The folks at Google recently announced and applied a pretty big change that will affect both searchers and searchies (that’s right, I invented a new word…). In summary, the default Google search interface now includes what Google Labs used to call Google Suggest and what the current Google toolbar on your browser (if you have it installed) does.
What Google Suggest and Google Toolbar did and now Google regular does is try to ‘help’ searchers by providing keyword suggestions as the user begins to type a search phrase. Based on what the user is typing, Google provides keyword suggestions in the order of search popularity. In the example below, I started to type Google sucks but only got to Goolge s and some great ’suggestions’ appeared. Here’s what it looked like:
From the standpoint of some searchers, this is probably a pretty nice feature. We’re all pretty lazy and if Google gives us another tool that thinks for us, well, we’ll use the hell out of it.
From a behavioral perspective, this will change the way we search. Possibilities:
* As we’re given suggestions on keyword phrases, we’ll tend to take suggestions that aren’t exactly what we meant because it will save us from typing. As a result, we’ll have to click around more or perform more searches to get what we’re looking for. I mentioned in my example above that I was going to search for Google sucks but those great suggestions changed my mind. Instead, I click on Google Stocks and became depressed as I realized yet again that I bought at the wrong time…
* Searchers will come to rely on this tool and it will become a standard on all engines not yet doing it.
* We’ll have exposure to less of the what’s out on the internet as we’re driven to the websites that rank best for popular phrases more than we previously were.
* Spammers will work feverishly to tick Google into suggestion terms beneficial to them.
From a search perspective, the effects of this change can be pretty big. My predictions:
* Keyword phrases that were already popular will become more popular as searchers are ‘funneled’ into choosing a given set of phrases.
* Long-tail keyword optimization will become a less-attractive optimization strategy as searchers are ‘channeled’ into the most popular phrases.
* Costs per click on popular keyword phrases on major paid ad networks will increase as marketers bid for top positions and can no longer rely as heavily on long-tail phrases. Many advertisers may have to back off on PPC advertising because they can no longer meet their ROI needs with rising costs.
* SEO Agencies and professionals will, and already are, struggling to adjust their strategies as the market is going to become more competitive for the most popular phrases.
Let’s not forget that Yahoo has been providing suggestions for quite some time now. The reason I’m most interested is that Google is ’standardizing’ this feature at they host about 70% of searches in the US. This will impact the way we search in a substantial way.
How will this change affect your traffic immediately?
* If you currently rank well for popular phrases, you may see significantly more traffic for those phrases
* If most your traffic is based on long-tail keywords, you may see a drastic decline as searchers are guided to more popular terms.
For those of us in the industry, it’s exciting to think about how search will evolve in the upcoming years. Every time the deck is shuffled, we’re forced to adapt or give up. I can think of several strategy changes that I’ll implement to best take advantage of new opportunities. I’m sure that SEO’s around the globe will do the same once search stats are available or sooner.
Comment By: James LaBarr
November 7th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Very very bad for websites that are not ranked high using lesser keywords. My take is that we will have to compete a little more with the “big dogs”, so to say. No easy task. Big boo for Google.