Personalised Search – Is SEO Web History?
Google are now personalising search results based on your ‘Web History’. This means that search results pages will now be tailored according to what Google finds in your ‘Web History’. On one hand, this is a great addition to the search algorithm that will surely only make search results more relevant. On the other hand, it threatens to burst the SEO bubble once and for all and will inevitably make life harder for the small businesses that have kept that bubble growing for the past decade.
What Is Web History?
Web History is not the same as your browser’s history. It’s a separate history that Google has collected independently. Privacy freaks – don’t worry – you can opt out of it.
What Are The Implications To The User?
The implications to the user are two-fold:
1. Users will now get search results that most would view as more relevant to their needs, as their past browsing behaviour has been taken into account.
2. Users will get less diverse search results and will become less likely to find new sites, as Google will now favour sites that have already been visited.
The Beginning Of The End Of SEO?
Dynamic, personalised search results surely spell danger for the SEO industry as ‘getting to number 1′ becomes even harder than it ever has been. Personalised search results effectively mean that your direct traffic is now a driver of your organic traffic – this is arguably the biggest change in the SEO process that we’ve seen for some years.
Essentially, Google wants users to have the best search experience possible. And this means personalised, dynamic and accurate search results. SEO agencies effectively exist to ‘hack’ (maybe a bit harsh) Google’s algorithms to make sure that their clients hit the top of the rankings. Whereas inbound links, site structure, keyword density and most other variables in the SEO algorithm are able to be manipulated by SEOs, presence in users’ web histories is very much impossible for an SEO alone to impact.
So What Does This Mean For The Future?
Ironically, Google has just handed a nice little lifeline to the struggling off-line marketing industry because, if direct, paid-for and affiliate traffic is now driving organic traffic (via the benefit of getting a site into users’ web histories), then the value of the drivers of non-SEO traffic has just risen – and this includes offline marketing.
So companies who can afford massive offline marketing campaigns, PPC and affiliate campaigns will now be rewarded with extra SEO traffic – exactly how much remains to be seen.
The end result – Google’s latest change to the search algorithm heavily favours anyone who is driving traffic via other means – the more traffic you have, the larger your SEO ‘Web History’ advantage. New businesses will find it harder to break through online and the big boys will get extra rewards for their critical mass.
Are we about to see the WWW enter maturity and consolidate itself? Is this the beginning of the end for SEO and the small businesses have propped much of this industry up?
