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Google Instant and Its Impact on SEO and Paid Search

September 9, 2010 by Pablo Palatnik

OK…so if you haven’t heard, today (yesterday at this point,) Google announced Google Instant. What is Google Instant?

“Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.”

So of course when Google announces something and it can have an impact on the SEO side of things, people become…almost paranoid.

Don’t worry, this won’t have any real impact on SEO as far as the algorithm goes and rankings changing because of Google Instant. Basically, instead of suggesting more keywords as you type underneath the search query, now it automatically starts filling out while showing the index of the search. Will this change what the user actually wants to search and is looking for? NO. While it may alter search as far as having Google suggest stuff, search itself when it comes to the humans basic motion to think of a keyword, type it, and want to see results for THAT KEYWORD hasn’t changed.

While the SEO side things may not be altered in the rankings space, the Paid Search side may be impacted. It is being speculated and I can see how advertisers may start bidding for the first few letters of their keyword (partial words) which will add to Googles paid search revenue as the more keywords advertisers bid on, the more money, right? We’ll see how that plays out as Google Instant rolls out.

BENEFITS:

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.
Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

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