How Airbnb Personalization Affects Search Rankings (Ep 276)
How Airbnb Personalization Affects Search Rankings (Ep 276)
Today I chat with Kelvin Mah, founder of Rankbreeze. Kelvin is an Airbnb SEO specialist and he did a study to find out how Airbnb personalization affects search results.
Airbnb’s search algorithm takes into account the user’s unique profile when calculating which listings to show. Factors include historic data such as what listings the user has clicked on in the past and historic bookings.
Here are some takeaways from the study Kelvin performed.
1. The longer a user spends viewing a listing, the more likely Airbnb is to show that listing again. This suggests that it’s beneficial to have a large number of photos and a wordy description to increase the time that potential guests spend viewing your listing.
2. The personalization effect is smaller for listings that typically rank on the first page. In other words, no matter the user profile, certain listings are always shown by Airbnb. Listings that rank on lower pages have more variability. This confirms the importance of getting to the first page.
3. Airbnb refused to move listings with poor photos up the search results, no matter how often they were clicked on. This reinforces the importance of having high quality photos on your listing.
