Making Sense of Google’s New Privacy Policy Update

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Google’s new privacy policy and terms of service changes have come into effect as of March 1^st, meaning it’s now too late for those of you still wishing to limit Google’s ability to track and record your online interaction by deleting your previous search history.

You may have already read a great amount of criticism of towards the new policy from the media as European data regulators have cast doubt on the legality of the move, leading to an investigation. But are the updated changes really a major concern for users? And what does this mean for SEO? 

The Policy

Google aims to enhance its user’s experience and improve search intuitiveness. However, the main change is only for users with a Google account and will include everyone signed in on any of the company’s range of online services including Google +, YouTube and Gmail.

Essentially rather than having sixty different privacy documents for each service, Google has created one, simple-to-read policy for all of its features and tools. This means Google is able to pull information from one of its services and deliver it to you via another – combining all of its products.

The company hopes this fusion of its users' information, including their search history, will provide what they describe as a “simpler, more intuitive Google experience”.

So What Does This Mean for SEO and for Businesses?

While many of its users have publicly demonstrated their dislike of the changes, the customisation they offer for individual search results provide businesses with a brilliant opportunity to reach a more targeted audience.

Basically what this means is that companies should have a better chance of targeting a specific type of audience via Google Ads, as the search engine will be able to figure out what users are looking for and lead them directly to it.

The Effects on Search Engine Ranking

It’s difficult to say whether the privacy changes will have an effect on search rankings, but early signs show there have been minimal changes at most. It will be interesting to see if they will have a more significant effect as SERPs become much more refined and tailored for users, with searches informed by centralised data from all Google's products.