August 30th, 2010 by Mike
An ongoing SEO news topic has been the introduction of personalised search into Google’s SERPs. Personalised search is being hotly debated on SEO blog sites and throughout the search engine optimisation industry – so what is personalised search exactly and how is it established? Has there been a significant impact since its introduction?
Personalised Search
Personalised search is when the search engine takes note of what you tend to click and the sites that you favour. Through the course of time Google will then apply a ranking to your favourite sites to boost them – just for you. An example of this in action is if you select eBay frequently you will see more eBay listings in your results in place of perhaps Amazon.
How Does it Work?
Personalised search is driven by several elements and caries from one search engine to another. Some of the possible factors include when you search, past web history, the IP address of your laptop or PC and any stored cookies. Although other search engines do carry out personalised search, Google does it on a much wider basis than most. The personalised search on Google also caries depending on whether you are signed in to Google or not. When you sign in to Google your search history will date back indefinitely or to a point where you removed it. When you are logged out, your search history spans a maximum of 180 days. This obviously has a great impact on search results.
Bing however operates in a different way. It also records your search history but holds data for only 28 days. One feature that does stand out from Google is Bing’s ability to suggest search terms based on your web history.
The Impact
For most users there is no real impact and many won’t notice the difference. However, for SEO professionals and website owners it’s important to understand how it works. It can affect your keyword analysis significantly and as a website owner you can use personalised search to your advantage.
You should be aware that rank checking as a consequence is less accurate on a universal level now. If you are at the top of your results and you dominate your niche market, you are most likely to reap the rewards of this new addition to Google. It also makes it more important than ever to ensure your user has a great experience when visiting your site. As ever this makes it critical to find the balance between making the site friendly to search engines and appealing to users. If a user finds your site irrelevant or difficult to use they won’t come back and you won’t be ranked as a favourite.
Take care when carrying out keyword analysis. If your keywords relate to topics that you personally have no interest in the personal search will probably not affect your results. However, to be on the safe side switch personalised search off to keep estimates accurate.
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