Google Instant, Loving, Hating, Questioning the Speed of Thought

by JRPittman on October 11, 2010

The World according to Google

“Search engine update” can mean an infrastructure overhaul, indexing changes, user interface changes – even minor tweaks. Some updates don’t affect rankings at all, while other updates call for mad scrambling before rankings plummet.

Google Instant, however, is a whole other animal, and it made “instant” waves in the SEM and SEO world. Currently, there are over 4.2 million pages available to learn about, talk about, bitch about or laugh about this interesting little change in how the Big Daddy Search Engine of them all has “changed lives”. Although we’ve never done a mashup, it seemed like a good time to start.

Is Google Evolving Too Quickly? Peter Young asks this question, pointing out that Google may be pushing one too many changes on the user. I didn’t realize it until I read the article, but Google has pushed out 9 rather big changes over the past three months. Interesting read for those who wonder if the SE is overdoing it.

In My Knee Jerk Reactions to Google Instant, Christina Keffer of LunaMetrics has some interesting thoughts about whether the longtail or short tail key terms will be affected. The article is a good exploration of potential changes in how SEOs set up campaigns. The comments are worth reading as well.

Whether or not Google Instant kills long tail traffic is still a matter up for debate, testing and data analysis, but David Iwanow has an interesting post over at Search Engine People: Google Instant AdWords Trouble. If David is correct in his thinking (and he goes pretty in depth, so he may very well be), companies using AdWords for long tail terms are going to have to rethink their strategies.

An article over at SEOChat nicely covers the issues. Google Instant Changes the SEO Game sums it up pretty well with, “In short, nothing has changed – but everything has changed.” Terri Wells does a good job of covering all the basics without taking an actual stand. Why is “no stand” a good thing? Because nobody actually knows how search will be affected – yet.

Dave Davies has an excellent article on Web Pro News, named simply Google Instant and SEO. However, there’s nothing simple about it. Quite simply, this is an in depth discussion, well thought out, and covers the searcher, Google and SEO perspective. A must read.

And a few others on the side…

For everything that Google does, there are those for and against. The two I like the most, although there are thousands out there for both sides:

Google Instant an Instant Headache for SEO Jockeys and Parents, provided by Techno Buffalo – Definitely against, but then, the author (Leslie Posten) is a daily researcher on the Internet.

In An Instant, Google Reminds Us That It Is Still Awesome, provided by Business Insider SAI – Definitely for, this article is a glowing “review” of how one user received Google Instant. It’s important for optimizers to remember that both sides exist, so we can better optimize for each.

Lastly…

Because I’ve always loved mashups (at least on subjects I’m interested in), and because it feels like a continuation of this post, I felt the need to add Google Instant Instantly Makes Waves Around the Web. aimClear provides 62 recently published posts out of the millions, covering user field guides, tutorials, commentary on and affects of Google’s newest update.

Enjoy!

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New White Paper Analyzes Impact of Google Instant on SEM and SEO (thesearchagents.com)
How Do You Feel About Google Instant? [Google] (gizmodo.com)
40 Google Instant SEO, SEM & Analytics Resources (seoptimise.com)

JRPittman

All around SEO coding geek; AKA "Editing Bulldog" A true geek with a heart of code and SEO, I'm the Senior Project Manager of Level343 and Head of the SEO Department. They call me the "Editing Bulldog" - I'm pretty sure I'm the editing nightmare of writers everywhere, waving a pen across every document in the search for perfect client deliverables. When not buried in paperwork, I'm happily buried in website code, SEO research or playing with my kids.