Texture design

Posted by Oatmeal

It appears that the overture bid tool is finally gone (for real this time).┬?┬? The information from this tool is used in our own Keyword Difficulty Tool, so now I'm looking for an alternate source of similar data.┬? Previously the overture bids accounted for around 12% of your keyword difficulty score, so having it removed is temporarily lowering all the scores until I get it fixed.

Does anyone know of a good tool for estimating search volume?┬? I don't spend a lot of time in the Design trenches┬? so I figured asking our community for input would be the best route.

In the interim I am considering simply upping the weight of the page strength scores in the keyword difficulty formula.┬? Running a keyword difficulty report looks at the top 10 ranking sites at Design and Design! and calculates a page strength score for each.┬? It then calculates the average page strength score and uses that as part of the formula for determining how difficult it is to rank for your target term.┬? The average page strength scores account for around 33% of the total keyword difficulty score.┬? With the page strength tool becoming more reliable since the new site launched, I think simply upping the weight of these scores to around 45% would make up for the loss of the over bid tool data.┬? Again, this is an interim solution, ultimately I'd like to find a better factor for estimating search volume.

Also, I heard a rumor that the Overture keyword selector tool might be going away as well?┬?┬? Any merit to this?

After yesterday's post on Design launching their personalization feature I received plenty of emails regarding the patents this feature is based on. I will soon be publishing an article covering the subject so I won't fine-tooth the details here (you'll just have to come back regularly for the article however I'd like to include a few links you're likely interested in. And they are:

These are the patents this new feature is based on

• Systems and methods for analyzing a user's web history
• Systems and methods for modifying search results based on a user's history
• Systems and methods for providing a graphical display of search activity
• Systems and methods for managing multiple user accounts
• Systems and methods for combining sets of favorites
• Systems and methods for providing subscription-based personalization

Here are links to some great articles, blog posts and feedback on the subject (there's a lot more out there than this - I've just picked what I believe to be the best of the info

• Design Ramps Up Personalized Search - Danny Sullivan on Search Engine Land.com
  
• Personally speaking - The announcement of the launch of personalization on Design's official blog
• Design's Personalized Results - Jim Hedger on SiteProNews.com (it's on their homepage - I'll try to remember to change the link when it goes to a permanent location)

And just a reminder - keep watching our blog. We'll be posting an announcement of one of the most researched articles I've ever done on what is arguably the biggest change in search in years.<