Personalised search results are now standard for Google and Facebook, with Bing, Twitter and many more online players focusing on information filtering.  They all revolve around giving you the user more relevant information (and advertisements) based on your previous behaviour and preferences.  The question being debated at the moment is: how does this affect you as a user and as a website owner?

For a user, personalised search results offer a big plus and a big negative.  The big plus is that they can make your life easier online by providing information that is more likely to be what you want.  This saves you time.  In many ways it is smarter and more intuitive.  If you previously searched on ‘Taupo restaurant’ and clicked on Master of India then next time you search on ‘Taupo restaurant’ Google will show you Master of India again because it thinks that you must have liked this restaurant.  What if you had bookmarked Master of India because you liked it, but were searching on ‘Taupo restaurant’ again because you wanted a whole lot of different restaurants to try?  What if you were going with friends who liked completely different food and so you were looking for sites that were completely different to your previous behaviour and choices?

The restaurant example is fairly simplistic but it illustrates how Google and others are filtering information.  Many people both in the SEO industry and in the mainstream are worried by this Big Brother approach.  If someone in the US wants to see news filtered so it is pro-Republican then they watch Fox.  By turning on Fox News:

1. they know what filter it has on it - it is pro-Republican,
2. they opt-in to it,
3. they can opt-out easily by changing channels. 

Generally someone using Google or Facebook does not know how their information is being filtered, they can’t or don’t know how to opt-out,  and it is not as simple for them to ‘channel-surf’.  The fear is that the decision of what you choose to see is being taken away from you.  Over time you may not even be aware of what you are not being shown and are missing out on.  Can a complex computer programme really accurately map your personality to decide what it shows you and more importantly what it doesn’t?

For a website owner personalised search means that you cannot be sure users in your target market see what you see.  Ranking report checks become less accurate as a snapshot: two people in Auckland both searching on ‘Wellington hotel’ may see quite different results because of their previous search behaviour. Your website might rank at number 3 for one of them, and at number 8 for the other person.  For performance measures other tools like Google Analytics take preference over simple ranking statistics..

It is because of the personalisation (and localisation) filters that so many more factors are important now to compliment and boost traditional search engine optimisation.  SEO is still essential as a credibility and relevance platform.  Good topical content is still a must so as to make sure Google deems your site is relevant to targeted search phrases.  Quality inward links are still hugely important to demonstrate ongoing popularity and credibility.  These all provide a baseline to get your site ranking.  However, with this filtering of results, other factors have become important too.  Optimised Google Places listings are essential to help your site appear for local searches.  Customer reviews on Google Places and independent ranking websites are needed to demonstrate your popularity.  Getting people reading your blogs, talking about you and linking to you on Facebook, Twitter and others helps to stop you getting filtered out of their information search results.

The way filters are applied to serve us customised information will continue to evolve.  There is a current backlash promoting freedom of choice and full personal control of information online, but it may have trouble against giants like Google and Facebook. The best we mortals can do is keep abreast of changes and stay informed so we can make good decisions about both our personal online behaviour and our website marketing.