Winning with Personalized Search

Personalized search – in which the natural search results for a given keyword phrase are tailored to a particular user’s preferences – isn’t a new concept.  In fact, the concept has been on Google’s radar since at least 2003, when the search giant purchased a company called Kaltix, which, according to Search Engine Land, “was devoted to developing personalized and context-sensitive search technologies that make it faster and easier for people to find information on the web.”

However, it was the recent release of the Google +1 button and related Plus social network that finally allowed this integration to be completed in a meaningful way.  Assuming that users are logged into their Google Accounts, they’ll now see a mix of both sites that rank in the Top 10 due to their search engine optimization and those that are included because of the author’s relationship to the reader.

To demonstrate what this might look like in real life, SEOMoz writer Rand Fishkin carried out an interesting case study for the seemingly innocuous keyword phrase, “cupcake madness”.  Here’s what the traditional, SEO-oriented Google SERP looks like for this keyword:

However, when Fishkin logged into his Google Profile, the results changed significantly:

Take a look at that third position.  All of a sudden, a post by Geraldine of the Everywhereist blog has jumped into the Top 3 spots for this search phrase, simply because Fishkin follows this blogger on Twitter.  Not only does Geraldine’s post get recognition beyond what traditional SEO allows for, it also receives additional social proof as her name and picture are tied to the result.

The implications of this shift are huge.  Although “cupcake madness” isn’t likely a very competitive keyword phrase, this simple social connection allowed an otherwise obscure blog post to outrank a site that had gained this position through natural SEO.

Imagine this same phenomenon happening to more competitive keyword phrases.  If you were a site owner who spent tons of time or money getting a site ranked for a specific search term through traditional SEO, how frustrated would you be to have your site bumped out of this coveted spot on the basis of someone’s potentially tenuous personal connection?

Chances are you’d be pretty upset – and it’s this sentiment that has led many SEO strategists to predict that traditional SEO will be dead within a few years.  But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.  Instead, let’s look at what this change means in the short term, as well as how we can optimize our sites for future success in the new world of personalized search.

First of all, let’s get this out of the way now – personalized search has not killed traditional SEO (at least not yet…).  For starters, in order to see these unique results, searchers must be logged into their Google Profiles.  Not everyone has a Google account, and there are others who will consciously log out of their profiles in order to opt-out of these services.  Both of these groups will continue to see the natural SERPs, which means that traditional optimization still has some value.

In addition, there will be some keyword phrases that simply have no personalized search results to offer, in which case users will continue to see the traditional SERPs.  For example, suppose you’re searching for the “lowest calorie alcoholic drink” to enjoy on a Friday night.  Since it isn’t terribly likely that any of your personal contacts have written content on this specific keyword phrase, you’ll still see the natural Top 10 Google results for this phrase.

However, just because traditional SEO will continue to play a role in how the SERPs are structured for the foreseeable future doesn’t mean that you should ignore personalized search, as it actually presents a great opportunity for unknown bloggers and site owners to get their content seen.

For example, say that you run a website in the competitive personal finance niche.  Although it could take years to break into some of the top keyword searches in this industry through traditional SEO, imagine how much extra traffic you’d receive if an article of yours came up as a personalized search result in one of your contact’s search results pages?

Clearly, the winners in this case are the site owners with the largest, most engaged social networks.  The following are a few of the different types of social connections that Google considers when determining what content to display as part of your personalized results:

• Direct connections from your Google chat buddies and contacts – Essentially, these are your Gmail and Google Chat partners.
• Direct connections from links through Google Profiles or Connected accounts – Google considers a number of different connection types in this category, including your Google+ contacts, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account and more.
• Secondary connections that are publicly associated with your direct connections – Occasionally, you may see content shared by your personal contact’s public connections appearing in your personalized search results.
• Content shared through your Google Reader account – If you follow a site through the Google Reader and later search for a term that Google has decided is related to an article in your feed, this result could be highlighted in your personal SERP.

Looking at this information as a site owner creates an obvious plan of action.  If you want your content to appear in the personalized search results of your potential visitors, you need to optimize your profiles through each of these services.  Here’s how to get started…

Step #1 – See where you stand

Click through to the following link while logged into your Google profile in order to see what social connections Google is considering when determining what to display in your personalized search results: http://www.google.com/s2/search/social?hl=en#socialcontent.

Step #2 – Add social connections

If nothing’s showing up, click through to the Google Connected Accounts page (again, you must be logged into your Google Profile for this to work) to add more potential connection sources.  From this page, you’ll be able to link your Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Quora and other accounts for consideration by Google.

Step #3 – Expand your social networks

Since Google’s personalized search takes into account both primary and secondary connections when determining what information to display, it’s not a huge leap to figure out that your content will be included in more personalized search results pages if your network is larger.

So starting today, set aside a little time each day in order to improve your social networking presence.  You don’t need to lock yourself into “the conversation” for days at a time, but being consistently active on these sites and regularly sharing good content will help you to pick up more followers who will see your pages in their personalized SERPs.

Finally, it’s worth noting that although most of this article refers to Google, Bing and Yahoo are both implementing similar measures (though the scope of their integrations isn’t nearly as wide-reaching as Google’s).  So don’t think that you can avoid personalized search just because most of your traffic comes from these other search engines.  Personalized search is here to stay, and the website owners who will benefit most from the transition will be those who get proactive about expanding their social reach now.

Image: keso