How Big Data Changed Crime Fighting & Is Changing The Practice Of SEO
Posted May 11, 2012
- under Media Coverage
In the mid 1990’s, New York city Mayor Rudolph Giuliani introduced a technology-based crime measurement system called CompStat. The system enabled Police leadership, for the first time, to discern crime trends and respond to crime fluctuations on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis rather than the limited incident-by-incident view they previously had.
The system is credited with a 60% drop in major crime and has subsequently been adopted by major cities including Washington DC, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Interestingly, all that really sparked the change was the acquisition of information—trend insights into neighborhood crime patterns over time.
In the 1999 interview, “Betting on Intelligence,” CompStat creator Jack Maple outlines the fundamental principles behind CompStat:
- Accurate, timely intelligence clearly communicated to all.
- A rapid deployment that is concentrated, synchronized and focused.
- Effective tactics and strategies.
- Relentless follow-up and assessment.
A phenomenon that follows a similar arc of intelligence acquisition and process is occurring today in the natural search industry.
Shift From Limited View To Landscape View
In much the same way the NYPD moved from examining individual incidents to mapping crimes and compiling data to expose crime trends, the search industry is moving from an ‘incident by incident’ (keyword-by-keyword) view to a technology-powered ‘neighborhood by neighborhood’ (search landscape) view.
Driven by mature technology that gathers, stores and analyzes natural search data over time and allows for segmentation on a ‘neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis’, this information empowers SEO professionals to discern trends and communicate, report and act on these trends with maximum efficiency.
Specifically, technology-enabled collection and analysis of ‘big data’ in the SEO industry has enabled marketers to take a new, broad neighborhood view of their natural search landscape as opposed to the keyword by keyword perspective they were previously limited to (see screenshot below for more on how technology is enabling that view).
The new standard for search marketers as Police Chiefs of their online cities is to understand what is occurring on a holistic, global basis, thus arming themselves to respond to both opportunity and threat in their own online ‘neighborhood.’
