Opportunities in Google Instant

Albert Gouyet

Google just rolled out Google Instant , a major change to their interface by which search results are updated instantly as the user types in the search bar.  With Google Instant, the phrase in the search bar is dynamically matched with suggestions and results for the first and most relevant suggestion are displayed.  Google Instant is turned on by default and we expect will become part of the Google search experience going forward.

Google Instant
Google Instant Example

Google Instant Impact on your SEO

By making Google suggestions front and center to the search experience, the suggested keywords will see their search volume go up and will drive increased referrals.   Conversely, keywords not in the suggested list will see their volume trend downwards.  Overall, we expect this change to shift search volume towards popular keywords.  The exact impact will only be known  in a few weeks after this change settles in but it will most likely vary greatly on a domain by domain basis.

Your rankings are not impacted in any way by Google Instant and all your SEO best practices are still valid.   If you are already optimizing for specific keywords, do not change anything.  However, we have simple recommendations below to take advantage of new opportunities created by Google Instant.

How to benefit from Google Instant

We recommend that you quickly re-evaluate your keyword target list, specifically looking for these new high-volume “suggested” keywords to target.  Here are simple tips on how to go through that process:

  1. Take your highest traffic keywords and type them into a Google web page.  As you type, note the suggestions that appear.
  2. Check your web analytics for new keywords from organic search referrals that generated high visits since September 8.   In BrightEdge, use our SEO integration with web analytics to immediately get these keywords.
  3. These are keywords that you should be targeting if you are not already.  We recommend you feed them into your paid search program to capture short term opportunities.
  4. Optimize existing or new pages to target these keywords organically.  In BrightEdge,  add these keywords into our recommendation engine to get simple next steps on how do to this.

Do you see other changes from Google Instant? Let us know.