The Impacts of Google Instant

If last week threw the search world in a tizzy with Google Instant, then this week is the aftermath. Every agency, blogger, and expert is publishing their two cents on what the impacts will be.

Here is the high level:
Natural Search Results
1. You will see on the Google Instant search results page that natural search results are now pushed much further down the page. It is anticipated that this will mean increased clicks on positions one and two of natural results which appear above the fold. At the same time, we will most likely see a decrease in clicks on positions 3 and 4, as less people will scroll below the fold to find what they are looking for.

2. Long tail search terms include search queries with 3 or more terms. The speculation is that once a user types one and maybe gets to 2 words in a query, the user will find their answer, and not continue to type the long tail query they may have been intending to type. Long tail queries historically have meant high conversion due to the specificity they provide, though low volumes are usually realized. These high converting queries, however, have been like gold to SEO'ers, and with the advent of Google Instant, the gold may be gone.



Paid Search
Since each time a letter is typed the page refreshes with new results, this means that many results will be shown to users more often than they otherwise would have. If a user stays on the page for 3 or more seconds, Google will count this as an impression. Impressions have an indirect impact on the amount you will pay for a keyword. Though your click throughs will not necessarily change, your impressions will increase. Higher impressions with the same amount of click throughs means a lower click through or conversion rate. CTR is tied to Quality Score, a metric used to indicate how relevant your ad is to your keyword, and ultimately used to determine how much you will pay for ad placement. What does this mean? Higher prices!

The jury is still out, and we will need 30 to 45 days worth of data to start seeing what the real impact is. In the meantime, you can read more about the impacts of Google Instant and assess if you like using it as a user or not.