A couple of months ago, Google changed the way that they personalised search results for its users. In the past, Google used to personalise search when a user was signed in with a Google account, and they hadn’t opted of their search history being recorded, meaning that the implications for SEO was somewhat reduced, as the bulk of people using Google (I imagine) are not always signed in with an account.
Now, this has all changed, and without a great deal of fanfare to let “regular” users of the search engines know that this has happened.
Google now by default refine your search results for you based on your PC/Mac’s search history, unless you explicitly opt out.
This means that if you are say, a frequent Amazon user, and search for a product generically on Google, the chances of an Amazon search result appearing in your search increase. Google now uses your search engine query and click history to inform them of sites that you would frequently click on and return you results in line with this. To be fair to Amazon, they would be quite likely to come out near the top generally, as their domain holds a lot of weight and ranks well probably for millions of search terms, but this does have wider implications.
Whilst this isn’t necessarily “evil”, where it is opt-out, most users of the search engine don’t know that this is occurring. In many cases, this could end up reducing the choice that a user is presented with when performing a search, as the same old sites have an increased chance of appearing in the results. This could reduce the search result space for really relevant sites, that are a bit newer, or you have not come across before, and as a result you could miss out on an opportunity for a bargain (if searching for a product) or another perspective (if you are looking for information).
So, Google search engine users – help is at hand – in the next steps, I am going to show you how to opt out of having your search results personalised without you realising.
So, when you search at the moment, when not signed in, over in the top right hand corner of the screen are 3 options:
To review the information on whether or not your web history is being used to serve you personalised results, click on the link “Web History”, which will bring up the following page:
As this image says, by default “Your search results may be customised using search activity from this computer.”. If you click on the link “Disable customisations based on search activity”, this then stops Google from giving you personalised results based on your search history.
If you use multiple browsers (I use 4 fairly regularly) then you will need to do this with each of those browsers to ensure that you see the “standard” listings for your searches.
Ultimately, personalised search can be good for people too – going back to my Amazon example, having Amazon results show up more frequently can make it easier for you to purchase a product swiftly, as you know you can trust the site with your details, and you likely already have an account with them if you have visited them frequently in the past.
However, I personally don’t like the aspect of the reduction in choice – so as users of the search engine, you can now choose whether or not you want Google to be personalising you search results based on your previous clicks and queries.
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