Google History aka Personalized Search

Article by Clay Sinclair.

Have you noticed lately that when you do keyword searches for your best keywords that your rankings (I'm talking "Organic" rankings) are all over the place?
I have. I even got a few people on the phone and had them do the same keyword searches and they all reported seeing my site in different places for the same keyword.
For example - when I search the keyword ... ppc management ... I used to see myself organically at #3. Now I see my site on page 2. But when my 2 other friends did the same keyword search, they both reported seeing my site at #3 and #5.
Same thing happened when I typed in the keyword ... pay per click management ... I used to be around positions #5 or #6 and now I'm on page 2. But when my buddies did the same keyword search they reported seeing my7 site where I used to see me site.

In researching this problem I came across some information on Google's site pertaining to their new "History" program. Although Google states that this is a program you have to sign up for (like Adwords and Gmail), I can't help but think they're implementing a "Personalized Search" history for all users to some degree.
You see, I used to search my 2 keywords above several times a day to get that warm fuzzy that "Google Loves My Site" from seeing my rankings on those two very competitive keywords so high. But with the "Personalized / History" program from Google, it makes sense that since I didn't always click on my organic listings, spend a good amount of time on my site and eventually convert by filling out my web forms that Google, in there efforts to provide me with the "best search experience possible", now serves up the results for those two keywords differently.

If anyone reading this article has experienced the same results / challenges as I just described, please reply to this post and let me know your experience.