The personalization of Google’s search results announced at the end of last year has brought a subtle, yet important change to the search engine and Internet visibility landscape. Now that everybody is seeing a slightly different version of Google’s search results (based on 180 days of personal Web history), the need for good SEO is even greater than before.
But, perhaps one of the biggest changes to come out of personalization is the renewed importance of branding. Now that Google’s default setting is tracking individual preferences, a click on a site’s listings increases the likelihood that listing will appear again for that user.
In other words, as soon as you show a preference for a brand or website, that domain will continue to rank highly in the future.
This is big news for branding professionals, as well as SEO experts. Suddenly brand awareness coupled with search engine visibility is having a big impact on rankings. What does this mean? It means that the integration of offline and online marketing efforts is more important than ever. Advertising campaigns such as Pontiac’s 2007 Super Bowl commercial in which viewers were asked to “Google Pontiac” could now have a lasting effect on rankings. If this same ad would have run in the 2010 Super Bowl, anyone who performed a Google search for Pontiac would essentially create a personalized preference for that domain.
What does this mean for your website?
It’s more important than ever to be in the top 10 of Google’s search results because not only are those websites already getting more clicks, but people who click on them are creating a branded preference for those sites. Good SEO can get you top rankings and therefore ensure that searchers click on your site and develop a preference for your domain. Even people that find your website through a PPC ad may see a preference for your site later on in the natural search results.
Also, anything that creates brand awareness for your site, whether it’s an offline radio ad or an online social media marketing campaign, is going to help create this personal preference. You can even leverage your existing customer base to create this preference by encouraging them to visit your website, and therefore creating partiality for your domain in their Google searches.
Want to increase your search engine visibility? Give Web.com Search Agency a call!
Tags: Online Visibility
