Customized based on recent search activity

[minnapple]

I have a site that is date orientated by year.
I have been noticing this for awhile.

1. If a search [first search] for "keyword" + year, and the site appears on page one.

2. It definitely effects the search rankings [second search] on "keyword" + different year, for the site.
Note this message is displayed in google.
Customized based on recent search activity.

3. If I clear the cache and repeat the second search, the position can change drastically.

Play with it and think about it in terms of optimzation.

[tedster]

Interesting that changing the year in your query still gave you customized results if the main keyword remained the same.

I'm having trouble thinking of a situation where a user would make a repeated query for any of the sites I'm working with - I guess the point would be that they are unhappy with the first set of results for some reason, but if they didn't click through to my site, I won't have that data point to work from.

[minnapple]

On this specific site, customized search has increased traffic about 15% when I review referrals and compare them to actual search positions. Meaning, my referrals show a page one position, but an actual search is below page one. This site is old, so this falls outside of historical data.

[tedster]

Any tips you can share for getting the "repeated search" position to improve? I can't seem to wrap my mind around it.