There is one thing you cannot overlook in SEO anymore:  personalized SERPs. 

One reality is of major importance for SEO in 2016:

There is no one search engine result page (SERP) for a search term.  There is no single #1 rank for a keyword phrase.

Though Google shifted to this some time ago, it’s still something many SEO campaigns overlook.

First, why it happens.  Location and personal history play a role in all SERP’s today.  Personal searches and navigation habits effect results for individual devices.

Interests shown, domains visited, where you are – your online connections – effect every search you do.

The implication for SEO is that you can’t focus on just a few keyword phrases with limited data on search volume and rankings.  Since there is no set top 10 organic results, you can’t focus on those metrics alone.

This is well established, but it’s still overlooked, even by experienced SEO professionals.

Indeed, Google’s (not provided) frustrated the SEO world.  10 years ago, a #1 ranking for a keyword phrase meant you owned that space on most SERPs.  In provided data to demonstrate ROI directly with the keyword term and related traffic.

Today, you can only test that result with an incognito/private search.  But most people don’t browse incognito, so that result isn’t showing you – universally – what a diverse audience is seeing.   There are millions of devices, all with different cookie filters, resulting in a multitude of SERP variations.

For example, if you search for “men’s dress shoes” after engaging on Zappos half a dozen times, Google perceives you find this site useful and favors it in your search.

Your search results will likely differ from someone who does the same search query but has never visited Zappos.

Moreover, a site like Zappos is likely to be shown more – not because it has the keywords all over its content – but because of aggregate data that shows this site is useful to many users doing that search.

And Google may add local results if it determines there are useful options.  If you’re in Dallas and a local store has a sale on men’s dress shoes, it may show that website.

These facts underscore the need for unique, useful content built on keyword themes.  You want to hook people into your digital content so you become a recognized interest.

Then, when the consumer wonders back to search about things still related to your theme, your content will rank for them by association.

It’s search branding, where you get into the memory of the device’s search filters.

The implication is that it’s more important to track organic traffic as a channel (less concerned with ranking and results for individual keyword phrases) and then track the results, primarily via conversion data.

You won’t know exactly how your organic traffic got there, but you will know it ended with a conversion on your website.

This is a big shift in thinking for many SEO pros.  The keyword concept has been such a big part of the strategy that it’s hard to let go.  But from the perspective of understanding the value of your SEO campaigns, keyword data and ranking aren’t precise enough to be of central value.

The complexities of this process make it impossible to second guess what search results will be.  The search algorithms are more intuitive, so the optimization process must be as well.

SEO is now part of how you create connections on the internet, which underlies so much, including digital marketing.

Use SEO to get initial interest from a lead, which creates an association that drives future traffic.  It also exposes your brand, so people can do navigational searches back to your website.

In digital marketing, profitable conversions are the end-game.  Google is forcing us to focus on those results, with less detail about the keyword queries that drove them.

Many voiced dissatisfaction with Google’s “not provided” and other obfuscations of organic search data.  However, as we move into the middle of 2016, maybe it’s time we started to look at it as an advantage.

Less focus on keyword targets and their rankings promotes the creation of authentic, varied content.  It’s what users want, what Google wants, and – in the end – what marketers want.

No, you don’t know exactly how you rank on every search or how you got all your traffic.  But you can create themes, build useful informational marketing material around them, and track the results of those channels as conversion data.

SEO data may be “not provided”, but it’s overall scope – and value – have actually increased.

Consumer behavior online tends towards the organic, and in the end, it’s matching those behavior patterns that generates ROI.