Personalization
The adjustment of results based on where the searcher is, what they have searched before, what language they use and which device they hold.
Analogy Mental model
The restaurant owner who knows your taste. You walk in and the recommendation is already mild or extra hot, without anyone asking.
In practice What you actually do
Sanitise the data before you report it. Check rankings in a private window with a proxy or a country parameter, otherwise you are measuring your own browsing history rather than the market.
Where people get burned Pitfalls
The owner who searches the company site every morning teaches their own browser to rank it first. The dashboard shows page one, the customers see page four, and the disagreement only surfaces when revenue fails to follow the chart.
This entry was written in English from the Chinese original, not machine-translated. Read the Chinese version →