Google has rekindle its love for speedy Web searches with Google Instant, a new version of the search engine that displays results as you type. Currently it has been launched only on the .com domain.
Google Instant means Real-time feedback that will change and personalize people's search behaviors.
When typing a search query with Google Instant, results appear after the first letter is entered, and they update as the user types. Google's vice president of search and user experience Marissa Mayer, said results are actually delivered "before you type," because Google Instant predicts and automatically completes search terms. As a user starts to type a search, Google Instant video tutorial automatically shows results for a popular search that begins with those letters. An algorithm tries to predict what the rest of the query might be based on popular queries typed by other users. The predicted text is shown in light grey in the search box, and search results and ads are automatically shown for that predicted query.
SEO with Google Instant
SEO effect will see a huge dip following the introduction and continuing rollout of Google Instant on the planet's most-used search engine. Some of the reasons are:
1. Google Instant begins offering search results as soon as you start typing
2. The results are different for each individual (because it depends on your web history; you only get it if you're signed in to a Google account)
3. The results change as your query changes, whether longer or shorter (using AJAX, the same technology that preloads Google Maps and lets you slide them around).
So, does this mean we need to optimize for letters instead of words now?
SEO will not start to rely on letter rankings myth, at least not in the current form of Google Instant, because Instant populates the search results for the most popular keywords in the suggested terms drop-down — not for the fragment of keywords the user has typed.
That is, when you type "life i", since "life insurance" is the most popular suggested phrase that matches "life i" it shows the results for the full phrase "life insurance." Google does not populate the search results with what's best optimized for the fragment "life i."
So you don't have to run out and optimize your site for "life i" in an effort to have your site show up first when a user typing "life i" is looking for "life insurance." Google is still showing the results best optimized for "life insurance", not "life i."
Does this mark the end of SEO?
The claim some are making is this: Google personalizes the suggestions that appear in the drop-down box as you type keywords into the search engine, so no two users will see the same results. That is, if I type "Chinese rest" Google Instant automatically shows me the results for "Chinese restaurants Bandra" since I live in the Mumbai. But somebody in Bangalore would see a different set of results. So the crowd who thinks the SEO sky is falling is saying that the phrase "Chinese restaurant" won't have as much value anymore because Google Instant prevents people from ever seeing the results that are best optimized for that phrase without the location on the end. Thing is, Google was geo-targeting results for local phrases long before Google Instant was released. Webmasters have adapted to Google's geo-locating their results for a few years now.
What Google Instant holds for SEO
One thing that the release of Google Instant might mean for those optimizing sites is that the suggested keywords are going to get more traffic than they did before. Since Google auto-populates the results based on the most popular keyword suggestions, people are going to be shown those results instantly and may decide to go with one of the phrases in the drop down instead of continuing to type out the query they had in mind before. This has been happening since Google first introduced the suggestions in the drop-down, but Instant may magnify that somewhat.
So it would be wise to research the keywords your site is currently ranking for to see if they pop up in the keyword suggestions list as you type. If not, you may want to do some additional optimizing for some of the keywords that do appear in the list.
Google's Keyword tools will start to reflect the new search volumes keywords are getting due to the change over to Instant, and webmasters will optimize for those keywords as they always have.
SEM with Google Instant
Also of interest is the question of what happens to all those people buying AdWords - the little text ads that come up by search results, on the top and the right-hand side.
How impressions are counted
When someone searches using Google Instant, each ad impressions gets counted in these situations:
The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.
“Jet” delivers a different ad as compared to “jetair”
Google Instant might increase or decrease your overall impression levels. However, Google Instant can improve the quality of your clicks since it helps people search using terms that more directly connect them with the answers they need. Therefore, your overall campaign performance could improve.
Effect on a Long tail query
The status of the long-tail query is my biggest concern in the paid search world. For years, SEM pros have been eliminating broad and short keywords, as the conversions were not happening to the volumes shown. Many marketers believe in the concept of longer-tailed, specific keywords as the real “value” in AdWords.
However, with Google Instant, that changes. With our example, starting the query with “Jet”, shows ads for Jet Airways. Using short term to obtain an ad display will kill the concept of long-tailed keyword targeting for SEM.
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