9 Ways SEO Can "Best" Google Instant
I've been lounging around the apartment all day, nursing a bad head cold, but being too sick to concentrate on client stuff has given me time to take a gander at the new Google Instant and ponder the implications to SEO and search behaviour.
Some pundits are already declaring Google Instant an SEO killer, but I doubt it. I haven't had much exposure to it, but off the top of my nasally congested stuffed up head I see at least nine ways SEO can bypass the potential negative impact of Google Instant.
1. Be in the SERP's top 5 for Google.com. My experience has been that when you dominate a top 5 spot on the international Google.com, you have a good chance of ranking first page on other geographically-based English speaking versions of Google (and even Bing). Google.ca in particular.
Small businesses competing against big brand names should keep in mind Google gives preference to big brands in the SERPs now, so your work will be cut out for you.
2. On the web, contextual relevance beats out branding almost every time, but now branding will play a more important role on the internet. Small brands need to get in the prospect's evoked set before their fingers even hit the keyboard, and I suggest going blue ocean with your branding strategy. What that means is be creative, innovative and unique.
As an example, unique personal brands ShoeMoney and (ahem) rinkjustice have an advantage over more "common place" brand names because they're memorable and there's less search competition. The stickier the brand name, the easier it will be to remember, and the less you'll need to build brand awareness.
3. Word of Mouth has always been the best form of advertising, so use it. Interface in meatspace and convert customers into brand advocates. Your brand advocates will talk up your brand, online and off.
4. Learn Google Instant's auto-complete terms and the syntax it uses to generate queries and optimize for it. Also (and I'm going out on a limb here) optimize for natural language queries. Google has been pushing semantic search technology for awhile, and we might see it reflected in GI's queries.
5. Linkbait on high traffic websites (I'm using linkbait as a verb here). If your content is tasty and relevant to that reader demographic - and your website converts the traffic well - you'll be too busy counting customer orders to worry about SERPs.
6. "You can't control user flow" says Alltop founder Guy Kawasaki, and he's right, but you can expand your net and increase your website's user flow by leveraging social media platforms and developing more of your own web assets (not just websites - videos, infographics etc). The backlinks and traffic will make up any traffic lost on Google Instant.
7. Leverage local search rankings. Google Instant users need to be logged into their Google accounts to use this feature, and most Google accounts are already opted in to personalized search. Among other preferences, Personalized search results factor in geo local information on the user. Register your business with Google Places, even if you don't have a website.
8. Master the long tail. My guess is Google Instant will make people better searchers. Instead of people struggling with hopelessly broad search terms, Google's predictive suggestions will help users become more specific with their queries. This means with Google Instant, long tail searches will become more popular, not less.
9. Finally, I suggest search engine marketers lean on tactics and less on long view strategies. Google changes the game too much to plan long term.
P.S. I recently launched iPhone Apps for SEO Experts, an ebook that reveals my secret arsenal of powerful, little-known internet marketing apps. Remote Control SEO is the future.
