The biggest question from our webinar yesterday (held by Travis Low–@TravisLowSEO) was: Will Google Instant Affect SEO?

Before we get into the details, we want to make sure we define a few key terms that will be used throughout the post:

Short-tail/Head Match Keywords – a general 1-2 keyword search term. For example, with keywords such as “black running shoes size 12,” “nike running shoes for women” or “light running shoes” the head match is “running shoes.”

Long-tail Keywords – at least 3+ keyword search term. For example, “business process management software solutions.”

Impressions – (defined post-Google Instant)

1)      User begins a search query and clicks anywhere on the page

2)      User chooses a particular query by clicking the search button, hitting enter, or selecting an auto-complete suggestion

3)      User stops typing and results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds

An example of seeing impressions through Google Adwords can be seen below:

Impressions on Google Adwords - KW: "bpm software" with 1,600 Impressions

Now that we addressed key terms, we can discuss how Instant has changed. Google Instant displays the predicted query—unless searchers continue typing or click on the search button. What is important to know is that Google Instant is changing the overall experience for the user, and now it is even more important that your website ranks on the first page, preferably within positions 1-3. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Keywords should be in your site content, meta content, inbound links, hyper text links, URL, and content silos
• Focus on your title and meta descriptions
• Short-tail keywords will get a lot more impressions, but the quality of search terms will improve over time as users are given more long-tail suggestions
• You need to start focusing on optimizing for the long-tail keyword suggestions Google provides

For example:

Keyword “BPM Software” - Google Instant Predictive Text

Google captures what are the most searched queries on certain topics. If one of your keywords, for example, is “bpm software” (seen above), you want to start optimizing for the long-tail keywords that Google suggests. Frequently check to see if there are newer keywords Google suggests, or if the ones shown above remain to be the top searched queries on “bpm software” and optimize for those.

Keep in mind that with Google Instant, there is no change to the organic algorithm. If you ranked #1 prior to Google Instant, then you remain #1. The significant affect of Google Instant is with user experience.

Key Takeaways:

1)      Google makes no changes in ranking algorithm, it’s primarily just changing the user ranking

2)      Too early to tell how user behavior may change, but first page rankings and auto complete suggestions are more important. Essential to optimize for these suggestions.

3)      Impressions for head match terms will definitely increase. The quality for the search terms will improve as we are starting to give more long-tail suggestions.

4)      Important that your SEO campaigns focus on your return on investment. What are your overall marketing and business goals? Once these are defined, it’ll be easier to optimize.

We will keep you updated on the progression and/or any changes with Google Instant, and how or if it will affect your Search Marketing efforts–so keep checking back! To download a copy of the slides, click here.