17 replies to this topic

[MaKa]

What is your take on Google Instant?

I almost only use search from the toolbar rather than the Google website direct. How do you think will it influence people's searches?

I think it need some getting used too as there is a lot changing across a search page with both the keyphrase suggestions and the results changing. Will it make the suggested keywords the only words people will search on?

Love to hear what other people think.

As a second thought, are there any stats available to how many people search from Google's homepage and how many people use a toolbar?

[FrenchynLondon]

I am also interested to know your thoughts about that.

I have been forwarded this link about Google Instant that claims that it will kill SEO: www.steverubel.com/google-instant-makes-seo-irrelevant

Agree / disagree?

[Michael Martinez]

Google doesn't normally publish statistics, and their statistics are (in my opinion) kind of suspect anyway. According to Danny Sullivan's live blog post of the Google Instant search event, they stated they serve about 1 billion search visitors per week but that's a very raw number.

[Jill]

We had no thread on this because we don't go nuts like the rest of the industry everytime Google places a new shiny object in front of us.

Bottom line is it's way too soon to know how or if Google Instant will affect SEO or website traffic.

Other than them showing search results right in the search, the search suggestions have been around for a very long time. Not really sure how showing the live results will make any difference other than on our adwords and analytics getting screwy.

But likie I said, it's really too soon to tell.

[welltempered]

Jill, you have trained me well not to freak out when Google does something new. If your site is good, that is the key to riding out whatever curveballs Google throws.

That said, the announcement made me go have a look at my rankings. I was shocked to find that for all our top performing keywords, we have dropped from the top 1-3 to page 2 (and sometimes lower).

Unfortunately, we also did a company name change 3 weeks ago. The pages were all redirected, and the new URL was indexed and maintained the rankings, until yesterday. So I can't say that nothing has changed on the site.

Still, I am not going to freak out. (In fact, I decided to be zen about it by looking at it as a valuable learning experience after six years of being in the top 3!) But I came to the forum today to see if anyone else experienced anything similar.

[Jill]

That said, the announcement made me go have a look at my rankings. I was shocked to find that for all our top performing keywords, we have dropped from the top 1-3 to page 2 (and sometimes lower).

Well Google Instant wouldn't effect your rankings, that's one thing I'm sure of!

Unfortunately, we also did a company name change 3 weeks ago. The pages were all redirected, and the new URL was indexed and maintained the rankings, until yesterday. So I can't say that nothing has changed on the site.

That could have something to do with it. But rather than discuss in this thread, feel free to post a new one if you do start freaking!

[MaryKrysia]

I have also learned over the years to take a "wait and see" attitude to new Google ventures. Some of Google's ideas have not worked out and were scrapped. No telling yet where this one lead.

(NOT!)

[Michael Martinez]

It got annoying quickly. I turned off Google Instant. I don't have time or the patience to deal with all that anticipatory crap.

Give me back my 3.9 seconds, Google.

[Jill]

Michael, I was thinking the same thing. They say it makes things faster, but for me it makes it slower as I try to figure out what the heck is happening and what weird search results they're showing me before I have even had a chance to tell them what I want!

It's been fun playing with it today, but I kind of think I may get sick of it, or annoyed and turn it off. Of course, I search mostly from my browser searchbar so I won't see it most of the time.

[welltempered]

Well Google Instant wouldn't effect your rankings, that's one thing I'm sure of!
That could have something to do with it. But rather than discuss in this thread, feel free to post a new one if you do start freaking!

In my new zen fashion, I am not going to even think about making any changes for at least a week. Freaking out is only allowed after a month. But wow, it sure makes a difference in traffic. :-(

[Jill]

On the flipside, I just got a voicemail from a guy I had previously talked to about doing some SEO work for, and his calls have been off the charts since yesterday. Whatever instant is doing for his site, it's a GOOD thing. He's not a client, so I haven't checked it out, but I'm interested in hearing more from him. I hope I can look at his analytics! :yay:

[PatrickGer]

On the flipside, I just got a voicemail from a guy I had previously talked to about doing some SEO work for, and his calls have been off the charts since yesterday. Whatever instant is doing for his site, it's a GOOD thing. He's not a client, so I haven't checked it out, but I'm interested in hearing more from him. I hope I can look at his analytics! :yay:

I hope you can figure out what's happening to his competition, too! or...whatever else in the big picture gets affected.

not knowledgeable about google instant, yet but if he gets more search queries, because of it someone else is getting less I bet! (not necessarily his competition, but the keywords that are less typed in as a consequence)

PS: I hope the few bits i read about g instant arent way off or the above might not makea ny sense

[qwerty]

He may be seeing his reported impressions going through the roof. After all, if each letter in a 15-character search term brings up a new SERP as it's typed, it's plausible that a given site will appear in the results each of those 15 times.

Then again, that also means that your clickthrough rate is going to go down the toilet.

[MaKa]

I did find at least one search (my first name) where the search results are different before and after pressing enter.

[Jill]

He may be seeing his reported impressions going through the roof.

No, he said phone calls were going through the roof.