The Day- September 8 has marked a turning point in the history of SEO. On this day, Google Instant was announced. Forums, chats, blogs, articles and podcasts were flooded with discussions on Google’s new technology. Some perhaps exaggerated implications of Google Instant and termed it “Threat to SEO.” However, some explained it as a new opportunity for SEO’s and in fact not a threat.
Let us examine more about the thumbs up and thumbs down stuff about Google’s new technology-Google Instant vis-à-vis SEO, besides its effects on the search behavior.
What really is Google Instant?
Google instant, a new technology introduced by Google predicts and shows suggestions of what you would be looking for as you type in the Google search bar. Google terms it as a technology for better and faster search results. Google refers it as ‘search-before-you-type’ technology. For example, if you want to search for ‘SEO Company’ and you type a phrase “SEO c”, Google instant will start showing ‘SEO Company.’ Therefore, by typing only four letters ‘SEO c’ one is able to get results for SEO Company. Technically, this is a cutting-edge innovation and you would find, in Google’s own words, ‘right content much faster than before.’
In this way Google aims to start serving billions of additional search results pages per day..
Is Google Instant A Big Deal?
It is no doubt a major technological improvement but there are some strong reasons why this advancement should not be considered as driving in a major change in the search patterns.
1. Most of the searchers would either fail to notice the change or if they do so they may not use it. Only those searchers who type without looking at the keyboard will notice the instant results and out of them only 50% will use the feature. So, the probably of Google Instant making much difference in the search patterns diminishes.
2. Next, Google Instant will be a boon for those searches where shorter or predicted terms are used. For instance, if somebody searches for “SEO Company” and types “SEO Co” the results will appear, listing top SEO Company sites and it is large possibility that the user will click one of the sites listed. On the other hand, it may affect traffic to the companies ranking higher on long keywords such as ‘SEO Company India.’ Still it is not to worry because if the searcher wants to search for ‘SEO Company India’ he will not stop at ‘SEO Company’ and will go further to search for ‘SEO Company India.’
How Google Instant is a Big Deal for SEO
No doubt, Google Instant is a revolutionary technique, making search faster. Let us examine whether Google Instant is a big deal for SEO.
So let us examine what will happen to SEO if Google Instant stays. However, more information will be available once the inferences are available regarding the usage of Google Instant, but as far as some estimates are concerned, SEO campaigns working on long keyword may have to face a decrease in search volumes and in the long run they have to shift to more generic and perhaps more expensive to attain phrases. So, in general, SEO will be bit more competitive than before as more and more SEO campaigns will be after the same short and sweet keyword.
Since Google Instant would ultimately limit search to more generic phrases it could affect the limited organic or PPC budgets of small businesses. But, only time will tell as to how much search volumes shift Google Instant creates towards generic search phrases.
Two new opportunities for SEOs
On the other hand, Google Instant throws two new opportunities for SEOs. First, an expert SEO would now have to concentrate on more generic keywords rather than wide array or phrases. Now, in order to get volume traffic, the sites need to be ranked for limited 3 or 4 phrases rather than 10 or 20 phrases earlier. Secondly, SEO’s will have the leverage to charge more for the rankings as fewer competitive phrases will be available and ranking on the phrases are sure to have a higher value. However, it is quite early to predict anything but Google Instant is sure to make searches faster and SEO more competitive.
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