I went to do a search on Google yesterday and noticed that they rolled out their Google Instant engine.  You have to be signed into your Google account in order to see the Instant option appear.

The way Google Instant works is that the engine starts to load the results of your search query while you are typing the keywords.  It also works hand-in-hand with the auto complete function as well giving you suggestions on what keywords you should type in to find results.

Now, the auto complete function has been around for a while but now it’s much more prominent and since the search results load up as you’re typing it seems to catch your attention much more.

See the little blue text that says “Instant is on” next to the Search button?  That tuns the Google Instant function on and off.  When I’m logged into my Google account it is turned on by default which means that more and more people are going to be seeing this way of search from now on.

Google Instant and SEO

So what does Google Instant mean for SEO?

Is Longtail Dead?

Well, the first thing that popped into my head is that the trend over the last ten years of people moving further into longer word long tail keywords when searching may revert back to shorter length keywords.

The reason for this is that as I typed a single word into Google the results began to show up and my first reaction was to stop typing, look down at the search results and when I quickly didn’t see the first three spots returning what I was looking for I jumped back to typing the second keyword.  As soon as I typed the second keyword the results below refreshed again and I saw what I was looking for.  When that happened I didn’t need to type in a third word anymore.

Essentially, before Google Instant I might have not even bothered trying to see what the search results are going to be for a two word phrase.  I might have just typed in a three or four word phrase that is very specific and then clicked the search button.  But now that the results are showing up right away, I will stop a soon as the result I am looking for shows up.

So my first reaction was that long tail keywords are going to suffer.

But wait, there’s more!

Revenge of the Longtail

Secondly, the auto complete function has been changed.  For example, when I tested this out on the keyword “make money online” here’s what happened.

As soon as I type the first keyword “make”, Google auto-completes with the term “make it or break it” and shows search results below for that.  Obviously this isn’t relevant to what I was looking for so I type in my second keyword so my search term is now “make money”.

As I type this in, Google auto-completes with the term “make money online” as seen in the picture above.  Now, what’s interesting is that I haven’t yet typed in the word “online” but Google already displays the search results for “make money online”!

Meaning, the Google Instant algorithm is pulling up the results for “make money online” with only the words “make money” typed into the search bar!

So what that actually means is that the longer tail three keyword term “make money online” is getting an impression in the results below even though I’ve only typed in the shorter two keyword term “make money”.  If I don’t touch anything and just move my mouse, I am actually seeing the search results for “make money online” on my screen.  In order to see the actual results for “make money” and not “make money online” I have to hit enter on my search results.

Ok, so what does this mean?

Well, in a strange way I think this actually means long tail keywords are actually going to see more impressions in the search results.

For example when I typed in the word “make” the search results for “make it or break it” showed up.  So it’s not like Google is loading up the search results for the word “make” first and then as you type “make money” loading the search results for “make money” etc.  What Google is doing is actually trying to guess the long tail keyword it thinks you’re trying to type in and shows the search results for that keyword before you even type it.

End of Longtail Variations?

While this new algorithm could mean more impressions for longer term keywords such as “make money online” vs “make money”, it actually means less impressions for long tail keyword variations.

Meaning, in the past people might have typed in these types of keywords to search for the same thing:

“make money online”

“make money on internet”

“make money with internet”

“make money on the internet”

etc.

Now, in a way Google is kind of encouraging people to use the term “make money online” to mean all those things because as soon as they type in “make money” and they are about type in “on internet” the results show up for “make money online” and the person might realize “Oh cool, that’s what I was looking for!”

Essentially, Google is kind of trying to guess what you’re looking for based on how other people type in stuff.  So this means that once a trend is established for a set of long tail keyword terms, the most common term that means the same thing will most likely now get way more impressions than before.

What this means it that the competition for the most common phrase of a given long tail search will become more competitive for SEO.

This is because I think people will now search for the terms which Google tells / suggests for them to search for.

Google Instant and Blog SEO

Ok, so what does this mean for bloggers?

Well, I think what it means is that we are going to have to do some quick searches on Google Instant when picking our Blog titles.

Sometimes just by changing one or two words, or even the order of certain words we might fall into a more common way of describing something which could mean the difference between just a few impressions and a whole bunch of impressions.

The difference between a well crafted title using the most common phrase Google suggests vs just whatever first pops into our head could mean hundreds or even thousands of times more traffic on the same post.

Of course the most common phrase will also have more competition though, so it’s tough to say how this will play out long term.

One thing that kind of sucks with this is that I have several long-tail keywords on this Blog that get me pretty good traffic, but they aren’t the most common way of typing that phrase.  Before Google Instant people would type in the keyword not necessarily knowing that there is a more common way of meaning the same thing.  Now with Google Instant it’s going to show them the more common phrase and load the results of it for them instantly so they will probably stop typing and go with those results instead of typing in the other phrase.

I would expect that traffic to longer tail keywords like these is going to drop, but at the same time it’s going to increase for the most common terms.

Translation?

If there was ever a time to get good at keyword research, it is now.

Looks like my Market Samurai tool is going to be getting an even bigger workout now.