How to stay ahead in Google’s brave new SEO world

Six short weeks. That’s all it took for Google to completely change the SEO landscape for Australian SMEs.

And it’s not just entrepreneurs that are struggling to keep up. Right across the country, SEO experts are being forced to review client strategies, relaunch Ad Word campaigns and re-examine site designs to ensure their clients aren’t left behind in the digital dust.

First came the Google Instant update, which hit Australians in mid-October. The new function predicts what users are searching for as they type and is forcing companies to make dramatic changes to their AdWords strategies, SEO experts say.

In late October, we got the latest Google Places update, which places a map summary on the search results page to show users where their search results are located, the search giant is changing the way people search – and businesses need to keep up.

In early November, the landscape changed again with the introduction of Google Instant Preview, which provides searchers with a snapshot preview of websites on the main search results page.

Monte Huebsch, chief executive of Aussie Web, says the new changes are a great method for businesses to be found and to improve sales, but website and SEO managers need to know how to use them properly.

“The short answer is that it will affect them positively, but only if they have claimed their business in Google Places and keep their pages rich with relevant material. These changes are designed so businesses can be found apart from their website.”

Whether it’s changing your AdWords strategy or making sure your business is on the map, (literally), SMEs need to take a look at their SEO and rethink how Google is treating them.

Google Instant

Google Instant is the new default form of Google search on the main home page. When users type, they no longer have to write an entire phrase and then hit the search button to see their results. With Google Instant, the results come as you type.

As soon as you start typing a phrase that Google detects as search-able, it will begin showing you results. For instance, if you were to type “SmartCompany”, Google would start showing you results as soon as you had typed “smart”, and then those results would change based on every extra letter you type.

Part of the reason Google said it was changing search to the “Instant” version is because of the trend towards longer and more specific search phrases. Recent Hitwise data shows inquiries averaging five to more than eight words have increased by 2.14%, indicating users are using increasingly detailed search terms.

In short, Google thinks it can find what you want before you, which means it’s making a lot of assumptions. And these SEO experts say your strategy needs to change as a result.

Chris Thomas, chief executive of Reseo, says this change actually affects your AdWords strategy more than anything else.

“Awhile ago I was testing Google Instant for some keywords around “earmuffs”. When you use Google Instant, it predicts what you’re going to be searching for. The third thing that came up was “earmuffs for sleeping”, which was related to what I was working on.”

“I did some research and found this was actually a pretty good search term, so I bought some AdWords around those keywords.”

Thomas says that within 24 hours, the search term around “earmuffs for sleeping” was delivering a significant amount of traffic – and sales as well.

“I found this search term is actually the biggest term driving traffic. All that happened within about a day, and I never would have known. This is what Google Instant is allowing people to do.”

Thomas says this is the first step SMEs should take – using Google Instant to find predictive text and then developing AdWords strategies around those phrases.

“People are lazy, and tend to use instant search terms to suggest things. So don’t go optimising for the fun of it, actually check out what Google Instant thinks you are searching for and then experiment with some search terms.”

Alex Asigno, head of search at Switched On Media, says SMEs must start constantly monitoring where their ads show up on the Google home page.

“When someone is typing in their brand, paid ads will appear before they actually make their search. These are the ones that are more expensive to bid on. For example, if you type in “cheap”, that’s going to be expensive because it’s the start of a term.”

“However, if you use more generic, more niche terms, then they’re going to be cheaper. You could find that you rank well for niche terms, but not so for more expensive, general terms.”

Alex says businesses need to devote more money into their AdWords budgets into developing strategies around these more general terms, but only if they relate to their business at hand.

“Quite often, companies don’t focus on that many “head” terms compared to the “tail” terms. If you aren’t using these more generic terms, then you could find yourself losing traffic and sales to the competition.”

Wai Hai Fong, who runs the OzScopes online store, agrees, and says his business has thrown more money at making sure it shows up in the top three search terms.

“The importance of ad positioning in the top three has become even greater. This is because the ad positions of four and above are being pushed even further away from user view ability.”

“This might reduce the click through rate of ads and subsequently the quality score, which might increase the cost of bidding for these keywords.”

But while Fong says Google Instant is still being worked out and there is plenty of experimentation still to be done, he warns “it’s good to be targeting at least a third position on the AdWords game, just to be safe”.

Google Instant isn’t so much about changing your SEO as it is related to SEM. The principles for ranking highly remain the same – make sure your content is relevant, rich with keywords and actually serves a purpose.