Google has recently introduced “your related activity” – a new feature that uses your search history to suggest search results that you’ve visited in the past.

Google introduced this feature in order to help users ‘pick up where they left off’ on previous searches. In their official announcement, Google say:

“You might be looking for information to help you complete a longer-running task, whether it’s meal planning for a new food regimen… or picking up a new hobby. You might come back to Search to find information on the same topic, hoping to retrace your steps or discover new, related ideas…”

For example, if you start typing a search for ‘How To Install A Shelf’ – Google will show you links to related DIY pages you’ve visited in the past, using your search history. In addition, they’ll show you the various searches that led you to those pages, and users can also manually add pages they like to their personal ‘related activity cards’.

Why Should You Care?

This has interesting implications for SEOs and webmasters, as it is likely to alter the way users search – keeping them returning to the sites they visited in the past and liked. This makes it more important than ever to ensure that your website’s content is informative and engaging, as this will encourage more returning visitors to your website.

On a larger scale, even small changes to SERPs tend to have interesting and sometimes unpredictable knock-on effects, so keep a close eye on changes in user behaviour and how they find your content via search.