Search Results in an Instant

"Never underestimate the importance of fast." ~ Eric Scmidt, Google

In 2009, Google rolled out 500+ changes to their search engine in a quest to make it easier and faster to find what you were searching for. And, at 1 billion users per week, it's important to keep evolving with the web and the demands of the internet users. Of the hundreds of changes Google has already rolled out this year, today's announcement was the most progressive of their search evolutions yet: Google Instant.

Google Instant combines the recently released "Caffiene" which provides search results that are 50% fresher and Real Time results with their timelines and conversation views with the not so new "auto complete" function to produce SERP which are dynamic to the active search being typed into the box.

In a quest to make search "Fun, fast & interactive," Google's VP of search products Marissa Mayer compared what Google refers to as a fundamental shift in how people will search to the 1935 version of using a library or the 1950's version of research using a telephone. As opposed to taking hours to find out information, today it takes about 9 seconds for someone to enter a search, 300 milliseconds for Google to return optimal search results and 15 seconds for the user to choose among the results. With Google Instant, the search results are even faster as they are presented while you are actually typing in your search request, predicting what they think you are searching for.

Ironically, Google had somewhat predicted this evolution in 2000 as an April Fools day prank. Today that prank is a reality that saves approximately 2 to 5 seconds per search. While that may not seem like much individually, over the course of a week it saves Google users 11 hours for each passing second. The search engine actually gives live feedback in the form of auto-complete and SERPs as the search query is being typed into the search box.

Google Instant will be rolling out across the United States and several other countries today and will be accessible through Chrome, Safari, FireFox and IE8.

What does this mean to website owners in terms of search engine optimization?

Reading the various discussions around the internet immediately following the press conference (which I was able to attend via live feed on Google's You Tube channel), the opinions range from
"the death of SEO" to "business as usual." I think it's going to be somewhere in between, here's why:

• You have to be signed in to Google ( your gmail or other google account) to take advantage of Google instant. For those users who don't have a Google account or aren't signed in 24/7 like me, they won't have advantages of the new roll out. So in that aspect, SEO is the same as it has always been.
  
  
• For those users who are signed in it's going to be even more important that business come up above the fold and using predictive key terms. In other words, you absolutely must know how your website visitors find you and optimize for those terms.
  
  Because Google is using the auto-complete in conjunction with dynamic results, knowing the correct terms to optimize for becomes more important than ever. And while Google believes that people will learn how to "pull up" results from the bottom of the first page and beyond by refining the terms used, that initial search will still show the "cream of the crop."
  

In terms of preparing your website, just keep your end reswult and the visitors in mind. As the the Google philosophy states, "focus on the user and all else will follow." Got questions about Google Instant? Contact me!

Where to spend the dollars?

Recently there was a question posted on LinkedIn:

If you were spending $10,000 on PPC and getting back $12,000 of turnover (making $2,000 profit), and spending $1,000 on SEO and social media and making $3,000 of turnover from google natural search, FB/Tw etc, where would you concentrate your efforts next?

My Answer:

I don't think it's possible, as far as the web has advanced, to focus all your marketing efforts in one basket. Today it's important to use a strategic balance of SEO, PPC and Social Media.

SEO is always going to be important because organic conversions always cost less than just about anything else you might do to bring in more business.  With the emphasis on quality content, it's easier to target the right prospects with the right key terms.

While there is plenty of evidence that organic searches produce higher conversions than PPC but the PPC model puts your name up there for more impressions / exposure.   You might pay for each click but the number of impressions your business will get between clicks is a vital part of any brand promotion strategy.

The social segment is necessary to create the "buzz" so people will refer your offering to others - because 78% of people make buying decisions based on what they are told by others.  Using the big 5: Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Google+, you can be fairly certain you'll hit your target in one, if not several places.  Again this goes to branding and catching the person when they are ready to make a purchase decision.

So I would say to create a strategic campaign based on the proportion return you have been getting from each channel so far and test to find out which balance of your current strategy and new channels will give you the highest return overall.  

Content vs Search Advertising

It's no doubt that a carefully planned pay per click campaign can produce great exposure, click-thrus and leads. Still many people who use pay per click advertising don't fully understand the difference between content advertising and search advertising when it comes to ad placement.

Content ads are displayed, as the name implies, within the content of a web page. So, as opposed to seeing the ads on the right side of Google for example, the content ads will be seen together with articles, videos and other types of content on the web. You have probably seen these types of ads when you visit sites like "about.com" or in news websites, or even blogs.

So to get the most out of your advertising it pays to make a separate campaign for ads that will be displayed within content and ads that will only display in the search engines.

Remember that in a search engine, your ads are poised to attract the attention of people who are already looking for your product or service. But content ads are displayed to people who were merely reading an article or doing research, they may not necessarily be in the market for your products or services. Content ads need to emphasis low cost, value, savings etc. preferably in the headline. And be sure that the page that the visitor will be directed to upon clicking the link has the same information.

By taking the extra time to write 2 separate ads for 2 different markets you'll gain better exposure and higher quality click thru rates.

Need help with your pay per click campaign? Contact me today.

PS - Remember that you can also place ads on Facebook to highly targeted audience groups but treat these like content ads.