Yesterday, Google launched a new way that search results are displayed—Google Instant Search. Similar to their Search Suggest functionality, Google Instant Search predicts a searcher’s query as they type and delivers results immediately. This allows users to refine their searches and find the exact results they desire because they are given instant feedback. The benefit for searchers is obvious, but is this also an advantage for businesses using PPC management, SEO or local map listings management? Let’s look at each tactic individually.

PPC Management

The advent of Google Instant Search is likely to be hugely impactful on how searchers behave. This new functionality could potentially put a much greater emphasis on sponsored search results, but also cause an increased focus on short query exact match terms (one or two term search queries).

With the increased focus on short query search terms, we’ll likely begin to see increasing CPCs on these broad terms as even more advertisers compete for this space initially. This change may put a premium on high volume short query terms from a traffic perspective, but from a conversion-based performance standpoint, long-tail terms will be all the more important to maintain portfolio efficiency. The end result of this shift will be an increased importance on paid search, but also change the way we target keywords and optimize performance. Additionally, keyword builds will need to include all terms shown in Google Search Suggest that are relevant to your campaigns—as searchers get used to the new instant results, they may become more satisfied with the options being automatically provided, and less likely to dig through further results.

Click through rates (CTRs), impression volume and quality score will likely also be affected. An impression is now counted when a searcher hits enter, clicks on a listing or stops typing for three seconds or more. With a potential increase in impression volume and lowered CTR, quality score will certainly be affected, thus impacting rank and CPCs. Time will tell how these metrics play out, but rest assured that all paid searcher advertisers across the board will be affected. We foresee that Google will need to adjust their quality score factors to account for these changes.

Local PPC Management

For non geo-modified terms, Google will still take a searcher’s location—identified by IP address—into consideration when showing paid results. Google will also predict location based on search term and suggest it in a search query. It will remain important to bid on geo- and non-geo-modified terms for full coverage.

SEO

Google Instant Search may have a negative impact on organic search in that it is changing the searcher’s behavior. As the searcher types in their query, the results change multiple times. As the new results flash by their eyes, their original search phrase intent may change depending on what they see. This makes optimizing for certain phrases unpredictable and, therefore, more difficult. We see long-tail phrases being the most impacted as the searcher will be less likely to complete their query. This may lead to a larger focus on the general, highly competitive terms.

At Location3, we already put the majority of our focus on the broad terms, so we are predicting that our performance will continue as before, however the strategies we use towards the long-tail may change depending on what search query reports tell us.

Additionally, the Search Suggest box now takes up a good portion of SERP real estate, essentially pushing organic results out of view. If you look at the screenshot below, you’ll notice the complete absence of “above the fold” SERP real estate for natural results. This may cause searchers to overlook organic results—instead of waiting for more organic results to appear and scrolling down, users may quickly opt for paid or map listings.

Map Listings

No two people will see the same results anymore, meaning they are custom and more local centric with this release. The map listing area is well positioned with Google Instant Search as even more emphasis has been placed on geographic location. As PPC keyword prices are likely to increase on generic terms, it makes having an updated and enhanced map listing presence that much more important. With this recent change, the map listing 7 pack is appearing on more searches than ever before. Since we optimize for high traffic broad terms, our clients will have coverage for the suggested terms as well.

Google Analytics

Google Instant Search passes the suggested search result in the referral URL, which will consequently show up in the keywords report in Google Analytics. In addition, Google also captures the original user search query in a different parameter called “oq.”

If we search for “insurance”:

This is what the referral URL would look like:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&expIds=17259,25856,25900,26086,26207,26446,26459,26512&sugexp=ldymls&tok=Fq-p_5b8e5FH9ruZEyJAOw&xhr=t&q=insurance+quotes&cp=10&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=insurance+&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=fecbcea05c97c6f3

As shown in the referral URL, “oq=insurance” captures the original search query by user.

Below is how you can capture this information using Google Analytics filter:

With this filter set, your keyword report will show both the query and the keyword with a “|” between (e.g., insurance+quotes|insurance). We will continue to monitor discussions about Google Instant’s impact on GA, and test out these new filters to ensure this is the most effective method.

Moving Forward

Google Instant Search has been rolled out to users on Google domains in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russian. Users must have the latest browser versions (Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and IE v8). They will be adding new languages over the coming months.

Overall Google’s new system will allow their intelligence and insight into searcher behavior grow even stronger, which in turn can only help advertisers refine campaigns to receive the best results. The predictive search will also help guide searchers to find the best results for them. This may increase the number of searchers who click on paid ads (currently 34.5%) as the results become more refined and relevant. Google Instant Search can be turned off if a user prefers to search the old way. Whether the majority of people turn it off will be revealed in the coming weeks; however, if you’ve used it at all in the past day, you’ll most likely agree with me that you can never go back!

As we always have, we will be keeping a close watch on performance and metrics of all campaigns, and keep you updated as we figure out exactly what Google Instant Search means for your SEM campaigns.