Google Instant

-Chris-

If you can't use Google Instant at the moment, try this link:
http://www.google.com/webhp?sclient=psy

How is this going to affect your SEO strategy? Does it change the way keywords are chosen? Does it diminish the long tail as no one need ever go beyond the first page again?

blue4ever

it's particularly off putting! I wonder will it detract for the 'actual' search?

-Chris-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElubRNRIUg4

I don't know if it'll detract from or just change the way people search.

I found it off putting on the first few tries, but I'm starting to like/understand it.

I'm trying to get my head around how this (fundamental) change in the user experience will change their behaviours and how businesses can change their SEO to meet it.
At the moment it strikes me that user searches will become waaaaay more targeted, with no need for guessing at search terms and then paging through to page 3 before you find your answer. You just change your search terms in real time until the page you're looking for appears on-screen.
This is good if you have the site they're looking for, but if you're trying to draw eyeballs and business by making sure that you're in the mix with the site they're looking for, you may have to change your tactics.

-Chris-

More info:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/google-instant-behind-scenes.html

link8r

Well you have to be signed in to use it but it could impact people in the following ways:

• more similar search phrase patterns -v- unique searches = higher bidding on longer search (medium tail)
• Higher Impressions, lower CTR = lower adwords QS/lower CTR in organics = more cost, less traffic (searches displayed for 3 seconds impact as an impression)
• Loss of serendipity

To be honest, I think that predictive guessing doubles the problem that search tries to find. Predictive text is at best most commonly associated searches with that word, at worst a shot-in-the-dark bit of confusion. Its like shouting out the answer at a quiz show before the question has been read out.

You can't use google instant under the .ie/instant - you have to go to .com/instant and be signed in. I think it's quite cool, from a users perspective, it helps information seekers and should end up benefiting the user and Google (€€€€€€).

It's just another facet of online marketing; the ever evolving field that it is. In the end, it's not really going to affect how online marketers do anything, all the components that were required before will still be needed.

But no doubt about it, Google is the real winner here. The more relevant the searches, the more appealing it is to users, the more appealing it is to users, the more appealing it is to advertisers. They get 95% of their revenue from Search so they aren't going to be messing things up for advertisers.

Yahoo had something similar in 2006 but that failed...

blue4ever

I was having another peek:

I noticed that Adverts appear as (literally) each new character is typed! So what about your Impression volumes and CTR. Google says that (under instant) an "impression" is an ad on a static page for three seconds+, a click through on the page or if the punter hits the enter key.

Given that, I think that there will be a whole load more 'changes' with instant.