Has Google Instant Search changed SEO? Now that it has been around for a while, let’s take a look and assess its impact.
When Google Instant was launched in the early autumn of 2010, there were those in the search engine optimization business who fully expected it would render SEO virtually impossible to perform.
Adapting to Change
When the practice of indexing sites using keyword meta tags were dropped around the turn of the century, there were likely webmasters who also experienced panic. However, people adapted to the change; this not only included the white hat SEO, it also includes the practitioners of black SEO who will always look for ways to game the system.
Weighing the Differences
With Google Instant being the newest alteration, people will learn to adapt again. In order to remain relevant, changes will always be a part of new technology. While Google Instant may affect some aspects of SEO, the one thing that still holds true is that content is still vitally important.
Google will now return results that are actually relevant much quicker and the black hat SEO technique of dumping junk content will be infinitely more difficult to practice as fewer people will ever see it.
Writing content that others think is worthy of linking to is important for getting links back to your content. Rather than relying exclusively on SEO, you can diversify your results, which simply means content is still king.
The Need to Adjust Keyword Usage
Now, when people begin typing, results being appearing, which means it is important to target short, one or two keywords with the instant results of Google Instant, and most people who stop if they find what they are looking for with a few words. However, this does mean that long tail SEO should be discarded.
Long Tail SEO is Still Very Important
Despite what you might think, this really isn’t a contradiction of what was stated earlier.
You need to remember that there are two aspects of Google Instant. Not only are you offered results as you type, it also offers users search suggestions that they may find of interest.
Even if the user finds the results they want right away, there will always be those who will choose the Google suggestions offered.
Top 3 Positioning Is Now More Vital Than Ever
Being on the first page of SERPs is now no longer adequate, which is one of the truly negative aspects affecting SEO efforts with Google Instant. Each time another word is typed the SERP changes and being within the first few results is vital for maximum exposure, as the entire page is not likely to be seen by most users.
