As of yesterday evening, Google’s search results are now automatically customized geographically based on each user’s IP address. Previously, Google did customize search results for users that were logged into their Google accounts, or had cookies enabled (which would be the majority of people). But now, even if you have manually turned off your cookies, Google search results will now be customized geographically whether you like it or not.

Geographical customization does make sense for certain industries. However, for many online industries, it makes no sense at all. If you were searching for something like web hosting services, online education resources, or product reviews, wouldn’t you want to see search results that are actually relevant - not ones where the company headquarters simply happen to be local? I know I would.

Customized search results can make SEO more complicated. What happens if you have SEO clients? They will probably be seeing very different results from the ones you are seeing. Until you are in the top spots where you see major traffic increases, how can you effectively measure your progress? How will search engine ranking tracking services report their results?

When it comes to Google, there are always changes and surprises around every corner. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how it affects traffic across the board.

LavaLinx will no longer be providing Page Rank as part of its trading functionality. We feel that Google’s ability to give a quality score to a web page has diminished to the point that it is no longer of value to our users. Although there are still a fair number of webmasters that look to Page Rank as a measurement of a valuing a web page, we decided that supporting a flawed system is not in the best interest of webmasters seeking successful link trading. Successful link trading should be focused on a cached, content page that is relevant and user-friendly.

We are looking into other services that determine the value of a web page and will implement one that best serves this purpose.