Personalised search and its implications

Personalised search has been a hot topic ever since Google started to implement it into its SERPs. What is personalised search? How is it determined? What has been its impact? And of course, turning it off – This is what we’re going to discuss in this article.

What is personalised search?

Basically, Google takes note of what you click in its SERPs and realises you favour particular sites and so over time will give those sites you favour a ranking boost, only for you. For example, If you click on eBay results often, then you may start to see more eBay listings for your searches, possibly for searches where Amazon was originally showing previously.

How is personalised search determined?

Personalised search is determined by a variety of factors, and can vary depending on the search engine. Just a few of these factors includes the IP address of your PC or laptop, the time of day you perform a search, your web history and stored cookies.

Although personalised search is evident in a variety of search engines, it is more prominent in Google, and it works differently depending upon whether you are signed in or out of the search engine. For example, when a user is signed in to Google, the search history used goes back to an indefinite point or until you remove it. However, if a user is logged out then the search history only goes back to 180 days.

It is important to recognise the different ways in which Google works, in order to understand how it will affect your search results. One of the biggest issues is in understanding what kind of impact it will have on your site’s presence within the search engine.

Other ways in which personalised search works differently when signed in and out of Google is shown in the table below:

Bing works a little differently to Google. It records the history of searches but it only keeps the data for a maximum of 28 days. An added feature of the Bing search engine compared to Google is that it auto suggests search terms based on the web history data.

So what does all this mean and how does it affect you as a searcher?

Impact of personalised search

Does personalised search matter? In my opinion:

NO – For the standard user as they won’t know the difference.
YES – For an SEO (It’s important to know why and how it affects us)
YES – For a website owner (Duh!)

Why it matters to an SEO

• We work with search engines on a daily basis and need to keep at the forefront of our industry
• Ease client concerns
• One of the biggest changes Google has made
• Affects everyone
• Affects keyword analysis
• Can use to the advantage of clients

Some general points:

• Rank checking is less universally accurate
• The rich get (even) richer
  Those at the top of the results, who “own” the queries around their niches, are likely to benefit more
• User experience more important than ever
• Buying traffic may help organic results (I’m not advising this though!)
• The top 1-4 results are generally stable for everyone

How it affects keyword analysis

If the keyword belongs to an industry which you have no interest in then personalised search will likely not affect you, however, it is still advised to switch personalised search off.

I say this because such keywords will return sites which you likely have never visited and so you will see no personalisation.

It is otherwise important to switch personalised search OFF or else your estimates may be wrong.

Turn personalised search off

• Customise your Google settings and turn personalised search off
• Don’t sign in to Google
• Delete your Google web history and disable it
• Add “pws=0” to your search queries
• Clear browser cookies
• Use Yoast’s search plugin

Use it to your advantage

In addition to your SEO campaign:

• Optimise their site for local listings
• Submit site to Google Places
• Optimised for long tail traffic via a blog or any other means
• Improve brand loyalty
• Title and descriptions are crucial – Click-through is more important than ever!
• Promote your RSS feed (If Relevant)
• Add a Google Bookmarks button
• Update your site frequently with good content to attract revisits

Conclusion

Aim to get more visitors from different Google sources!!!

Author’s:

Ahmed Bhula (http://twitter.com/topnotchseo)
Dave Stopher (http://twitter.com/davestopherseo)
Gemma Neesham (http://twitter.com/seofocusuk)