Current approach to personalization

The current approach to web personalization, especially for sites that do not require user logins, largely relies on analyzing user behavior. This involves segmenting users based on actions such as pages visited, content downloaded, time spent on the site, and click-through rates. Data for this analysis is collected from the website itself and third-party sources using cookies.

Incomplete Behavioral Data

However, this method of segmenting users based on their behavior has two limitations:

1. Lack data for new visitors: Many website visitors are first-time users with no prior behavioral history. Without previous data, it is challenging to identify their interests and preferences.

2. Incomplete data for returning visitors: Even when user behavior data is available for returning users, it is often incomplete or inaccurate, leading to guesswork in interpretation of user preferences.

Superficial Personalized Experience

Even with precise user interest data, current website technology often falls short in leveraging this data to deliver fully customized web pages. Personalization is generally limited to:

1. Superficial changes: Personalization typically involves only superficial modifications, such as changing the hero image, header, or sub-header.

2. Limited impact: This form of personalization fails to significantly boost user engagement or conversion rates.