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Steve Rubel makes an the argument that Google Instant will kill SEO because:
Here’s what this [Google Instant] means: no two people will see the same web. Once a
single search would do the trick – and everyone saw the same results.
That’s what made search engine optimization work. Now, with this,
everyone is going to start tweaking their searches in real-time. The
reason this is a game changer is feedback. When you get feedback, you
change your behaviors.
Searches will be more unique — Agree
When you get feedback, you change your behavior — Agree
Once a single search would do the trick – and everyone saw the same results – Big deal
Search has always been a very personalized engagement with the Web. Just because people will be tweaking their searches does not mean that that search isn’t part of a common cluster of search terms that folks use. How many different ways can one search for a restaurant in Aspen Colorado? There are just so many terms that one can use. So I don’t believe that search will kill SEO. Pulling from Bob Warfield’s blog…Even the Google Smarter Predictions folks say: “Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, we will push you in the direction of what the masses are looking for. We will perturb search in the direction of sameness.” gain, there are masses of same search types out there which one could optimize around.
The more fundamental question is… should you have even been bothering with SEO to begin with? After all, as Bob Warfield points out, its content that’s king.
For marketing, content trumps SEO and links back to your site.
That’s not to say there is no value in SEO or links, just that if you
have to choose or prioritize, content is at the top of the heap. If
you’re a big company, you can probably choose to invest in all with far
more resources than perhaps are even needed. But the smaller your
budget, the more likely you had better choose and make the right
choice. Pssst: the right choice is Content!
Regarding SEO being marginalized, Bob argues:
If, instead of feedback changing behaviors to be less predictable as
Rubel implies, it actually makes the behaviors more predictable because
we are guided to sameness, SEO is still dead, but for a much less
interesting reason. This sameness makes it much harder to game. You
can no longer count on the Long Tail queries to help you out when you
can’t secure the top spots on the common queries. It is a repressive
tax on the Long Tail, in other words.
Agree that you can’t game the SEO system easily with Google Instant, although search providers have been making it harder to game the system for years now. So.. forget about Google Instant making SEO irrelevant. You can still optimize around those “sameness clusters” and focus on driving traffic with your compelling content.
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- Google Instant Makes SEO Irrelevant (Steve Rubel/The Steve Rubel Stream) (techmeme.com)
- Google Goes Instant. Death of SEO Predicted (Again) (onemanandhisblog.com)
- Does Google Instant Mark the End of SEO? (webpronews.com)
- Google Instant -the Death of SEO is somewhat exaggerated (broadstuff.com)
- How Will Google Instant Affect Local Search? (blumenthals.com)
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(Cross-posted @ AbleBrains)
Steve, here is the scary thing:
Increasing the sameness by making everyone more likely to do the same search instead of different searches will harm your performance on both PPC advertising AND on content searches.
Why?
Because it effectively reduces the shelf space of slots available for searches to lead to. That shelf space will be quickly dominated by the biggest players. The WSJ already has a post out showing how this is true for all single character searches.
The advantage of the Long Tail is that some people would stumble onto your content, not because Google is always the best at finding it, but simply because lots of people were searching in lots of different ways. If we reduce the breadth of that net by encouraging those people to all start using the same Google-generated Instant Searches, the net finds less content.
I’ll be doing a follow up to my original post to discuss the ramifications of Instant Search further.
Best,
BW
SOE is not dead! In fact if anything it is now much more competitive Google instant will change things but we must all be prepared to dance to googles tune. But how do we look at our marking strategy differently? Key words/phrases are still as important as ever but content is ultimately the most important factor. Do we now need to analyse what predictions are being produced and optimize for this? Can we optimise for individual characters?
I think we must look at each marketing campaign differently. The majority of people are not able type and look at the screen at the same time. Therefore depending on the type of person that is attracted to your site must influence your marketing strategy.
Personally I relish this leap forward, we live in an ever changing “virtual” world and we must all adapt or fall foul of the consequences.