Google Instant, the new real time search enhancement from Google has been creating a lot of discussion in the online world recently.Google Instant basically predicts your search results as you type.

In the example below,if you type in ‘f’ Google will predict that you are looking for ‘Facebook’, so will display results based on that keyword. If you were then to add “oo”, the results would show “football” related results as this is what the algorithm predicts you are searching for and the results will change. Google will continue to update the results until you have finished your search.

Google’s hope is that it’s predictions are so accurate that you don’t have to finish your search as it will have already predicted what you are searching for.



How will this effect Google advertising?

Where as with the old search an impression occured when someone completes typing a search and clicked the Search button, with Google instant there are some new rules. An ad impression now occurs when…

• The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page
• The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
• The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.

This could have an impact on your overall impressions, it’s inevitable that the impressions will increase, particularly for the more general keywords in your account. It is important to be aware of this.

It is more important than ever to think like your audience when optimising you web pages. With results showing as soon as a person starts to type it is more important than ever to know how your audience search. Use Google Suggest as a keyword tool and make sure your pages are actually optimised for words that are searched on.

Net Natives provide SEO services and PPC services for a variety of clients. If you would like any advice on how to optimise your pages for Google Instant or would like us to take care of this for you please Get In Touch.