Google Instant, the new technology that starts to supply you search results before you finish typing your query was released by Google this fall. Google predicts what you might be searching for and offers you alternatives to satisfy your quest. The predicted search results push the start of the organic listings by two slots and some believe that instead of needing to be in the top five positions your site now needs to show in the top two positions.
It’s also important to know that impression count rules changed as well. If you start a query and pause for three seconds, that will count as an impression. When you complete your search, the results will change according to the completed query and this will count as a separate impression. So those are two impressions and will count twice in Webmaster Tools and Adwords.
There is data showing that click-throughs on 2 and 3 word search terms are decreasing, and click-throughs on 4/5/6/7 word phrases are all increasing. Keep this in mind as you prepare and write your blog posts. Use longer search phrases in your titles and meta tags. You may want to work with complementary blog sites and submit your posts for publication in order to help mitigate a decrease in visitors if Google Instant has negatively impacted your visitor traffic. You could also rewrite your Facebook page to incorporate your key search terms.
I believe that Google Instant will add more pressure to fewer search phrases than we had before. This could be expensive for paid ad positions (CPC). As fewer key phrases are pushed to the searcher the bid amounts on these select phrases will increase. Don’t take lightly that paid search is how Google makes their money. More money fighting for fewer results is likely. Next time we will talk about Google Places to help take the sting out of Google Instant.
