Following the introduction of personalised search results at the turn of the year comes Google’s latest offering – Google Instant. If your business relies on your online presence then this affects you.
What is Google Instant?
For a while now Google has been serving up suggestions for results as you type through ‘Google Suggest’, helping you hit submit quicker to see the results. Google Instant is the next step on from this – delivering the results as you type. As you continue typing, the results displayed will also change accordingly.
The Way Your Customers Search Will Change
Google want to deliver the results to Users as quickly as possible so they continue to use the search engine. As users begin to spend less time formulating their query it is also more likely they will click on the first few results they see. Being on Page 1 and in the top SEO results will be more important than ever.
How Does Google Instant Effect SEO?
There have been some premature suggestions that businesses will need to begin optimising for letters and combinations of letters as well as keywords. For example, a flower company would need to rank for letter combinations from ‘flow’ onwards to gain traffic. This is not true.
The displayed results are for the most relevant whole keyword term that Google suggests. If you begin typing ‘flow’ then you will be presented with results for ‘flowers’. Type a ‘c’ however and you’ll be presented with results for ‘flowcharts’.
What about long tail keywords?
Long tail searches are great. They delivery targeted, well qualified traffic and this will not change. Whilst a User may find what they’re looking for from a broader term, it is still highly likely that the same searches will be made from Users who are looking for a particular product or service. It will be interesting to see if long tail becomes more popular as Users get used to not being served the results they are looking for from generic broad searches.
What about PPC/Adwords Campaigns?
Google Instant will have a huge impact on your PPC campaign as the classification of an ‘impression’ will change and impact your Click-Through Rate (CTR). As results change for every letter that is typed, the Ads displayed will also change to retain relevancy to the search term. Flower or Flowchart ads?
"With Google Instant, an impression is counted if a user takes an action to choose a query (for example, presses the Enter key or clicks the Search button), clicks a link on the results page, or stops typing for three or more seconds.
It’s possible that this feature may increase or decrease your overall impression levels. However, Google Instant may ultimately improve the quality of your clicks since it helps users type queries that more directly connect them with the answers they need."
– Official Google Blog.
Ads that are momentarily displayed are unlikely to count as an impression and won’t effect your CTR, however if a User were to pause to review results for more than 3 seconds, then this will be measured as an impression.
Unlike SEO, we may find that companies begin bidding for single letters or letter combinations to ensure they are seen first in sponsored adverts. Again, with quicker search Users are also more likely to click on the first few results. If you are not in the top Ad positions, speak to one of our Certified Adwords Professionals today about how we can save you time and money with your Adwords campaign.
Google Instant is yet to be rolled out to Australia, but it’s coming soon. Are you ready?