> BlogBack in August of 2008 we talked about Google Personalised Search and how it affects SEO since then Google have made a few changes to this feature.
Previously, personalised search only applied to users who were signed in to their Google Account and had ‘Web History’ enabled, however Google have now applied this feature to all searchers regardless of whether you are signed in or not.
Why are they doing that?
Google are constantly striving to deliver the most relevant results possible to their users and for that reason sometimes the search results you see are now being customised.
For example if you were to often search for ‘search engine marketing new zealand’ in Google and choose to click on the result for Apex Internet most often, Google may rank our site higher on the results page next time you conduct this search, which therefore allows you to easily find the site which has been of use to you many times in the past.
How do they do that?
Google place an anonymous cookie in your browser which records up to 180 days of search activity. This means that you don’t have to be signed into your Google Account for personalised search results to become enabled. If you are working on a shared computer this cookie will be recording other users search data as well.
Another factor that sometimes is taken into account with customised search results is your location. For instance if you were searching for a movie theatre chances are that you probably want to find one near you, Google can customise the search results to your approximate location which is based on your IP address.
How will I know if they have customised my search results page?
For users who aren’t signed into a Google Account, you won’t have any idea that this customisation has occurred.
What if I don’t want customised results?
Google along with other Search Engines have always recorded information about your searches, it’s just that Google now makes use of this data to provide personalised results.
Google have taken into account the fact that not everyone wants this feature. If you are one of these people click on ‘Web History’ at the top right of your Google screen and click on ‘Disable customisations based on search activity’, this will disable this feature from future searches on your browser. You can turn this on or off at your own will.
Does my website rank get affected by these results?
In short yes, searchers using personalised search may see the rank of your website differently than that of a user who doesn’t use personalised search. Because of this the rank of your website should not be used solely as a measure of how well your website is performing.
It is still important to have a well optimised website which meets industry best practices. Keywords that are relevant to your industry and which are being searched on will provide you with more opportunity to gain visitors looking for your service / product.
Tracking traffic to your website and information on how visitors use it gives you with a better overall picture and opportunity for improvement. For instance if users are coming to your homepage and not visiting any other pages on your site it could be because your copy is not relevant to what they are looking for and you therefore might need to make some edits to this.
So whilst the focus nowadays may not be so much on rankings it is still important to ensure that your website has relevant copy and is well optimised as you then have a better chance of reaching your potential clients / customers.
New Plymouth
Phone (+64) 06 769 5640
Fax (+64) 06 769 5641
Email info@apexinternet.co.nz
Christchurch
Phone (+64) 03 374 6518
Fax (+64) 03 374 6519
Email chch@apexinternet.co.nz
