The by default personalized search by Google has a major impact on SEO.

Sure, you can depersonalize your search results.

Yet let’s be honest. Most people won’t change the default settings.

So how to deal with that? Social SEO!

It’s search engine optimization for personalized search among others.

I prefer to call it personal search as “personalized” is such a cumbersome word.

Personalized search has been creeping in

Of course personalized search is nothing new.

It has been added step by step over the years. At first search results have been localized.

Thus depending on where you live or from where you search from you’ll get different results.

Then Google started to look at your search history to provide similar results.

At last Google started to take notice what you like and thus adjusted your search results to favor these things.

Most people didn’t even notice until they realized that their family members can’t see the same results they see.

We don’t have to change everything but just to focus on things we’ve already done in the past.

These personalized are the new standard for everybody dealing with the challenge of social SEO.

There are no objective rankings anymore.

Things can be in the top for me that aren’t even visible for you. Let’s take a closer look.

What you find depends on

• your whereabouts
• who you are
• and what you prefer!

Google search is not one-size-fits-all in 2025!

This is nothing spectacular

Most of the techniques listed below aren’t revolutionary.

You just have to step up efforts in these common sense directions.

Overall personal search means sites being subjectively regarded as authority sites will win.

At the end of the day you mostly need to make sure your site is viewed by as many people as possible as an authority site.

What can you do exactly?

These people will then click on your search results because they know and trust you already.

This way they will basically implicitly subscribe to your Google results.

Google also uses clicks on search results and other “social signals” for their ranking algorithm by now.

What does it mean? It means that when people click your results and hit the back button it looks as if your site does not deliver.

1. Link to search results.

You can actually link to those Google results you rank at #1 with a page that makes sense.

It’s just another Web address.

Don’t make it useless though. Blog about Google search rankings for a particular query for instance.

2. Ask people to search for you on Google.

There is nothing wrong to ask your supporters to support you on another platform or in a new environment.

You ask them to follow you on social media.

Ask them to like your site as well!

Please search for [seo2.blog] on Google and click on this blog when you are logged in to your Google account.

3. Optimize for subscribers and returning visitors.

Focus on regulars to gain trust. Thus people will click your search results because they trust you.

How to optimize for regular visitors not the causal search and social media visitor?

Add more substance and fewer clickbait headlines, more follow ups and in depth articles.

4. Combine your online activities.

Instead of spreading yourself too thin on many third party sites invest time and money into one single site/blog.

In the best case you focus on just one website address and brand.

Ideally you also have hub pages that combine existing content into similar topic clusters.

This way both Google searchers and people who arrive on their own accord can navigate your site better.

5. Establish a presence on highly authoritative UGC sites.

Go where people usually click but make sure for them not to outrank you.

Be wary of Wikipedia e.g.

They may outrank you and then some autistic Wikipedia geek might rewrite the item to fit the 90% white, male, nerd agenda.

6. Work together with peers!

Why? You can cooperate to create Wikis, group blogs, communities. Many social sites help with that.

Bigger online social circles that can compete with large brands, professional blogs and media outlets!

You can get more attention through their sheer people power.

7. Cut down on radical opinions.

Sadly people love the lowest common denominator.

In case you disagree with the status quo they will cease to trust you.

People won’t click on your weirdo website again while searching.

A dose of healthy opportunism secures your success on personal search.

Google reflects the consensus it its algorithms these days on top of that.

8. Write for mass appeal not solely a niche.

Advanced SEO is such a niche yet most people don’t even get basic SEO let alone know the meaning of the acronym.

Attract larger audiences by content and postings with mass appeal.

That is don’t sell out by posting cat images. Instead rely on niche relevant “mainstream” topics. Don’t write solely about SEO.

9. Join larger business platforms.

When you can’t beat them, join them! Join the likes of Linkedin, Ebay or Etsy depending on your niche.

It’s a good idea but never forget that you can’t rely on those.

Build your brand and reroute your customers to your own online real estate.

10. Don’t use long generic names.

Limit the use of long keywords like anotherhugekeyworddomainname.com to get some cheap long tail SEO traffic.

At least make it short and spicy. This way it’s memorable. seo2.blog is for sure!

Instead rather rely on personal and other name branding. You can even brand products or techniques!

My name for instance is difficult to read and remember, thus I came up with onreact, seo2.blog, Tad Chef as terms you can find me at.

Google prefers fresh search results

At the same time Google gets personal it is also about fresh and news-worthy content. So ideally you are

• blogging in a timely manner
• updating existing content frequently
• republish overhauled content as new

etc. to circumvent the need to rank as an authority site in “objective” search.

The more timely and/or recently updated your content is the better.

Either you get through as an authority or as fresh content.

The second way may be easier as people prefer what’s new as well. Stale content gets demoted as it’s unhelpful!

Still in case you’re into long term sustainable social SEO you probably will prefer the techniques mentioned above.