Just add water and you get instant panic.
Continuing on Tuesday’s theme of dealing with change, today Google premiered Google Instant, a new feature for Google’s search which delivers instant search results as one types in the search box. It’s meant to save searchers time and effort in getting search results.
Within minutes of the official announcement the twitterverse was all agog with pronouncements for and against it. Amongst the chatter were links to blog posts purporting that SEO is dead because of the change.
Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and the majority of those blogging saw that although this may change SEO, it certainly would not bring it to an end. Google’s own Matt Cutts offered what I think is a rather reasoned opinion on how Instant may change how people search and thus change SEO. His opinion on whether this will kill SEO: “The best SEOs recognize, adapt, and even flourish when changes happen.” I suspect those changes will be a hot topic at upcoming web marketing conferences.
Here are some things I think we should keep in mind:
- SEO will not go away. Google’s main aim through all of this is to provide what they think are the most relevant results for what people type in the search box. In the end, the way they make that determination will evolve over time, just as it has since Google started. Those of us who are concerned with search results will continue to look for ways to make sure our pages are seen as relevant.
- SEO will change, but it’s been changing since people first starting doing it. That’s not new. We constantly have to look at Google, Bing and other search engines as they come and go and evolve.
- PPC ad buying may change quite a bit as a result of Instant. If you’re buying ads based on keywords, you could see big changes in your click-through rates. Matt’s comment applies to PPC’ers, too: “The best PPC’ers recognize, adapt and even flourish when changes happen.”
Let’s wait and see what happens. Let’s keep our eyes open and our ears to the ground.
What about you? Do you agree? Is this a huge game-changer or just a natural evolution of things? Let us know in the comments.
