Google & Personalised Search Results: Everything You Need to Know

Search personalisation has its share of benefits, key advantages, and challenges for users, especially businesses that leverage SEO. 

Let’s examine the details of personalised search results and explore how to enhance user search experience.

What Is Search Personalisation in Google?

Search personalisation is Google’s way of tailoring your search results specifically for you based on unique factors that Search uses to work with you.

Google introduced personalised search results in 2009. The search algorithm used anonymous cookies from proprietary sites that tracked user data from the past 180 days to personalise search results, resulting in unique results for each user.

On the other hand, Google claimed that the old method, which focuses on user demographics and past behaviours, did not add many benefits to search results. As a result, search personalisation shifted from simple historical data to focusing more on the search intent behind each query.

Now, you can get personalised recommendations on your Google search results for movies, TV shows, local events, pages, and more. You can also tweak your Activity Controls to customise the data and activity saved to your Google Account, including:

• Your Google Search History
• Ads and Search results that you visit
• Content you like and dislike 

How Google Collects User Data

Google processes roughly 5.9 million searches every minute, implying the sheer amount of data being collected and utilised daily to deliver a personalised search experience for each.

A few necessary factors can slightly vary the search results of one user from another. One major point is that Google Search uses context to understand search intent and improve results.

By doing so, Google provides more relevant results. These contexts include:

• Location: When visiting a new city, searching for food or services will return results relevant to that location.
• Language Preferences: Gets you results in your preferred language
• Device type: Links relevant results such as apps to the correct app store (Play Store or App Store) and get the best results according to screen size for mobile and desktop.
• Related results and past interactions: After clicking a web page and returning to Search, you will find more results relevant to the last page you visited.

How Does Google Tailor Search Results?

Let’s take a deep dive into how Google tailors your search results.

Location

Geographic location, whether the area you’re searching at or the specific keywords you use, is vital in providing unique search results for users in different places. Google provides location-based information unique to your present location, which is very helpful when conducting near-me searches.

Users find this very helpful when searching for nearby restaurants, shops, malls, and other services in the immediate area. You’ll notice that you get a different result when searching from Sydney than when browsing in Perth.

Google can track your location by checking the connection’s IP address or using mobile GPS.

Web History

Google personalises your search results by monitoring your behaviour based on past web history, although not to the same extent as it used to.

The anonymous cookies that websites collect track your recent pages and keep your subsequent Search results relevant to the overall search intent. For example, look for running shoes in Sydney CBD and click one of the organic results.

For example, look for running shoes in Sydney CBD and click one of the organic results, like The Athlete’s Foot.

The next time we search for the same query, Google remembers that we clicked on that result and will display an ad from the same website on our new results page.

Search History

Aside from recent search behaviour, Google still looks into your search history to keep your results more relevant. But instead of reviewing the past 180 days of search activity, Google will only use your last search.

By reviewing only the previous search, Google can determine the context and intent behind your search query, allowing it to match search results with search intent better.

Paid Search Ads

Pay-per-click or paid ads don’t reduce the number of organic search results, but they add personalisation to Google SERPs, which can also vary depending on a person’s location.

If you search for a product or service in Bankstown, you may only get 1 to 2 paid ads about a certain product, but you may get more when you search from the Central Business District, as more businesses offering that product may have paid ad campaigns.

Device-Specific Search Results

Google may vary the search results page of a certain query depending on whether you use a mobile device or a desktop. For instance, searching about a website or app on a mobile device may include a handy link to the app store, while search results on a desktop may include a wiki link or the app’s official website.

Why is Search Personalisation Important for Businesses?

Search personalisation helps users get a more tailored and relevant results page and allows businesses to target specific audiences more effectively and seamlessly.

Leveraging search personalisation requires businesses to understand their target audience’s preferences, behaviours, and interests. You can tailor how your page appears in search results to deliver relevant content by removing the fluff and producing highly valuable and rich content that directly addresses the search intent.

As a result, you could improve your click-through rates and conversions and establish your business as an authority in your niche.

Here are some key benefits of search personalisation for businesses:

Increased Search Visibility

As of 2024, Australia’s 5G connectivity covers over 3,000 suburbs, including Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Tasmania, Queensland, and Hobart.

The growing internet connectivity across the country means a more populated digital landscape for you to tap into and become visible. Personalised search can help customer acquisition and retention by matching your users’ needs with your content.

Personalised search also provides tailored recommendations to users based on their search history and past purchases. This enriches the customer journey and keeps your customers in the loop, allowing them to rediscover products they may have missed.

In other words, personalised search lets you treat your customer with extra care, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty. But it does not stop there.

High Intent and Conversion Potential

Say a user visits your site to purchase a popular service or product. A personalised search experience lets you upsell and cross-sell other services or products to your customers.

For instance, you can provide custom recommendations based on your customer’s past purchase history or browsing behaviour. If you sell coffee makers and a customer buys a new machine, you can recommend a separate set of coffee filters or a mason jar for the beans.

This personalised experience lets you interact with your customers and connect with them on a deeper level, understanding that eventually, they’ll need to purchase a new set of filters, so you offer it up front, maybe at a discount.

Understanding and leveraging the intent to convert a buyer leads to higher average order value. By letting your customers engage with product suggestions, you can add a factor of satisfaction to the buying experience and product quality, and you’re almost guaranteed to have a return customer who can also recommend you to their peers.

Challenges for SEO

While traditional SEO tools let you see your average search ranking, search personalisation makes it more difficult to measure this metric as you may land a different rank for the same query of varying search intents.

That means businesses relying on personalised search may struggle to monitor their rankings on specific keywords, complicating SEO reporting and making it harder to gauge performance accurately.

Moreover, personalisation creates a bias on users’ search results pages. A user who frequently visits a website may see it more regularly in another search query, regardless of how it performs in non-personalised searches.

With that in mind, your SEO campaign must account for these nuances by tracking more reliable KPIs, improving the user experience, driving organic traffic, and building brand authority by producing high-quality content.

Personalised search is transforming Australia’s search environment, requiring businesses to keep up by streamlining user-centric search optimisation and content creation.

Advanced Strategies for Optimising Your Website for Personalised Search Results

Personalised search doesn’t have to overhaul your existing SEO campaign. Rather, it should only shift your focus towards more relevant factors and optimise existing resources to better engage with your users.

Here are some advanced strategies you can do to optimise your website for personalised search:

Improve User Engagement and Dwell Time

The average Australian spends about 11 to 12 minutes on a website when browsing via mobile and about 17 to 32 minutes on a desktop. Creating engaging and informative content helps you maximise this metric and keep users on your website longer.

Regarding SEO, we can indirectly measure user satisfaction and content relevance by measuring the average dwell time. After all, the longer a user stays on your website, the more likely they will be engaged.

Focusing on creating high-quality content that directly addresses your users’ needs, provides clear value, and has rich elements, such as videos, infographics, and/or quizzes, can improve user engagement and dwell time.

Moreover, you can structure the content to make it easier to digest and read through by using bullet lists, organised headings, and relevant visual elements. Many other web development features can also make different types of content easier to absorb, creating a much more positive UX.

Focus on Local SEO and Location-Based Keywords

Near-me searches are taking the mobile search landscape by storm, as 49.1% of internet users aged 16 to 64 use them to research places, vacations, and travel destinations. You can start by claiming and optimising your Google Business Profile and ensuring that all of your website’s information on the web is accurate and up-to-date.

That includes your business hours, physical address, and contact information.

We also advise encouraging customers to leave a positive review and actively engage with these reviews, as these can boost your presence and authority in web searches.

You can also step up by publishing location-specific content in your blog section or establishing local partnerships to extend your SEO efforts in the physical world.

Encourage Return Visits

Return visitors and buyers can greatly impact your personalised search rankings, as Google will recognise your value and relevance the more frequently you visit. As cliche as it sounds, email marketing remains a proven and robust way to encourage users to return or resume their buyer journey and receive exclusive content relevant to their spending habits.

Another effective campaign is retargeting ads to re-engage with previous buyers through displaying relevant ads. Brand recall is necessary to grow and sustain your search presence and personalised ranking, so focus on building a strong brand identity and consistently message your users while creating rich content.

Optimise for Voice Search and Mobile

As of 2024, approximately 90% of Australians use a mobile phone, and all (9 out of 10) say that voice search is faster and more convenient than traditional text-based search.

It’s safe to say that voice search and mobile optimisation are becoming more vital and pivotal in personalised search optimisation. With this, you have a stronger potential to rank by targeting long-tail and semantic keywords that are more tailored to voice search results.

Instead of targeting “running shoes, Sydney”, you can use semantic phrases like Where can I buy running shoes near me? 

As voice searches are also performed on mobile devices, we highly recommend optimising your website for mobile search. That means optimising for mobile-friendliness, fast load times, intuitive navigation, and a responsive design for different screen sizes.

Increasing engagement and user retention boils down to optimising in channels they use the most, voice and mobile searches—especially now that Google prioritises mobile sites in its results pages.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Search Personalisation

What Is Search Personalisation?

Search personalisation is how Google customises each user’s search results page depending on their browsing history, last searched keywords, search patterns, and preferences.

What one user sees in their results page for a certain keyword may differ from another user using the same keyword, as the context behind their search may vary. For instance, one may be searching for a product of a certain brand while another previously searched for the history or origin of the same brand.

Google aims to display the most relevant information tailored to each user and as close to the search intent as possible.

How Can I Measure the Impact of Search Personalisation on My Rankings?

SEO tools like Google Search Console and analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and Semrush can measure diverse metrics that can determine the impact of search personalisation.

Why Do My Search Rankings Appear Different to Different Users?

Google’s personalised search looks into your recent search history, geolocation, search behaviour, and search intent to display slightly different perceived rankings tailored to your needs. 

Your results page differs from other users because Google aims to show results that are most relevant to your needs and intent. Nonetheless, you’ll often get a search results page that most likely displays the most direct answer to your query.

Is Personalisation Limited to Google Search?

Personalisation extends to other Google services, such as YouTube, Maps, Ads, and Google search. It is not limited to text-based content but covers voice search, video streaming, local SEO, and engaging with sponsored links.

Nonetheless, these platforms understand your preferences by looking at recent search history and behaviour to appropriately adjust and optimise content visibility, affecting how and where you appear across your target audience.

The Future of Search Personalisation & What It Means for SEO

Search personalisation is continuously evolving as new algorithm updates and methodologies reshape it.

For instance, AI-powered SEO tools now use machine learning to understand patterns in user behaviour and quickly tailor search results based on those signals. Some even use Large Language Models (LLMs) to make sense of the context behind search queries to deliver highly relevant content dynamically.

Furthermore, the release of Gemini AI redefines personalised search by analysing multimodal data, such as texts, images, and even video. As Google embraces AI and machine learning to understand and address user intent, it’s all the more important for businesses to provide results that align more closely with what users are looking for.

How We Can Help

Navigate the ever-changing personalised search landscape with our help in creating a tailored SEO campaign that aligns with search intent and user-specific behaviours. 

At Red Search, we develop and streamline campaigns that can withstand a rapidly changing digital space by understanding your audience, your business, and the message you want to convey.

The key is cementing your brand as an authority on the local scale and expanding sustainably—not just for broad visibility but also to reach the right audience.