Google Introduces Personalized Search…Should You Worry About Your SEO Rank?

On December 4th, Google announced “Personalized Search” for users, even for those logged out. This idea has webmasters fuming, one about the privacy issues and two about the threat to website ranking.

Previously, users had to be logged into a Google service (Gmail, Google Docs, etc) and web history was an opt-in feature. However, now any user that uses Google will receive personalized searches based on 180 days of data stored in a cookie. You can opt out of personalization (click on ‘Web History’ at the top.) but the “service” is enabled by default. Imagine the tailored ads Google will now be able to serve to its users.

Search Engine Land goes into detail about how personalized search works with the factors including what sites you visit the most, Google Toolbar usage, etc. These factors are what Google uses to rank certain websites “more valuable” on an individual level. Except now, this is enabled by default to many unsuspecting users.

If SEOs and webmasters are upset about this, domainers should be, too.

Google’s blog post (Personalized Search for Everyone) explains the concept little further:

“Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible. For example, since I always search for [recipes] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes. Other times, when I’m looking for news about Cornell University’s sports teams, I search for [big red]. Because I frequently click on www.cornellbigred.com, Google might show me this result first, instead of the Big Red soda company or others.”

My question is: will advertisers ever show up in this location as a “personalized, targeted result” deceiving  users that results are indeed relevant and non-biased?

I do not believe this will be the end-all-kill-all for SEO or keyword targeting but it does raise a concern that domainers need to follow and pay close attention to.

Updated: John asks in the comments below:

I do NOT have the official Google Toolbar installed and if I read it right, they are NOT logging all my searches in a cookie if I don’t have that?

Answer:

John, that is how the Search Engine Land article reads but it should be concerning when Google themselves say “Personalized Search for Everyone” here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/personalized-search-for-everyone.html and do not specify that it is only for Google Toolbar users here: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=93704 “If you aren’t signed in to a Google Account, your search results may be customized based on past search information linked to your browser using a cookie.” Instead, it leaves open the possibility that it doesn’t matter if you have the toolbar or not.