Līve Ambitions

If you’re a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer), you’re either going to love this idea or hate it.  Google has decided to show personalized results for everyone, regardless of whether someone is logged in or not.  For well-established sites, it may be easier to rank since you already have a good presence in the search engines.  However, if your website is new and has no existing traffic, then it will mostlikely be competing against more established websites.

This decision may have a drastic effect on the current SEO industry.  Since all searches are now personalized regardless of whether a user is logged in or not, the results will be heavily influenced by user search activity.  According to Google, search activity is tracked by an anonymous cookie set in your browser for 180 days.  So, if you visit a particular website frequently, it may show up in your search results most of the time, of course based on the search terms.

While I understand Google’s intent to offer more “personalized” results, it gives an unfair advantage to already-established websites.  This will mean that new websites will have to work harder than older websites to get the same results, even if the new website has better content.  This also means that online mom-and-pop shops may not get discovered simply because they are new and have to compete against the big boys on the block.

I can see arguments from the advocacy side saying users will have a better experience from “personalized” results.  However, I’d rebuttal by saying that users may “miss out” on new websites or opporunities because it’s not being shown in the 1st page.

Personalized search not only affects SEO, but also PPC.  Here’s my logic.  Since new websites won’t get much exposure through organic traffic, they’ll mostlikely have to resort to PPC marketing in order to get any type of search traffic.  I guess if there is an increase in PPC marketing, it can only mean more money for Google and Internet Marketing firms. 

So, I’m a little torn on this subject being that I’m both a SEO and Internet Marketer.

What’s your opinion?