Articles in The 'SEO Search' Tag

Your Personalized Search Engine Results

by Melanie Wahl

Would you like to know how to turn off personalized results for your Google searches so that you can see unbiased results?   I’m sure you would.   The results you see when conducting searches while logged into a Google account may display a better selection of options according to your search history, but your search history is unique to you.   The visitors to your website either have their own histories are searching while not logged in at all.

The following is a URL, with the query “your business name,” that would turn off personalized results:

http://www.google.com/search?q=your+business+name&pws=0

By appending the URL parameter “&pws=0” to your query link you can effectively remove the personalization that Google collects on you while you are logged into an account.   To see if you currently are recording your search history, visit https://www.google.com/history/ while logged into your account.

We should note that this technique does not work for those using Google Instant as the URL is not updated as you type in the search query.

Are you keeping up with Google’s advances in personalizing the search experience?