Google instant was released in the US and a few European URL’s last month and is scheduled for release globally over the coming months. This article answers some of the most frequently asked questions amongst web site owners and, developers and SEO specialists. based on search behaviour our online real estate marketing strategies will have to adept.
Will Google Instant kill SEO? – Definitely not. SEO is Search Engine Optimization and as long as we use search engines like Google we will need to optimize our web pages to compete with others for relevant keywords. It’s difficult to say whether there will be an impact on long tail phrases. It would be obvious to think that this is the case. However Google instant works in combination with the auto-complete function and drop down suggestions where the long tail is still appearing. I expect that over time the focus for SEO will be towards more short tail search phrases per page. One thing clear to me when testing Google instant is that I never went further than the first 3-5 results. If you rank outside of the first page for a keyword or phrase or even at the bottom of page 1, I believe you could see a drop in traffic. Search behaviour will steer these so it will be interesting to see how this evolves.
Has Google changed it’s algorithm? – I don’t believe it has. Results will still be displayed according to current ranking algorithm. This said, Google Instant will have an effect on our results as search behaviour changes.
Will my search be faster? – Yes, results are now appearing faster on a letter by letter basis. You could for example just type in the letter “e” and see instant results like ebay.com. interestingly the Google Adwords appear instantly as well so it is possible that the manner in which we structure Adword campaigns will change. One possibility is that we start focusing on letter combinations rather then entire words. For example, a keyword you use in a Adword campaign for Real Estate could be just the “rea” or “prop” Search behaviour will once again steer this.
Google Instant is not yet available on the google.com.au URL however Google will release this globally within a few months. For now we will have to go to google.com. to play and even there it has a few teething problem so a little patience is required. Have fun Googling