Google is really pushing personalized search these days.

That’s going to have a profound effect on search marketing, because you won’t be able to game web sites by over-focusing on a single phrase. Since Google Account holders’ search results will be based, in part, on their search history, stuffing your site to bursting with a single keyphrase just won’t work. Neither will collecting thousands of worthless links.

So what to do? If everyone gets slightly different results, how will you stay on top? By being smart:

1. Write a great title and a great description tag. Clicks are actually going to matter, as Google will use clickthru to elevate or lower sites in your personalized search results. Great title/description tags are critical for that result.
2. Leverage the networks. Provide an RSS feed or a Google gadget so that folks will add you to their Google home pages.
3. Stay organic. Now more than ever, you need to stick with a focus on relevance, not on keywords. Write stuff people will want to read. Then optimize it for search, but only where it’s logical. Quality content will attract the kinds of links that Google wants to see
4. Don’t game the system. See #3. Do not use algorithmic tricks or ‘black hat’ tactics! These are going to work less and less.

Google Personalized Search is a change: It’s going to weed out those who try to capitalize on loopholes, and reward those who focus on delivering real value. Do the latter, and you’ll be fine.