How will Google instant search affect your traffic?

I have been playing around (okay maybe obsessing) over Google instant search over the past couple of days and just wanted to layout some of my thoughts.

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.