Google have been in news recently for many things, whether it is a logo change as you type or adding new courses to Adwords Online Classroom, things have geared up well after the caffeine update.
Well, the latest of them all is Google Instant, according to Google:
“Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.”
According to Google’s Marissa Mayer at Google Search Event, Google Instant will save 350 million hours of users’ time per year.
Here is the official video from Google:
Search Results Page Real Estate
Have a look at the screen shot of today’s morning. I just typed in “cheap” and Google interpreted it as that I am looking for flights, tickets, hotels etc.
If you look at the SERP closely, you will realize that organic listings have moved further down due to instant suggestions by Google. The first three spots are occupied by adwords ads as usual; the right side is all full of sponsored links, the left side is options for universal search and more, where is the organic listings?? This screen shot is taken with firefox, and Google toolbar installed. Let’s assume that normal web users don’t have Google toolbar installed, but still there won’t be more than 3 organic listing visible in the first fold.
I hope you get the idea what this leads to! More monetization for Google, oops I said it…
Impact on SEO
I think Google instant will change the SEO game forever. As mentioned above, organic listings are going deeper than ever, so top 3 results will have some value; apart from this there is no point even if you are on first page and ranking below the first fold. These are just my personal thoughts, and have nothing to do with promoting my PPC Consultant Services.
Jokes apart, this will change the people search on Google. Google Instant will change the search behavior of users. I wonder how this will affect the local seo. As mentioned by Google earlier, search results are shown different to different users according to their personal search data, their physical location, ip address and more; the local ranking will become more important than organic listings. Have a look at the screenshot of local listing below:
I am sure you would notice that there are no organic listing showing up. What do SEO Professionals do now? Hang themselves?? Don’t consider this as ranting (even though I know it is a rant) and please don’t hang yourself.
According to Steve Rubel, “no two people will see the same web. Once a single search would do the trick – and everyone saw the same results. That’s what made search engine optimization work. Now, with this, everyone is going to start tweaking their searches in real-time. The reason this is a game changer is feedback. When you get feedback, you change your behaviors.”
Chris Crum on webpronews.com considers Google Instant as the end of SEO, but I think SEO will never end. SEO Experts will always find the way to get traffic from search engines doesn’t matter what is changed.
Effect on long tail searches
I came across an interesting article on Search Engine Land which says that Google Instant will kill the long tail, but I have different view on long tails. Long tails are searches made by mature users who know what they are looking for. Users looking for specific information or product will do long tail searches no matter what Google changes.
Matt Cutts throws some lights on the new updates and adds, “A key insight behind Google Instant is that if we want to get people answers and solve their problems faster, we can help with that by improving our UI to help you formulate queries more quickly (and then doing a bunch of hard work under the hood to answer that query too). Google typically returns search results in milliseconds, but it takes several seconds for you to type a query. In other words, the limiting factor on a typical search is you. With predictive search and instant results, you can often get the answer you want much faster.”
Here I would like to show a video by Matt Cutts which shows that it is not the end of SEO and it will be there for years to come:
I would love to hear your views on this. Do you think SEO is here for longer?? Let me know in comments why do you think SEO is not over yet!
thanks for sharing information but Google instant search result is also work with Internet speed. If speed is down then search result is not work proper.
Hey Kaushal…Nice post
This change does not impact the ranking of search results. So you get the results in SERP what you get before this. Beside that it will surely impact on “GOOGLE ADWORDS”. There might be fluctuations in AdWords impression volume and in the distribution of organic keywords.
.-= Kamal Patel´s last blog ..Comment on My First Blog Post by shashank =-.
Nicely written and good to see expert thoughts. Kaushal, I liked the sentence you’ve written “and have nothing to do with promoting my PPC Consultant Services.” actually Google wants to do that, IMHO. 🙂 I wonder why people hate SEO so much; clients are used to do SEO to stop spending on their paid campaigns and long term search visibility. till then,
.-= Chaitanya´s last blog ..Googles Internet search rankings under investigation by Texas attorney general =-.
Hey Kaushal,
Very very interesting article. You have cleared many clouds of doubts about Google Instant. Thanks 🙂
But I have a pie to share, I agree with your thoughts on Long tail & SEO strategies, but I feel this will also be lill bit effect to paid marketing campaigns. M not sure but I guess this will increase the impressions dramatically & it will directly impact the CTR & hence the costing of the campaign.
Secondly, by applying filters in Google Analytics, you can easily start getting insights on the difference in trends in keywords used by the people. One need to apply right filter, monitor closely the changes in keyword that drive the traffic to their site & design the strategy. FEEDBACK & RATINGS are now one of the important criteria to getting in top along with the Backlinks. ( I think, this will help people to have reduced spam listing in SERP 🙂 )
I completely agree with you on “SEO will never end”, Thanks for sharing this amazing article & clear thoughts on Google Instants. Cheers 🙂
.-= Amish Keshwani´s last blog ..Google Analytics Individual – One more achievement =-.
@ Amish, thanks a lot for your great insight thoughts. Its true that Google Instant will definitely bring the CTR down of adwords ads, and this will affect the costing, but this will be for everyone, so every adwords advertiser will be affected. We would love you to elaborate more on which analytics filters we can use for getting the correct data of impression and clicks.
@ Chaitnya, you are right, this is one more way to increase the earnings.
@ Kamal, yes this will not change the search results, but this will change the people searching on Google. For normal users it is amazing who get instant results just by typing in the keyword, they will never go down or scroll the page, they will just click the adwords ads or first 1-3 organic listing.
@ Bharat, yes, i just experienced it today, with slow internet connection, you are not able to see the search results.
Thanx a lot for such a detailed post on G. Instant.
I am agree with your ideas on Instant however Impact of instant on Local search was completely new to me so thanx for covering it too.
However as per instant update, Organic result gets less space to display and major part of screen is covered by sponsor results. If we interpret it in terms of SEO, it is a big alarm for all such SEOs who just believes that it is OK and easy to survive in SEO industry by just knowing organic SEO. Just a thought of mine 🙂
Thanx.
.-= Hetal Shah´s last blog ..How to Write an Effective Blog and Website Review =-.
Really Good and depth article. This is why “PPC Rockstar” rocks. I guess not only “PPC Consultant” but also “Internet Marketing Consultant” will be in limelight now. as the GAME will be more tough.
I do agree with AMISH that if we have good knowledge of Analytics, that will help a lot to learn more things. Specially insights.
After all GOOGLE wants to earn more via PPC and this might be fist step towards that. Keep writing buddy such a great post.
Kaushal thanks for sharing such a nice information. I was thinking on this since the day google instant search implemented now picture is somewhat clear.
I would also like to thank to Amish for sharing valuable thoughts.
Once again thanks a lot to both of you guys.
Hi Kaushal, I agree with you the appearing in the top 3 results (whether paid or organic) now matters more than ever before. However, I don’t believe that SEO is dead – far from it. SEO consultants will be in demand as long as search engines exist. Kind regards, Stephan
.-= Stephan Bottine´s last blog ..A strategy to target the long tail gold mine =-.
Secondly, by applying filters in Google Analytics, you can easily start getting insights on the difference in trends in keywords used by the people. One need to apply right filter, monitor closely the changes in keyword that drive the traffic to their site & design the strategy. FEEDBACK & RATINGS are now one of the important criteria to getting in top along with the Backlinks. ( I think, this will help people to have reduced spam listing in SERP 🙂 )
Read more: Google Instant, Google Update 2010, Google Instant Search Results – Kaushal Shah
I must say you have written some very good posts in here. Really nice!
yes. google instant is something good.but then sometimes i find it inactive. also there is a preview option too. it reminds me of the firefox plugin.
Google is best Search Engine
hi kaushal,
THanks for sharing such an information,i would like to know how to clear Google adword exam and not getting enough material as per my view do u know any authentic source of it?through which i can get some material or can say any sites?