Many sites around the web have taken a hit with their traffic numbers because of Google’s recent Panda and Penguin updates, and it would be hard to argue that this is in any way positive. But, if we put these causes for traffic loss aside, there is another factor that is of concern to SEOs and webmasters. Even if sites haven’t seen their traffic dip because of algorithm changes, Google’s recent drive to personalize search results has made it nigh on impossible to predict with any certainty what a particular user’s SERP is going to look like. All the SEO in the world isn’t going to help with driving traffic to a site if Google decides, based on their browsing, search, and social media data, that a particular user, in spite of entering apparently relevant search terms, is actually looking for something unrelated to your site.

However, in theory at least, personalization of SERP results is reducing traffic only by  reducing false positives. By taking note of web history, search history, and social media signals, Google is attempting to reduce the ambiguity of search keywords and refer only those visitors who are actually going to be interested in the content of a particular site. This means that even though overall traffic is reduced, conversions rates will remain steady, or even rise as a percentage of visits.

Continue reading →