The dialogue continues on the impact Google Instant will have on SEO. Three big questions remain.
How many affected searches will there be?
Google obviously holds a large share of any site’s search traffic. But what share of Google’s referrals will actually be influenced by Google Instant? There are two main variables to consider here.
1. Availability: Only a portion of Google’s referral s will come via the Instant interface. Many people search from the browser bar, toolbar searches, mobile, unsupported browsers, or international search where one needs to be searching from a logged-in account to see Instant results, for example.
2. Search Behavior: Even if your search is done with Google Instant, it may not affect the outcome if, for example, you type faster than the screen refreshes or you look at your keyboard while you type. Also, as Damien Bianchi points out, user intent will play a large role. If people are searching with a particular result in mind (for example navigational searches such as brand names) they are more likely to stick to the keyword in mind. It will be people doing less targeted searches (for example informational searches such as restaurant recommendations) that are more likely to adjust their search.
However, both availability and search behavior will likely change over time. Availability will expand to international sites (likely you will not need to be logged in) and to other devices (mobile), and search behavior may evolve if people adopt new ways of searching.
Which searches will be affected?
As we mentioned in the previous update, there is some debate about whether it will help the long-tail (because searchers will continuously revise their query until they find what they’re looking for), or if it will harm the long-tail (because searchers will find what they’re looking for earlier in typing the query).
There’s no doubt that the long tail will be affected because there will be less keyword diversity. Even if only a fraction of unique searches are influenced by the effect of Google Instant, there will be a change to the length of the tail. And since a quarter of all searches (before Google Instant) have never been searched before, there’s obviously plenty of opportunity for Instant to chip away at the long tail. How big that impact is has yet to be seen and depends on how many affected searches there are (although the long tail won’t ever disappear entirely).
Maybe both arguments are correct to a degree, and that we will see a squeezing effect on the range of search terms. Head terms may become less important where searches short in length become longer as people refine their search until they find what they’re looking for. Conversely, some searches that were intended to be long will be answered earlier. This effectively fattens the “belly” section of search.
Keyword research becomes even more important with this added new variable. Long-tail keyword phrases that have the qualifying word early in the keyword sequence will be affected more than those with the qualifying word at the end. For example, “running shoe review sites” or “Vancouver Greek restaurants near Stanley Park” are much more vulnerable than “top reviews of running shoes” or “most popular greek restaurants in Vancouver”.
This means that keyword competition has a new variable. Instead of considering the competitiveness of a keyword phrase as a whole, SEOs need to consider how competitive the keyword sequence is at each stage of the query.
A note to keyword research: Google has already explained how impressions will now be counted in Google Webmaster Tools (expect an increase). But there is uncertainty if Google’s other keyword research tools (for example Adwords Keyword Tool) will be impacted in the same way, and increasing search volume.
How can we optimize for the affected searches?
1. Map out the possible suggested searches (what Google guesses you want) for your keywords. I’m looking forward to seeing a tool to do this. Start in your analytics by sorting your keywords driving traffic (pre-Instant) alphabetically and by volume. Group keywords together at each keyword change and total the volume. For example:
|
1st Word
|
2nd Word
|
3rd Word
|
4th Word
|
5th Word etc
|
Volume
|
|
Red
|
Running
|
shoes
|
|
|
20
|
|
Red
|
Running
|
Shoes
|
For
|
Kids
|
2
|
|
Reviews
|
For
|
Men’s
|
Running
|
Shoes
|
10
|
|
Running
|
Shoes
|
|
|
|
1800
|
|
Running
|
Shoes
|
Discounted
|
|
|
80
|
|
Running
|
Shoes
|
On
|
Sale
|
|
200
|
|
Running
|
Shoes
|
Reviews
|
|
|
550
|
2. At each change in the word, see what Google Instant is offering and whether you should be there or not, and how competitive it is. You will probably find that a portion of some longer tail keywords will have less importance and their traffic will be diverted up the keyword sequence. Similarly, watch where your shorter keywords lead to longer ones.
3. Divide keywords into groups by search intent. Some keywords such as brand names are often navigational queries which are less likely to be vulnerable. (This isn’t always the case though - we have one client whose brand name is keyword rich which means many competitors are now appearing in the process of typing their brand).
4. Understand where the competition will come from in the keyword sequence. You may want to adjust your keyword targeting accordingly, creating new content and focusing especially on great title tags and meta descriptions that answer the query’s intent. But be careful that the changes are warranted. We still do not fully understand the reach Google Instant will have and the proportion of affected searches. It will be different for every site.
5. Monitor your traffic to fully understand the impact. In our first Google Instant update, we had a link to an analytics trick to monitor Instant referrals. That analytics trick apparently doesn't work (as updated on their site). Instead, watch keyword diversity (total number of keywords driving search) as well as the traffic levels of individual keywords, especially those that are vulnerable.
6. Using these steps, look for which top existing keywords are most vulnerable, and don’t forget to also look where new opportunities exist. Prioritize your efforts accordingly, but do not over-react too early. Watch to see how many queries are affected and test with small samples. Quality SEO has never been more relevant.
If you’re looking for more reading, aimClear Blog has put together a handy reference list of the best Google Instant commentary from the past week.
