. I will send an
email to my friend Bret who works as a SEO. According
to the Milgram hypothesis, Spearman should be the
sixth person to receive my message.
Often used to test navigation systems of
social search technologies

Makes social bookmarking, tagging, and
recommendations possible through social
search

The creation of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is the new Web.
Users taking an active role in shaping the Web.
Users have first-hand interactions with new
content. Users can
create it
share it
link to it
search for it
tag it
modify it

Web 2.0 is about the second purpose of search, creating
collective intelligence.

A 2012 UK searchmetrics study indicates social
shares on Facebook and Twitter closely
correlate with how a site ranks in Google
search.

Social signals from Facebook, Twitter, and
Google+ very strongly correlate with good
ranking in Googles index.

Facebook activities have the highest impact on
ranking, with a Facebook share the most
important factor.
(Google Ranking Factors UK 2012).
UK Search Ranking Factors

Web users generate content created by their
social tags and bookmarks

StumbleUpon toolbar
a social search and browsing stool for discovering web
pages and sharing the ones you have visited with other
users (Levene 2010)

MrTaggy
an experimental search engine that uses web crawlers
that that search web tags instead of keywords

Taggers use search engines to find relevant
bookmarks.

Tags that overlap with search engine
queries help users find relevant pages.

Related tags help in query suggestions and
refinement (Levene 2010).


Search engine results correlate with major
social network bookmarks.

Google includes social signals as a part of
their algorithm.

Users create their own personalized indexed
from social bookmarks, tags, and shares.

Recommendations and
relationship analysis
collects recommendations to
determine what is collectively
interesting for a particular
group of people (Levene
2010)

compares the interest of one
user to others in order to
derive recommendations that
help and encourage the user
to make decisions (Levene
2010)

Also known as word of
mouth
Used by social networking
sites (Facebook) and
eCommerce (i.e.
Amazon.com)

Allows sites to customize
content based on consumer
interests and likelihood of
use of services.

Social networking sites use
CF through relationships by
analyzing ones relationship
as likelihood of generating
similar interest in products.
The future of indexing has arrived. Every
person who has a Facebook account, Gmail,
Twitter, LinkedIn or participates in any form
of social media is participating in
personalized indexing.

Search engines like Google have evolved to
the meet the never-ending demands of a
rapidly changing online society and it all
involves basic indexing skills.

About Google Instant. Google: Inside Search. n.d. Web. 16 June 2013
Ads in Gmail. Google Help. n.d. Web. 16 June 2013.
Google Ranking Factors UK 2012. Searchmetrics. 2012. Web. 14 June 2013.
Personalized Search for Everyone. Google: Official Blog. 4 Dec. 2009. Web. 16
June. 2013
Arrowood, James Albert. A Technical Writers Guide to Search Engine
Optimization. MA thesis. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2010.
Print.
Halavais, Alexander. Search Engine Society: Digital Media and Society Issues.
Polity: Malden, MA, 2009. Print.
Hedden, Heather. Indexing Specialties: Web Sites. American Society of Indexers:
Wheat Ridge, CO. 2007. Print.
Levene, Mark. An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation. 2
nd
ed.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New Jersey, 2010. Print.
Lewis, Judish The Science of Search, Google and Social Signals Beyond. 2 April.
2013. Web. 13 June 2013
Sherman, Chris. Google Personalized Search Leaves Google Labs. Search E
ngine Watch. 9 Nov. 2005. Web. 16 June 2013.