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Does Google Instant Mark the End of SEO?

Google Instant Considerations for Search Marketing

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By · September 10, 2010 · 111 Comments
A reporter (I believe she was from AdAge) attending Google’s Q&A about Google Instant pointed out that the new search feature tends to favor big brands. This isn’t really surprising, as it is these brands that are more likely to be searched for most often. After all, they’re big because people know them. 

Do you think Google Instant is a threat to SEO? Share your thoughts.

iCrossing has a list of brands that come up when you enter each letter of the alphabet (not all are brands, but many are). A is for Amazon (not Apple), B is for Bank of America, M is for Mapquest (not Microsoft), N is for Netflix, P is for Pandora, V is for Verizon, and Y is for Yahoo. 

You must keep in mind, however, that the instant results are personalized. Google takes into account things like your location and your surfing habits when providing you results. 

Google Instant doesn’t necessarily make things any easier on small businesses, but it’s showing big brands in cases where Google probably would’ve suggested big brands anyway. If users do a lot of local searches, it’s possible that Google could show more local results (including small businesses) for those users, I’m speculating. 

Steve Rubel says that Google Instant makes SEO irrelevant. "Here’s what this means," he says. "No two people will see the same web. Once a single search would do the trick – and everyone saw the same results. That’s what made search engine optimization work. Now, with this, everyone is going to start tweaking their searches in real-time. The reason this is a game changer is feedback. When you get feedback, you change your behaviors."

He’s not wrong about that, but I’m not sure that makes SEO irrelevant. Google has been showing different results to different users for quite a while now. This is really just an extension of that. 

Businesses might want to try (and have other people try) doing searches for keywords that they would expect people to use to find their site. See what comes up (keep in mind the personalization) and work from there. Easier said than done no doubt, but it’s something to consider. Think about what kinds of people will be interested in your products and what other kind of searches they might be doing. It’s not a science, but again, perhaps something worth considering. It might mean getting to know your customers better, which can’ t be a bad thing anyway. Maybe it means asking them to take surveys. Maybe it doesn’t. 

The whole thing doesn’t help organic SEO’s case in the old SEO vs PPC debate. I’ll give Rubel that. 

Speaking of PPC, Google says Google Instant changes the way it counts impressions. "It’s possible that this feature may increase or decrease your overall impression levels," says Google’s Dan Friedman. "However, Google Instant may ultimately improve the quality of your clicks since it helps users type queries that more directly connect them with the answers they need."

Google Instant with Ads

Trevor Claiborne of the Google Analytics Team says that Analytics users might notice some fluctuations in AdWords impression volume and traffic for organic keywords. "For example, you may find that certain keywords receive significantly more or fewer impressions moving forward," he says. 

You should read this post on the Google Webamster Central blog. It says that impressions are measured in three ways: the traditional way, when a user clicks on a link that appears as they begin to type, and when a user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds.

Sidenote: Google’s Matt Cutts weighed in on the whole will Google Instant kill SEO thing. "Almost every new change at Google generates the question ‘Will X kill SEO?’ Here’s an video I did last year, but it still applies," he says.

He says, however that over time, it could change SEO. "The search results will remain the same for a query, but it’s possible that people will learn to search differently over time," says Cutts. "For example, I was recently researching a congressperson. With Google Instant, it was more visible to me that this congressperson had proposed an energy plan, so I refined my search to learn more, and quickly found myself reading a post on the congressperson’s blog that had been on page 2 of the search results."

Google Instant will likely become increasingly important to search marketing, because not only will it roll out to more countries (it’s starting in the U.S. and a select few others), but it will soon come to mobile and browser search boxes. Each of these factors will greatly increase how often Instant results are displayed. 

The mobile factor actually has implications for Google retaining a substantial amount of mobile searches in general. The better (and quicker) Google can give results on any kind of query, the less reason users have to go to different apps to acquire certain information. 

Google clearly said that ranking stays the same with Google Instant, but it will change the way people search. It will affect their search behavior, and that is what search marketers are going to have to think about more than ever. You should also consider that some people will simply deactivate the feature, leaving them open to Google’s standard results.

Tell us what you think of Google Instant. Do you like it or not? 

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There are 111 Comments. Add Yours.
  1. Guest
    Reply

    If anything this makes SEO even more important. The only change here is in user experience.

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      Good way of looking at it.

  2. While it could influence how people search as far as seo goes i am slightly concerned about how it will affect ppc. Since Google outright said it will increase impressions and ctr is the main factor in quality score, will advertisers start to see their quality score go down as the impressions increase but actual clicks stays the same….

    • Thats real bad part about instant, the ppc side of things. I havent noticed any real effect on seo. I thought it would kill long tails but it hasnt. Just downed quality scores…

  3. There is no way that Google Instant can kill SEO.

    Did anyone else hear Marissa Mayer state that they had already “tweaked” the engine 500 times this year? Add the current talk that already popular sites are getting more top results but every searcher is more likely to get different results to those 500 adjustments.

    Or, tell me what half of those adjustments were and when they went live.

    Google Instant can’t kill what is already dead. It’s dancing a mighty nice jig on SEO’s grave, however.

  4. I agree, better user experience. In the end, it may help the searchers find what they are looking for more easily. What may have began as a broad term search could be narrowed down to specifically what they are looking for.

  5. However the search method changes (and Google Instant is just what we used to call an Incremental Search) page ranking is core to the value of Google to searchers. And SEO is all about rank.

  6. I’ve been playing with Google Instant today and the first thing I see is that roughly half of the page is missing, and, it’s very easy/tempting to simply click on one of the few links that are visible, rather than eye-scan the entire page.

    I may not be on the top, but my links have received clicks, even though they were lower on the page. This could really change that.

  7. Will the new feature with Google Instant improve CTR & earnings for publishers or ROI for the advertisers? Any way Google always thinks innovative. Congrats!

  8. The answer at my point of view is – NO, but if google goes for a kind of directory listing, then we already have a good one it is called.. DMOZ

  9. Waseem Nicola
    Reply

    Instant Search will not kill SEO, but unlike other previous features, it will significantly require changing strategies for small and medium businesses. I believe this will make Longtail SEO much more relevant to SMBs.

    Until now, people used to type what they think is the most relevant search term and scan the 1st and, maybe, the 2nd page. Thought most of the traffic of a search query went to websites ranked in the first 3-5 places. Still, websites ranked in the bottm of the 1st page or anywhere on the 2nd page still got some sifinificant traffic.

    This new features changes the way people seek the relevant websites. Since the user can get instant feedback, many will not go under the fold. Rather, they will keep tweaking their results until the relevant info popes up.

    In my opinion, websites that until now ranked low on 1st page and anywhere on 2nd page will start seeing a siginificant decrease in traffic.

    this also makes Longtail SEO even more relevant now. This is the cost effective way for small to medium business to pop up at top results and in turn this kind of strategy will generate more traffic than it used to.

  10. Lots of controversy here. This is causing a real buzz in the SEO community. Not sure what the impact will be yet.

  11. Thank god SEO is still there after few years.. this video makes me happy.

  12. No Google Instant does not mark the end of SEO because as long as there is search people will work on their website to make them rank higher. Hence SEO and Search go hand in hand.

    With Google Instant the need and importance of SEO remains the same or infact is much enhanced as people would like to see their websites rank for all the possible predictions related to their terms and would surely be ranked in the first 3 of page 1.

    This should make the SEO industry flourish rather than perish. So SEO is not dead but has become more exciting and challenging.

  13. Guest
    Reply

    Regarding the SEO Irrelevance quote, Feedback is called stats, not just query reports. The proof will be in the numbers and if anything, SEO changes will be in how key-sentence structure is created to better mimic the prompts that users see when searching for your ranking targets.

  14. This might be a long shot… but if Google instant increases the number of impressions on my Adwords ads (and potentially lowering my clicks), does that mean my quality score could drop?

    Brandon Young

  15. Yo
    Reply

    Guys, it is time to open your own anti-google forum. Those engineers at Google are going nuts. We need some type of organization to boycott Google in mass. Some type of union. Google is really bad news. It is time to start promoting other search engines. Do your part and tell the world to quit using Google. Read this too: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4137008.htm

    Google now is going to kill your referrer data. No more referrer keywords for you. Your site dead. The government needs to raid Google HQ and put those bastards in prison. Do your part. Tell a family member that using Google is no different than visiting an illegal site on the web. Tell them to use Bing and Yahoo.

    I think WPNs should visit webmasterworld more often and post real news, not this silly Facebook, Twiiter boring news. Webmasterworld.com is burning!

  16. Koolaid
    Reply

    How about we grow a pair and tell it like it is? This is a way to put brands front and center. No if ands or butts about it (you touched on it, but that’s the reality). What this means is an increasing dependency on PPC as that is what Google makes their $$ from. You can’t seriously expect MORE traffic from long tail keyword searches. Hell by the time they enter their 3rd word they have already seen 30 results, plus countless Paid results. How can search possibly get better unless you are a super power?

    By typing in a generic word such as travel, Google instant starts bringing up traveolocity…clearly that is a big problem if you aren’t them. If I started thinking about food and foodtown always popped into my head first, I’m more inclined to go there…even if I didn’t think about them at first.

    If you have inner pages for multiple word phrases I would say that traffic is going to dry up. It’s go very generic in your keywords or bust, as a person “dodging” 50 or so results just to click on your link isn’t looking too good.

  17. Lauren S.
    Reply

    As a Google user, I think it’s a fabulous idea. As part of a company that banks on SEO tactics, I think it flat-out sucks.

    But put this in your pipe and smoke it — as magazines and newspapers die in the wake of popular demand for more customization and personalization, we lose one of media’s oldest charms: Learning and discovering things we didn’t know we were interested in.

    Catch 22.

    • Stupidscript
      Reply

      I’ve always wondered how the search engines will compensate for meatspace “window shopping” … and I mean “always” as in when I was still using Archie for search.

      When the average individual needs to type a phrase that describes what they want to find, they will ALWAYS get the lowest common denominators as suggestions.

      When a major search engine can incorporate more “accidental” discoveries, they’ve got my vote. Google’s “I Feel Lucky” has been a long-standing attempt at this, but it’s still driven by an immature algorithm, as are their regular search results.

      When online searching can be compared to offline searching in terms of surprise, delight and giving people what they were REALLY looking for, even when they do not know how to describe it, then we can start thinking of search engines as true research tools. Until then, they are works-in-progress, so don’t be too annoyed by experiments like Google Instant.

      It’s just an experiment. Breathe.

  18. Jeffrey W. Foster
    Reply

    Not at all!! SEO will actuall prosper. Just need to continue concentrating on Long tail and KW anchors!! the latter becoming more and more important!

  19. AZDude
    Reply

    The only people that like this are the techies.

    Save time, I think not.

    Stopping to look at the results after each letter typed instead of typing in your phrase and then looking is not saving time.

    Google likes to blow a lot of smoke about their new stuff just like Wave and Buzz and look what happened to those.

    Step away from the techies and webmaster and ask an average person if they like this and most will tell you no. Then tell them to use Bing since Bing is the search egine that now provides the cleanest layout and listings :)

    • Guest
      Reply

      I totally agree.

      I tried searching with Google Instant, and it’s a pain for the most part. But well, they’re off to control what the user wants – Google’s mindgames and large dandy aims to conquer the world and how it behaves, for them to earn off of single digit dollars, click by click. The worst roll out ever by Google, so far. Difficult to use and so annoying.

      P.S.: SEO just became hard to even understand, let alone implement new things to rank higher. Screw the big G for this one.

  20. Don
    Reply

    Everything that I see Google doing seems to me to be another attempt to get more advertising dollars vis a vis Adword, etc. In my opinion, Google has ceased to be a serious search engine that keys on relevance, and is simply using their market monopoly to squeeze every buck out of the already inefficient little guy that they can.

  21. Guest
    Reply

    Having tried it, I don’t like it – but its easy to turn off!!

  22. I do believe this will hurt SEO for long tail keywords. Most of my 2 or 3 word tail keywords are in about the same ranking, more keywords than that, they are all over the place.

  25. I think Google have messed up big time here. If Google Instant is benefiting the big brands, who do you think spend the most money on Adwords?

    As for SEO being dead, of course not. It’s just another challenge to wrestle with and the people who crack it will make a mint. See it as an opportunity.

    And of course, Google is not the only source of traffic, there are plenty of other ways to get website traffic, the internet is a big place.

    • Stupidscript
      Reply

      If Google Instant is placing the Big Brands at the top of the organic results, how do you figure Google will make more from AdWords?

      You’re wrong. This will cost Google money, if your logic holds, because the Big Brands will rule the organics (hence the concern over “the Death of SEO”), and will DROP their PPC spend … meaning that, if your logic holds, this will COST Google Big Bucks.

      Any formula that replaces paid ads with free listings means LESS money for Google.

      Ahh … never mind … haters never change their opinion of Google no matter what the truth is. It’s a lot more fun to join the Chicken Little bandwagon.

      (“Evil Google Rules The World! And Rupert Murdoch Has Your Best Interest In Mind!”)

  26. Google instant is probably a good thing and it definitely does NOT signal the end of SEO. To rank in the google index for your keywords, you still need some level of on-page optimization, however, I think that the timing of the instant rollout has been blurred by a (I strongly suspect from my sites’ metrics) commensurate algorithm / rank update not dissimilar to the Mayday update. For all intents and purposes, this has hoodwinked most analysts into concentrating on the “instant” effect and not realising that a significant cause of the instant results is due to the algorithm update. (case in mind is the argument that “instant” favours big business).

    Can we try and extract some “ownership” from google to the algorithm /rank update?

  27. We’re not happy about it. We have a B2B website, and we have and WANT customers from all over the world. And of course, we have competitors, all over the world. We pay good money for SEO optimization and we try to outbid our competitors in Google Ad Words. Some of our keywords sell for $4. So when Google offers “local search” results, to a potential customer, our site may not show up. It is not fair. But why am I not surprised. That’s Google for ya. Making money, while treating their good customers like trash. Far as I am concerned, Google Instant, is only good for people with I-phones, looking for pizza!

  28. …what is it – a real enhancement of user experience and/or problem for SEO or just a fad.

  29. Hey Google. Well done. The instant search dropdown results bring up the highest paid ads if one is ignorant enough to go to that page.

  30. That you can switch if off.

    Google must have too many people with nothing to do.

    I fear that people will not like the search bar doing their thinking for them.

    As soon as the initial hoopla dies down it is just going to get plan annoying.

    And your average person who works in a factory, or a shop or doesn’t have to sit at a PC all day, HAS to look at the keyboard while they are typing sp probably won’t notice anyway.

    The beauty of Google used to be simplicity. A plan layout, fast results and no spam.

    This is just annoying.

    I just hope it goes the way of Wave abnd Buzz, two other pretty useless services.

    Bing and Yahoo can be quite happy today.

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