A rule of thumb in the age of the Internet is that if you blink, you probably missed 28 updates to the various sites you use on a regular basis. Sometimes the changes are minor, but even those minor changes can be game changers for search engine marketing and advertising. So, it’s always good to take a second to consider any kind of changes on the sites you frequent, put your business hat on, and think about how it might affect you or your client.
As most searchers have probably noticed, Google Instant was launched recently. Google Instant delivers results that actually evolve as you type in your search query. Not only that, but it will give you suggestions on popular search queries (if you ever want to laugh/be scared, type in “how do I”). This is interesting because it could potentially have a long term effect on how people search, and ultimately change the way we choose keywords to optimize for in search engine optimization (SEO) or advertise on for paid click advertising (PPC).
Another change launched by Google allows you to see a snapshot of the page before you even click on the search result. This helps you get an idea of what you might be clicking your way into, as well as help you decide if it’s the site you are looking for.
Even more recently, the Bing/Yahoo! Integration was 100% completed, meaning that you get virtually the same set of search results on Bing and Yahoo! While the results may be the same, it appears that Yahoo! will not sit idly by and be happy to leech off the Microsoft servers for search results. Instead, Yahoo! is working on its own version of instant results. The idea is the same, although the presentation will be different from Google. You can see more by visiting the Yahoo! Search Blog at https://www.ysearchblog.com/2010/11/17/testing-a-richer-yahoo-search-assist/
Instead of the results morphing like those Mighty Power Rangers, there will be an overlay that contains suggested terms as well as links and answers to what you might searching for over to the right side. As for what the criteria will be for showing up in those results will be, we’ll have to wait until Yahoo! has rolled this feature out to more users for testing.
The search engines are throwing more and more stuff into the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The key is to pay attention to how the landscape of the SERP is changing. In PPC, it’s going to be about where the eyeballs are going – that may not always prove to be the #1 spot. Instead, it could be that the #4 or 5 positions provide the best bang for the buck.
On the organic search results side of things, how do these changes affect local results? Are organic results being pushed further down the page? If so, then those top positions are going to get super competitive because they’re even more important than they were before. There are simply fewer Page 1 results to go around because of all the different types of search results available to the end user.
This will also change how we select keywords to advertise and optimize for in PPC because we’ll have to anticipate users going with the suggested queries as opposed to typing in their own phrases. This is good in the sense that it helps us focus keyword selection, but just as the new types of results on SERPs eat up real estate, easy access to most popular phrases will increase the competition, making Page 1 results harder to achieve for SEO, and will inflate PPC costs for advertisers.
As competition – and cost – increases, it becomes even more crucial to track the performance of all your online marketing channels. Keywords that were winners before may not be as stellar as these changes keep happening. And they WILL keep happening!
As you read this article, seven new features were introduced on Yahoo! and Google.
Okay, okay. I’m kidding on that last part.
I think.
