The moment Google’s Instant Search was introduced those active in SEO and webmasters everywhere knew that it would be a game changer.
Instant Search did not really change the algorithmic programming of Google’s search engine the way the very recent Panda Update has but by changing end user behaviour it became more of a game changer than a simple algorithmic change.
Now website owners and many SEOs check to see if a website’s ranking passes the Google Instant one-finger typing test. The test itself is simple. Choose a specific search term, go to Google’s search site and start typing it in, one letter at a time.
The sooner your desired search term appears in Google Instant the more of a success your site is. Go to Google and start typing ‘SEO Help’ for example and by the time you get to the last letter in the drop down list at position number four comes up ‘SEO Help 20 steps’ which when clicked generates an entire page for SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website to Google’s #1 page.
Google research shows that sites which manage to appear in the drop down list enjoy a significant advantage over those which need to be drilled down harder for in order to appear and it is this change which drives optimization which now works on sites so that they appear for specific search terms in Google Instant.
Even more successful do not even require more than a single letter. Type ‘A’ for instance and you get Amazon (arguably the best optimized company website), AOL and Apple, three companies which are household names in their own right.
It is this kind of success with Google Instant that optimization seeks to achieve for specific websites where time and end-user behaviour can have a real impact on traffic.
If you are keen to optimize your website to do well in Google Instant you need to first identify the specific search terms relevant to your website’s main focus which dominate its traffic trends. It is worth bearing in mind that Google Instant is controlled by the popularity of specific searches determined by Google’s anonymous analysis of billions of search terms, producing Click Trough Rate (CTR) patterns.
If you are keen to see a term your website is optimized for appear on Google Instant’s suggestions here are four things to do:
1. Go to Google’s keyword tool input some of the search terms you think you might want to target and see what the monthly traffic figures for them are.
2. Then create a Content Creation Strategy for your website which will prominently and consistently offer these key terms for it.
3. Put in place a social network marketing plan which will give each piece of content you create on your website a wide exposure across the web.
4. Make sure that these pieces of content are interlinked creating a mini-web of their own.
Then check frequently to see when your website or its specific search term appears in the Google Instant drop-down box.
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I’ve led the discussion on how social media and SEO are changing the processes we use to work and live, online, with the publication of my book ‘The Social Media Mind’. I combine experience in journalism and blue-chip corporate management with a penchant for explaining complex issues in simple terms. Contact me for media interviews, presentations and panel discussions
