Personalized Search Results, What Does This Mean for You?

By now I’m sure you’ve all heard the buzz about Google’s new personalized search results (although not really new, they have been beta testing for a while). So what does this mean? It means, that Google will now start delivering results to their users based on sites previously visited. This means that while Coke may have previously come up #1 for “soda companies,” if you are used to ordering online from your local market, that may come up instead.

So how could this change affect your online traffic?

Here’s a great article written by a friend of mine (and the “Glazer- Kennedy’s Secret Weapon”) @brianhorn that does a wonderful job of describing what to expect.

Check it out the full article here: Google’s Change That Will Rock Your World in 2010

But here’s a snippet from the article and what to expect:

“The Big Players Will Get Even Bigger
Those at the top of the search results for their industry’s most popular keywords are likely to benefit the most from this change. The longer tail queries that would once have shown more alternative sources will now bring up those “previously visited” sites when previously they wouldn’t have earned a top position.

This will likely contribute to some lowered diversity in the results, but can also help fight against spammy results from low quality republishers.

Paid Traffic Could Boost SEO
If Google is tracking what websites a user has visited before, and using that data in their search results…it makes sense to get as many people to your site ASAP, right?”

To Your Success!