Rankings in Google can be very confusing today. You see your site ranking in one position when you search. Your friend sees it ranking in a very different place when they do the same keyword search. What’s an SEO, or anyone doing their own optimization, to do? Or think?

Google has used personalized search for a while now. It fits their aim for providing the best ‘search experience’ possible for searchers. They now mean that on an individual basis, not just on a mass customer-service level. That means they take into consideration:

• How you search in Google

• What keyphrases you use,

• What sites or site listings you click on

• How you seem to shop or look for information using Google

• And just about anything else they can observe or grab data on

Does it work? Who knows? It’s hard to survey people on what they don’t see and whether that would’ve been a better answer to their search query. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. What does, for our immediate purposes, is what we do, because that’s all we can control. As they say, ‘It’s here. Deal with it.’

This doesn’t mean that your tried and true SEO no longer works. The 2 bedrocks of search engine optimization, relevant content and links, are still crucial. Don't give up on them. In fact, they just as important as they always were, possibly even more.

The true measure of your SEO and online success is going to come from different metrics than the ones many have been using. Though they should have paid attention to them all along.

Those metrics are for the organic traffic and the Conversions you’re getting out of Google. Those are the Ends. And they should always be your focus, not just rankings. Rankings are important, but they are the Means.

Personalized search means your emphasis must be on SEO that serves the Conversion Goal, whether that’s a sale, a lead, a contact or whatever forms it takes. It always should have been that way, but now, with rankings being a variable thing, you have to take that more seriously than ever.

Continue your SEO, but keep your eyes fixed on those Conversion numbers. That’s your answer to Google’s Personalized Search.