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02.15.07
SEO Implications For Search Personalization
 By Steven Bradley
A few days ago I wrote about my reservations with personalized search. I even called it dangerous.
Most people won't have reservations, though. In fact it's unlikely the majority of people will ever realize they're getting search results tailored to them. Like it or not personalized search is here and here to stay and it's time to start discussing what the implications of personalized search are for SEOs in the days ahead?
Just in case you missed it here's Danny Sullivan's overview of personalized search. I still haven't found anything better to fill you in on the new system.
But First A Caveat
Before getting into what personalizing the search experience means for seo let's keep a few things in mind. First this is a Google phenomenon. As I'm writing nothing has changed at the other search engines. I have no doubt the other engines will incorporate personalized search, but for now we're talking Google.
Second Google's personalized search hasn't even been out a week yet. It's way too soon to say much concrete about how it works from either an end user or seo perspective. A lot of what you'll be reading in the coming days is going to be speculation. Also keep in mind that the way personalized search works a year from now may be different than how it works now. I would assume as with most things Google, personalized search is in beta.
And finally we don't yet know the what the affect of personalization on the results will be. There will undoubtedly be a ranking boost based on your personal interests, but how much of a boost. Are we talking 10 spots in the results? 20? 30? Will personalized results be completely dominated by your past searches? Will your personalized experience be based somewhat on the personal experience of others?
If you and I both spent a lot of time at SEO Book, will Google send you a few more results from SEOmoz, because I also visit there frequently? Will this be similar to the way Amazon recommends books? "People who visit BobsCustomLamposts.com also visit Sally'sHomemadePatioFuniture.com so we're going to start showing you more of Sally's pages?
Just remember we're still dealing with a lot of unknowns here. We can all make some good guesses, but no one's really seen enough to know at this point.
Got Google Account?
I can't imagine too many SEOs not having a Google account, but if you are one of the few never to have signed up for any Google services you probably want to get an account right now. The only way you're going to be able to see the difference in the results that the personalized and general search deliver is to be able to check for yourself. Getting general results is easy, but you're going to need to be able to log into at least one Google account to see the personalized results.
If you don't already have one you'll also need to build a history of searches for yourself. Unfortunately for me I've hardly every been logged into Google when searching. I'll now be staying logged in all the time, at least until I can build up enough of a history to notice the difference in the two sets of results.
Continue reading this article.
About
the Author:
Copyright Mike Moran
Steven Bradley is a web designer and search engine optimization
specialist. Known to many in the webmaster/seo community by the username
vangogh, he is the author of TheVanBlog, which focuses on how to build
and optimize websites and market them online.
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