Google Instant - 10 Things Marketing Teams Need to Know

Google Instant took flight yesterday from the ashes of some mysterious logos and via a live transmission on Google's Official Youtube Channel. What was announced was arguably the biggest change in the user interface (UI) of search engine results pages since search engines were invented and one of the most sophisticated engineering projects for Google since Caffeine. Ben Gomes, Distinguished Engineer at Google, had a great phrase to summarize the announcement, "Google Instant seems so obvious, that in retrospect, you'll wonder if search could have been any other way."

1.Backstory: Google Instant Was Not Born Yesterday
The product innovations that foreshadow Google Instant have been in development for over the last 10 years. They are:

    * Improved Spelling Corrections

    * Google Squared integration into universal search results

    * Google Realtime

    * The Caffeine index

    * Google Suggest (Autocomplete)

    * Starred search results

    * Google MentalPlex (an April Fool's Day joke)

With that in mind, it would be fair to argue that Google Instant is of equivalent significance to marketers as the Universal Search update, which previously amalgamated their video, news, blogs, maps and image search properties into one search engine results page (SERPs). As was the case then, lost real estate for organic search results presented new opportunities for the savvy marketer. The same is likely to be true now.

2.Core Features Mean Less Key presses
Google Instant is a much faster interface and promises to save users 2-5 seconds per search.

    * Streaming Search Results - relevant search results are displayed as you type. There is no need to press 'enter/return' key or click the search button.

    * Predictive text - Google Instant offers predictions of what you are searching for as you type. These predictions display in light gray text as a continuation of your query. A match to your needs can be autocompleted with the hit of the 'tab' key.

    * Scroll to Search - search suggestions/predictions display below the search box and will automatically display those results as you select them with your 'arrow down' key.

3.Present Availability - Coming to a Browser Near You
It is worth emphasizing that a comparatively small proportion of all Google users will see Google Instant. Those people not signed into their Google Accounts, or not searching from within the countries listed below or who only search directly from their browser will NOT see streaming search results for awhile to come.

    * At present Google Instant is only available in the USA, but it will be launching in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia within a week.

    * The service is only available to users signed into their Google Accounts

    * The service works on these browsers: Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8

    * Browser based search plugins for IE 8, Firefox, Safari and Chrome are currently in development and expected to be completed by the end of the year.

    * Google Instant will hit mobile devices by fall of this year.

4.YES, You Can Turn Off Google Instant
As this feature functions for signed in users only, turning off Google Instant is extremely straightforward:

A) You can click the off switch next to the search box (as shown below - click to enlarge).
B) You can adjust your settings via the Google.com/preferences page

5.How Does it Affect Paid Search?
Google's official line is that, Google Instant does not affect the underlying algorithm of paid search ads in any way. However, they go on to say in a blog post that it "changes the way we think about [ad] impressions." The key takeaways for paid search account managers are that an ad impression will be counted if:

    * User chooses a query from the suggestions (by hitting enter or clicking the search button).

    * User clicks any link on the search results page.

    * 'The 3-second rule': AdWords will count impressions for every ad served where the user is inactive, and stops typing, for more than 3 seconds.

6.How Does it Affect Search Queries?
In much the same way as described above for Google AdWords accounts:

    * Google Webmaster Tools accounts may see an increase in impressions for search terms.

    * Sites that rank well across both broad and long tail terms may see a spike of impressions on broad terms as results are streaming whilst the user narrows their search.

    * Importantly, the autocomplete feature of Google Instant will pass the search term referrer as the full predicted keyword, even if the user clicked the result with a partially formulated search phrase.

7.YES, You Can Track Google Instant Behaviors Using Web Analytics
There are a couple of ways you can do this:

    * BASIC: Segment your reports to track search queries from Google that come via these browsers: Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8. However, this method will only track the fully predicted keyword referrer, and you will need to add more browsers as they become supported.

    * ADVANCED: Some bright sparks at Semetrical have already identified a unique parameter within the Google Instant that passes along the inputted characters into the search field. Look for the parameter 'oq=' and you will see that it matches your current text input - see screenshot below. To get your account setup to track the actual inputs against the referrers, checkout Semetrical's guide on how to track Google Instant in Google Analytics. This method will enable you to track the actual query input against the predicted referrer, which means you can see how many search suggestions your site appears in.

8.B Stands For Back In Business (But Only Big Brands Benefit)
A crucial innovation to keep your eye on is that one letter search query inputs trigger predictive results. Right now, it's not completely clear how often the predictive engine is updating and whether this will follow general trends, hot trends or simply high volume terms in general. A search for the letter B, currently predicts 'bank of america' as the full term, with 'best buy', 'bing' and 'bed bath and beyond' as suggestions. These are all household names so one would suspect that these are simply designed to be shortcuts based on longterm demand.

However, some surprises can be found from analyzing all of the suggestions on every letter. There is anecdotal evidence that Google may also be predicting specifically current trends or hot trends. For example the letter 'I' suggests 'Inception', 'L' suggests 'Lost' and 'J' suggests 'Jersey Shore'. The latter is particularly conspicuous amongst the other suggestions and the fact that streaming results focus on the TV series, rather than the location. By contrast, Google Squared results, listed as 'something different' are focussed on location. As Google tweaks it's predictive results, expect to see more 'trending topics' in the suggestion box.

9.Stop Words & New Opportunities
Google Instant is as family conscious as any other Google product. Meaning that defamatory phrases or 'adults only' phrases will not be offered as predictions. Streaming results will draw a blank and you will be prompted to 'Press Enter to search'.

However, other opportunities surface via suggestions and Google Squared. Check out the screenshot below (click to enlarge) and you will see that the well known phrase "do unto others" has been parsed by Google Squared, and triggered an ad based upon it's classification as 'the golden rule'.

do-unto.png

That got you thinking huh? It's also worth noting that in nearly all cases Google Squared also shows up direct competitor products - so it might be start looking into how it is classifying your website - so you can appear on the 'try something different' list on brand name searches for your competitors.

10.What Does it All Mean?
There is a lot of speculation now as to what it could all mean. This is what i think:

    * It's a bigger opportunity on mobile devices than it is on desktop. Mobile users tend to be signed into their Google accounts so theoretically it should massively increase the number of mobile ad impressions served.

    * Streaming results may encourage paid search account managers to try targeting broader terms as this will promote a lot more movement in AdWord listings.

    * Personalization looks like it is on the agenda because coupling signed in users with predictive search will eventually pave the way for demographic based keyword targeting. Anecdotally, there is already evidence for location based personalization. For example, when i search for 'carpet cleaning' it shows me predictions for NYC - try the same search from your IP Address or via a proxy - does Google Instant localize your suggestions?

It does not mean Google have killed SEO as some speculate. But that, Ladies & Gentlemen, is another story.

via:Searchenginewatch

Google Does Not Use Meta Keywords in Site Ranking

Google’s Search Quality Expert Matt Cutts has just explained a shocking truth about how Google ranks web sites on its main Google SERPs.
Anyway, if you have stuffed your websites keywords meta tag, you don’t really need to delete it as Matt says that Google might find it useful in the years to come. And besides, those keywords are used for other purposes than web site ranking on Google search, right?
site – it does not consider keywords meta tag after all. In other words, whatever keywords meta tag you use, it will not affect how well you site will rank on a particular keywords on their respective Google SERPs.According to Matt, Google started disregarding keywords meta tags when webmasters started abusing its use. Particularly when many have started stuffing the keywords meta tag with irrelevant keywords even if the site does not really contain any information relating to those keywords.
The good news is that the other meta tags are not as unuseful as the keywords meta tags.  The “description” meta tags for instance is being used by Google in displaying search results snippets for websites that are displayed on
Courtesy:Searchenginejournal

Onpage Optimization

Getting a good ranking in a search engine hasn’t been the easiest thing for many. Search engines are getting more smarter & intelligent everyday, so now it takes more than just good content to top your competitors.
On page optimization is one of the very first step of SEO which every webmaster should look into. It probably won’t even take you an hour to learn and implement some of these on-page optimization techniques. But you may ask me, why it is so important? – Well literally speaking, if you can do proper on-page optimization for your website you can not only rank well in a search engine but also can increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors.
Below I have tried to summarize some of the most important on-page optimization techniques for you. You can implement some of these if not all to give your site a better exposure to the search engines as well as to increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio.

1. Title Optimization

A site’s title tag is by far the most important website optimization element. A title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business. Title tag is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. So naturally it is given a very high importance – out of thousands results that a searcher sees, your site’s title has to be appealing enough for him to want to find out more information. On the other hand, your title has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you above thousands of other similar websites like yours.

Important things to include in your title:

• Your Name/ Business Name / Site Name: This is very important for breading propose. If you feel that your customers may search you by your brand name than it’s also useful to put it somewhere in your title.
• Keywords: If you want to rank for a certain keywords it is always good to place some of them in your title tag. A Title tag represents the whole flavor & content of your website. So if you are selling pizza online you can include keywords like – order pizza, home delivery pizza etc in your title tag. Don’t staff too many keywords in your title. Write a title which is readable to humans & also good for the search engine. (e.g. Domino’s Pizza, Order Pizza Online for Delivery – Dominos.com)
• Include your 1-800 or other toll-free numbers: Some may not agree with me on this, but I think including your phone number in the title tag does help your visitors to take a direct action! It also makes your site look more professional and legit when it’s being displayed in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Searchers are likely to ‘click’ on the result that has a phone number attached to it because in their unconscious mind, they will have a good impression on the authenticity of the business and the level of support. If you prefer not to include your number in the title tag, you can alternatively include it in your Meta Description which will give you almost the same benefits.

2. Meta Tags Optimization

A site’s Meta tags may not be as important as it used to be before, however I feel that Meta Description is something you can’t just ignore. A site’s Meta description should contain a brief description of your website focusing on the areas and services that your business is specialized in. This small piece of text can be considered as a selling snippet, if a searcher finds it appealing he is likely to click and go inside your page to find out more information. But if your Meta Description is too generic and isn’t written too well then there is a good chance that your site will simply be ignored.
Important things to include in your Meta Description:

• Include your Selling Point– Tell your customers what they want to hear through your site’s Meta Description, and you will definitely get some advantage over others in the SERP. For instance – if you sell ‘cheap web hosting’ then including a phrase like “hosting starting from only $0.99” may result in more clicks and visitors because your description will exactly match the flavor of search performed by the user.
• Keywords – Including some of your keywords will give you some advantage in Google’s relevancy algorithm.
• 1-800 or other Toll Free Numbers – if you haven’t included this already in your title, you can rather include it in your Meta description. If the users have skype installed on their system, any number on their browser will become clickable which will result in a direct skype-out call. So basically, if your number appears in the Meta description some of your customers might just prefer to call you directly instead of going through your site.

3. Important HTML Tags

It is necessary for you to highlight certain parts of your website that you want your readers to look at. There are several tags in html which allows you to do so. For instance – the header tags [h1] [h2] [h3], Bold [strong], Italic [em] etc. The text inside your header tags (e.g. [h1]) is given very high importance by the search engine. Usually you can use them to define the page/post titles or the important sections of your website.
Header Elements:

• Header 1: Header 1 should be used to define the most important section of your page. Usually Header 1 is used for Site’s title or header text.
• Header 2 & 3: Header 2 and 3 can be used for Page/Post titles or important sections of your pages. Separating your content with headers is a good practice as it makes your site more readable and easy to navigate.

Text Styles:

• Bold: You can bold (e.g. [strong]) certain words which are of high importance. Sometimes it’s good to bold your keywords where appropriate. However overdoing this may get you penalized.
• Italic: You can use the [em] tag to emphasize certain words which will appear in italic.
• Quote: This is very useful when you are quoting from someone.

4. Keyword Optimization & Synonyms

Your site’s content needs to be optimized in such a way that it can suit both search engines & your readers. Stuffing your site with too many keywords can make your site unreadable. So you will need to have some sort of balance between your keywords & your content.
Important elements of Keyword Optimization:

• Research: Do a proper research before you decide on your keywords. There are plenty of free tools out there that can help you to do keyword research. Some of my personal favorites are: SEObook Keyword Suggestion tool, Google Adwords Keyword Tool & Overture Keyword Tool.
• Keyword Density: Try to have a moderate keyword density so that it can help the search engine to determine that your page is indeed related & relevant to the keyword that you are targeting.
• Synonyms & Related Keywords: I personally like to use synonyms instead of having a high keyword density. This helps to make my content sound natural but still helps in SEO.
• Long Tail Keywords: It’s often good to target some long tail keywords as they are comparatively easier to rank for. During your keyword research you should be able to gather some good long tail keywords that you can optimize your site for. But you can also come up with your own long tail keywords; for example try adding some common words like – ‘best’, ‘free’, ‘cheap’, ‘top’ etc. along with your actual keyword and you might eventually get some good long tail keywords.

5. Link Optimization

It is important to optimize your internal & external outbound links for search engines as well as to give your visitors a better navigation.
Important elements of Link Optimization:

• Try using good Anchor Text when you are linking to other people. Include the appropriate keyword in the anchor text which gives the outbound link a ‘proper meaning’ and value.
• A good & clean Internal Link Structure with proper use of anchor text will definitely help. E.g. “Credit Card Application” is a better anchor text compared to “click here”
• If you are using a CMS, then try using permalinks. This way your keywords/post title will be on the link itself and thus it will valued more by the search engines.

6. Image Optimization

If your site has lot of images, you need to optimize them too as they can’t be read by the search engines. It’s very easy for a human reader to interpret the image into its meaning. However for a Web crawler the whole interpreting process is completely different. Search Engine spiders can only read text but not images. So you need to use some special tags for your images in order to give them some meaning.
Some Important Image Optimization Elements:

• Alt text : ALT text or Alternate Text is the text to describe your image when your mouse moves over an image on your web page. The text should be meaningful but short. You can use your relevant keywords as ALT text. If your browser can’t display the image for some reason, the alt text is used in place of that particular image.
• File name : always use meaningful file name for your images, use names like “apple-iphone-cover.jpg” instead of meaningless “DSC24045.jpg”. Keep image file name same or similar to the ALT text.
• Image Title : always use the title tag in images which will show the title as tool tip when a user moves his mouse over the image. Example of an image with title tag: [img src=”http://imagelocation.jpg” alt=”Image description” title=”Title of the Image”]
• Image Linking : Whenever you want to link to your image, use the image keywords in your link text. Example: use “view an Apple iPhone”, instead of “Click here to view” as the anchor text.