I currently have mixed emotions regarding Google’s announcement of its Web History feature. This is an opt out personalised search feature which remembers which websites are visited regularly, with a net effect of placing them higher up in your personal search listings. The SEO community at large is still trying to get to grips with exactly what consequences this will have on their marketing techniques. See the offical Google video here:
It is obvious that the user is king to Google as they start to view more personalised results, but this in itself has aroused fears that a user will start to have less choice in terms of results gained. A knock on effect is for smaller or new entrants, with less recognisable names to make an impact near the top of the search results!
With web history being retained for 180 days currently, it just seems that big brands will stand most to benefit from this move. The impact for small businesses will be to start investing in more brand building marketing, such as any of the following:-
- Offline Marketing
- Conversion Marketing
- Increased visibility across Social Media & other blogs
- Increased use of Email Marketing
The above will have the effect of raising conversion rates via existing traffic, brand building via non Search Engines & increasing search queries made on search engines being undertaken via your company name, enabling your website to appear near top of search results. It is still early days, but as you can see, with one door shutting another’s is always ready to open.
