Google’s Web History Feature
I currently have mixed emotions regarding Google’s announcement of it’s Web History feature. This is an opt-out personalised search feature that 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.
It is obvious that the user is king to Google as they start to view more and more personalised results, but this in itself has aroused fears that the user will start to have less choice in terms of results gained. There is a knock on effect for smaller or new entrants, with less recognisable names to make an impact near the top of the search results!
With web history being currently retained for 180 days, it just seems that big brands will stand to benefit most from this move. The impact for small businesses will be to start investing in more brand building marketing, such as the following:
- Offline Marketing
- Conversion Marketing
- Increased visibility across Social Media and 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 and increasing search queries made on search engines being undertaken via your company name, thus enabling your website to appear near the top of search results. It is still early days, but as you can see, with one door shutting another is always ready to open.
