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Personalized Search

Posted by Marios Alexandrou, SEO Resume.

Now that the Dave Pasternack thing has died down (well, I'm ready to move on even if others aren't), it looks like effects of personalized search is going to be the next hotly debated topic. Although not at all new, personalized search is only now becoming a reality in large part because Google has announced new emphasis in the area.

The idea behind Google's approach is that they will monitor your searches and over time attempt to develop a sense for your preferences. These preferences will then form that basis of another ranking factor when they decide what site should appear at the top of search results. If all works according to Google's plan, you would eventually be shown more relevant results tailored to you rather than having the one-size-fits-all results that Google displays. A more detailed discussion and by far the best description I've seen of this evolution of search comes from Danny Sullivan.

In addition to an excellent description of the program, Danny also covers how to opt-out of it should you choose to do so. This is particular useful especially if you side with Graywolf in his belief that Google is headed in the wrong direction.

What has occupied my thoughts since reading Danny's article is what exactly does personalized search mean to me as a search engine optimizer? Some are arguing that SEO will not be needed as much, but that doesn't seem to sense to me. If anything, I'd expect personalized search to improve the relevancy of traffic sent any given site. Sure volume may decrease, but if that decrease represents prospects that wouldn't covert anyway, does it really matter?

And I wonder if clients will now become confused when they spot check their rankings. Will their constant searching for their company's web site eventually suggest to Google that they prefer to see their site in the top spot? And if so, will these people mistakenly think that they've achieved SEO-nirvana while the rest of the world doesn't even know their site exists?

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