First from a user standpoint

I am not completely sure I like it. The instant changing results and how the screen flashes as I search is a little distracting. Those who know me will tell you that is because I am too simple, which is probably true. Maybe the hyperactive type personality will love this much more than me? On more than one occasion, I also received a message “Google Instant is off due to connection speed..”. Note that I am on a high speed cable modem connection so I feel sorry for all those folks on slower but still decent connections. I am wondering how much confusion this will cause.

Google instant search is off due to connection speed. Press Enter to search

From a results standpoint
I tested this out on a lot of different types of searches in a wide variety of niches. I noticed for some of the more competitive niches, the instant search favors and displays the large brands as you are typing your keywords. This is probably because most of the large brands dominate for short tail searches, therefore display first as you are typing the search being that your first couple of words would fall in a short tail search. This could have an effect on sites that are optimizing for the long tail around these competitive niches because a user may be inclined to click on a result that displays before they finish their entire long-tail search. Or users may just ignore the flashing instant results and finish typing their entire search string before looking at the results. It will be interesting to see how user’s behavior will change with this feature and if there will be lost traffic in long tail queries. You can be sure we will be eyeing our log files for this.

I noticed the instant search doesn’t do well for localized type search, at least in my tests. For example when searching for “2 bedroom condos in Pismo Beach” the instant search tried giving me results in Myrtle Beach and Destin FL. I had to keep typing until I typed “2 bedroom condos in Pismo” in order for me to get the results I wanted. Until instant search can predict what location I am wanting, I think a lot of the Real Estate and localized long tail searches will still have an impact.

Another example “size 9 women’s black boots” didn’t come close to pulling up what I wanted as I was typing until I starting typing the word boots. Interesting enough though, the second and third time I performed the search, Google displayed more relevant results when typing just “size 9 womens” so it seems as though the instant search also takes into account previous searches (personalized search). That didn’t happen with the Pismo Beach condo search though. No matter how many times I type that search, I am still presented with Myrtle Beach and Destin FL. I guess Google really wants me to move to SC or FL . I am sure Google will improve this overtime though.

From an SEO standpoint

One of the things I like about instant search is all of the other possibilities it gives you around a search. I think paying attention to the other options it gives you in that dropdown and optimizing for those can have a positive impact on your SEO and traffic you can obtain from targeting those other options.  I think SEOs really need to pay attention to this because if it sticks, it will for sure be a game changer.  I am also very interested to see how it affects our PPC ads and clicks.  It is too soon for me to comment on that but after at least a few weeks of analyzing our PPC data, I am hoping to have a better idea.  We will be keeping a close eye on our organic keyword traffic and PPC traffic to see what kind of impact this has and will try to report back in 30 days.

Google’s real-time results are also pulling in other data, which includes latest updates from blogs, videos, news sites, and even images. The screen shot below shows a search on “Tiger Woods” and how some of these sources are mixed directly in on the first page of Google’s search results.

If you are an internet marketer, you need to be aware of these changes and create videos, optimize images in your content, participate in blogging, and participate in real-time social networks if you want to stay on top.

See my other posts about similar topics

• Google Search Sidebar
• Twitter is Important For SEO
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics
• Have you seen Google’s new search options?

1. Analytics
   - Don’t rely solely on keywords that are already driving traffic; seek out other possibilities for new insights.
   - Go through your 404’s (people that have incorrectly typed domains in a search bar) to see what people are looking for (but not finding) on your site. This will shed light on what the user expectation is when they visit your website.
2. Ask
   - Don’t assume that real people understand industry jargon and buzzwords. You understand it; they may not.
   - Ask non-industry people about your product or service. Take note of the terms and phrases they use to describe things and incorporate those into your keyword lists.
3. Brainstorm
   - Invite people from throughout your organization to brainstorm on how they would search on the internet for your product or service. Their fresh perspective may reveal valuable insights.
4. Crunch your numbers, Cull your lists, and Create your keyword lists.
   - Once your research has yielded workable lists, it is imperative to evaluate which keywords and phrases are yielding the desired conversions.
   - Pull keywords that are not productive and focus on ones that are.
   - After honing in on the keywords and phrases that work best for your site, you should be able to build and nurture very effective keyword lists.

By no means do these “ABC’s” cover all that is important with SEO. They do, however, bring to light methods that oftentimes don’t immediately come to mind.

While we’re there, we’ll be learning about the latest trends and techniques in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, and pretty much everything that has to do with internet marketing. And of course, you better believe we’ll be implementing the best solutions into our products!

From the event site:

When it comes to creating marketing buzz online, webmasters pretty much invented the concept. PubCon is four days of leading edge education and networking in over 90 sessions featuring 200 expert speakers in Social Media, Affiliate Programs, Search, and SEO/SEM. These aren’t people who just talk about this stuff – these are people who do this stuff.

We are excited to share and implement what we learn. Also, if anyone plans to attend PubCon in Vegas next week and would like to meet up, let us know! We’d love to sit down and talk about online marketing face-to-face with you.

Well, if Twitter results are going to appear in Google and Bing search results, don’t you think it’s a good idea you get your important information on Twitter?  Google is going to pull in what people have tweeted on Twitter. For example, if you search for “online advertising” in Google, you may see some tweets in the Google search results that relate to this search, and possibly even some of this http://search.twitter.com/search?q=online+advertising integrated into the Google search results themselves.

It will be interesting to see how Google displays the tweets in their search results. Will they display them within their regular search or will it be a side option? I have concerns about spam issues. The spammers know how to hijack all the Twitter trending topics with their spam links. I hope Google has a good way to filter this stuff out.

So for all those who argued Twitter has no importance for SEO – think again.

Google+Twitter = important for SEO.
Bing+Twitter = important for SEO.

Welcome to “real time” search!

Running PPC to find long-tail keywords
Running short lived PPC’s on a competitive search phrase can shed some light on what long-tail search phrases people are using around that competitive short tail.  For example running a PPC on “Dallas Homes” will most likely bring in traffic for a ton of more specific searches such as “3 bedroom Dallas homes”, “Dallas homes with a pool”, etc.  If you have analytics installed on your site, you can see which of these are converting and decide from there which searches you should optimize your landing pages for.

Running PPC to determine which keywords convert
Have you ever spent tons of time and effort optimizing your site for a search phrase and after you finally get it to rank organically, you find out it just doesn’t convert into paying customers? Running a short lived, low budget PPC campaign on a search phrase will help you determine how well that search phrase converts.  If it converts well, then it is most likely a good idea to spend the time and effort in organic SEO.  If it doesn’t convert well, you can decide to change your landing pages and content, or may even decide to target something else.

Running PPC on multiple landing pages
Running a short lived PPC campaign pointing to individual landing pages can help you determine how that landing page converts.  A high conversion will tell you that your landing page is setup well.  A low conversion may be an indication your landing page needs some work, or show that you could be targeting the wrong keywords for that landing page.

So, even if you don’t have the budget to run ongoing PPC campaigns, it can still be a great short-term tool for discovering the best (paying) keywords and phrases for your site.

Following are a few reasons why I am such a big fan of long tail

• Specific multi-word search phrases are much easier to rank in search engines than generic single keyword or short keyword phrases.
• Long tail, from our experience, has higher sales conversions because the visitors find exactly what they are looking for.
• Google loves content.  Creating lots of different pages targeting many different long tail keywords gives Google and other search engines more pages to index.
• Easier to rank + higher conversion + lots of indexed pages = increased bottom line.

Note: make sure your targeted pages are not duplicate content and are very specific to the long tail you are targeting.  Your targeted pages should be useful to the visitors that land on them and give them exactly what they are looking.