Google Instant Impact on SEO

Instant Impact: Google’s newest search engine advancement with Google Instant may leave an impression on SEO.

When Google implemented its new Instant search results interface, it created a wave of interest and speculation on what impact it will have on SEO and overall ranking and advertising with Google. The new technology streamlined search and made it easier to target any query, but did that make things easier for you to get found in the results page?

When considering the significance of SEO efforts, Google Instant has made it even more important to achieve top ranking on its search results. As its drop down “suggestion box” attempts to predict your search query, a chunk of the advertisement positions gets taken up, pushing the page of results further down. This means that SEO results will be pushed “below the fold,” and unless you commit to your search all the way without stopping short thanks to a successful Google Instant prediction, you will not see many organic search results above the fold. ReelSEO discusses these effects with fine examples.

Furthermore, this means that “CTRs on positions 1 and 2 organically will rise at the expense of positions 3 and 4.” With more impressions appearing through instant rendering, lower CTRs will present a negative impact on SEO. Also, with results changing so quickly, and with our ability to read much quicker than we type, the traditional meta-description “calls to action” should move into the title tags for your pages. Users will definitely spend less time examining results as they scan the more-easily viewable title tags of search results.

Google Instant is also likely to have a major impact on PPC performance since these results get prominent placement in its new page rendering format and since, impressions on websites are set to increase with so many search results rendering and re-rendering as you type. The classic Google search impressions of pressing “enter,” clicking “search,” or selecting a prediction are joined by new criteria for impressions. Now, if a user pauses for 3 seconds or longer as they type a partial keyword, any website appearing in the instant search results gains an impression. A site appearing in the instant results that a user clicks on a result from also gets an impression; same goes for when a user clicks on a refinement of maps or news and such.

For advertisers, this means that sub 3-second impressions will not impact their quality score and in a sense be free as long as the user does not interact with the page and create definite impressions. On the other hand, if Google Instant leads to shorter queries by delivering immediate results, AdWords CPCs may go up for many terms due to a diminished inventory of valuable keywords. Fewer keywords, more bidding, higher prices and lower ROI: all this is good for Google, but not so much for advertisers. Meanwhile, consumers remain unconcerned.

For more on the effects of Google Instant on advertisers and to learn more about what to test and watch for follow this link. But for now, keep in mind the importance of optimizing for shot-tail and long-tail keywords to increase your website impressions and chances of getting a click. Also, always incorporate appealing title and description tags. These tips should help you in the short-run, but do not overlook constant maintenance of your SEO efforts as techniques are ever-changing, especially with lightning quick result technologies such as Google Instant.

Google Instant, An Instant Look

Google Instant: The innovative engine speeds up search by instantly displaying results as you type.

In further enhancing its search-engine, Google has created a faster, more targeted and efficient way to search. With Google Instant, the predictive search technology is accompanied by a real time visualization of the results of your search, showing you results as you type instead of only suggesting keywords for your search.

Google Instant allows you to scan results as they refresh to match each keystroke’s predictions. The instant feedback on your search terms makes it easier to refine your search on the fly. This “instant” approach to finding what you need decreases the amount of time it takes for you to complete a search. The technology minimizes your need to type your full search term or even click “search.”

The Google Instant search feature only works when you are signed into a Google account. As it logs your search history, the technology is able to make smarter predictions to guide your search, even when you don’t know exactly what you are looking for. With the instant results, you can see where your search will take you as you type, instead of having to click search to get there.

If Google Instant is a feature you do not find beneficial and would rather not see results as you type, you may turn it off. However, keep in mind that you don’t lose any of the original functionality with Google Instant. You may still type in your full search terms and hit enter to search like you always have. Google Instant simply brings what you are looking for to you immediately and help you find it on your first attempt.

It is worth noting that the application of Google Instant does not impact the ranking of search results; however, it may have an impact on other aspects of search engine optimization. These issues will be further discussed in the another article.

New Party Directory Website; More Categories, More Options, and more Opportunities

Due to increased demand from searches and party vendors we have fully improved our party directory to encompass 14 categories related to the event planning industry. The new website provides a lot more information and gives our registered party vendors a lot of opportunities in getting FREE advertising.

New Features:

• Now with 14 categories related to party planning
• Party Articles with expert advice from our party vendors
• Party Themes with event ideas and suggested games
• Videos highlighting our Exclusive and Premier party vendors
• Simplified Search Features

New Website Design:

Our new website design makes it quick and easy to search for a local party vendor for the category of service you are interested in. The new website also provides a lot of useful information and expert advice on how to plan your party or event and what to expect. With all these new features and useful information, we hope our new and improved Party Planning website will make it a piece of cake to plan your next event.

When ABC's Don't Make Things Easy as 123

It used to be that everything was listed in alphabetical order from A to Z by default, no matter the item, the category or degree of importance. It was believed that alphabetical ordering was inherently important in the organization of lists. While alphabetical sorting is, in fact, beneficial to some lists, it mostly should be avoided.

Sorting items in order of A-Z is mainly beneficial for lists of items that users know the name of. Alphabetical ordering allows users to find what they are looking for pretty quickly in this case. An example of this is a list of the 50 U.S. states. It would be easier to browse this list for a specific name if it were in alphabetical order as opposed to, say, grouping the states in order of population.

Essentially, an A-Z order is best for known-item lists. When users know, for certain, what they are looking for, an alphabetized list will surely facilitate their search. If they have to look at several places in the list, it defeats the purpose of alphabetizing.

So, the first thing to consider is whether users will definitely know what their selection is. If you can answer yes to this question, then an A-Z list works, if not, consider another type of list.

More often than not, users don’t know the name of what they are searching for. As discussed, alphabetizing lists of items under these circumstances is useless. Also, when items have an inherent logic that dictates a different sort order, such as abbreviations for measurements from smallest to largest, using an alphabetical listing hides that logic and diminishes usability. Jakob Nielsen explains the effects of inappropriate alphabetizing with a fine example here.

Essentially, the nature of your information usually will determine a structure to use. At times, A-Z listings will be best for your items, but don’t be lazy in designing a better structure. We all know our ABCs and can put items in proper sequence, accordingly, but with ordinal data such as measurements, ordering in increasing sequence makes more sense. Time lines and geographical location may be useful at times, or even degree of importance or frequency of use.

So, the next time you have a list to compile, work a little harder to create a more useful order to improve its usability.

Web Design for Short-Term Memory Limitations

When creating a website, keep in mind that the human brain is not optimized for abstract thinking and memorization; therefore, your design should be optimized instead for the benefit of short-term memory, not to display abstract features and bits of information. Doing the latter only further impedes a person’s already weak short-term memory bank.

The reason our brains seem to be so weak in recalling heaps of data is because many of the skills of memory involved in using a computer were not necessary for survival throughout our ancestry. Our ancestral environment did not demand the skills of remembering obscure codes and interpreting abbreviated data in order to survive. The human brain is the same that it was when cavemen roamed the earth. So, in essence, it would not be a bad idea to design your website for a caveman to ensure a web design optimized for short-term memory and consequently a favorable user experience.

Our extremely limited brainpower allows our short-term memory to only hold about seven chunks of information that begin to fade from the brain in about twenty seconds. This is a commonly cited capacity of our brain when relating to abstract thinking. With this fresh in our short-term memory, let us consider other Web design guidelines that our brainpower limitations dictate:

• Response times: In another article, we discussed the importance of shortened response times and, essentially, speedy page loading/service on sites. Response times need to be fast enough so that users don’t forget what it is they are doing while waiting for the next page to load. There is nothing more frustrating than having to click back to a page to remind yourself of what your purpose was and risk forgetting again upon return due to a slow-loading page.
• A website design error that irks just about anybody is not changing the color of visited links so that users can keep track of which sites they have already visited. You can imagine how frustrating it would be to revisit a page you had already been to, especially if you are also dealing with the above-mentioned problem.
• If your site offers a variety of related products, aim at making it easy to compare them. Highlight the important product features and differences and do so in a special comparison view format. This is the preferred method of product comparison. Avoid making customers go back and forth between pages to compare product features.
• Offering help and user assistance features in the context where users need them is also beneficial to the user’s experience. This will prevent them from having to travel to a separate help section, where they would have to waste previous short-term memory capacity memorizing steps before returning to the problem they encountered.

So when it comes down to it, designing a website for a 2010 audience should not result in a website that the brain of a caveman would not understand, since both audiences share the same limited brain capacity.

Web Response Times

Think back to the days when you had to operate on a 56K modem and were forced to wait a while to properly operate a website as a picture slowly appeared in its entirety piece by piece. Frustrating, wasn’t it? Fast download times are important for users. No matter what it is that slows down response time, users will be turned off by the delay.

The two main reasons a website’s responsiveness speed matters is due to human limitations and human aspirations:

• It is not a rare phenomenon that our memory eludes us at times, especially short-term memory. Also, it is increasingly tougher to hold someone’s attention. These factors refer to our human limitations. A slow website download speed adversely affects our memory and attention span and “we simply don’t perform as well if we have to wait and suffer the inevitable decay of information stored in short-term memory.”
• As humans, we like to feel in control of our destiny and doings rather than under the control of another, especially a computer or machine. Once a computer or website delays its response time, we tend to feel like we are not in control or what we aim to accomplish. Also, from a consumer’s perspective, a company that makes patrons wait instead of providing responsive service comes across as either arrogant or incompetent, neither of which is a good perception to put out.

Considering this, it is important to realize that a quick and efficient user experience beats out a glamorous one. Increased speed and efficiency allows a user to engage more with a site by spending their time moving freely and focusing on content instead of waiting. A user’s experience with a site is much more important than all the slogans, advertising or widgets a site takes its sweet time loading.

Jakob Nielsen expands on the notion of website responsiveness by providing a simple breakdown of response-time limits and their respective effects on the user and his experience. He also provides an example from a recent eyetracking study he conducted. The study demonstrated the adverse effects of increased load time on the user’s viewing of the page and its intended promotional focus.

At the end of a user’s experience with a given site, what tends to leave a lasting impression on them is the response time they experienced while navigating the site. The longer a user has to wait to be served by the computer, the more annoyed they will get. It essentially reflects poor service, no matter how fancy of a page you deliver at the end of the load time. So it does not matter if it is simply a large image loading through a 56K modem or a bunch of fancy widgets loading with a high-speed cable modem, increased wait-time is an experience-killer.

In conclusion, to increase your user-friendliness and likeability on the web, get to the users quicker than the slow sites do.

Keyword Analysis Using Google Keyword Tool

When creating a web page or simply writing an article or web log to post on a site, choosing the right keywords makes all the difference in the amount and quality of visitors you receive to your webpage. Using a keyword tool like Google Keyword Tool can help you find the right keywords to use when creating any content. Taking advantage of this free tool will help you reach people who are looking for what you have to offer, whether it is your business’ products or services, or a publication you may be posting. This article will outline the primary use of the Google Keyword Tool, how to use it, along with the benefits.

The primary use of Google’s Keyword Tool is to generate a list of keywords that you may use to effectively draw larger audiences and efficiently target your advertising toward those who are looking for what you offer. Individuals and businesses may use Google's Keyword Tool to discover the statistics behind a list of specific keywords that are used or want to be used. An initial keyword search will reveal the level of advertiser competition for that keyword and its variants, along with a breakdown of the global and local monthly search volumes for each. This information allows you to determine whether the keywords you are using or want to use are bringing in high search volumes and whether advertiser competition for them are high or not. Such information provides a great start in building a successful set of keywords to use in your advertising. If you are unsure of which keywords to use, Google's Keyword Tool is also a great way to acquire a list of additional suggested keywords that may be beneficial.

Now that you know what Google’s Keyword Tool can be used for, it is time to learn how to use it yourself. Once you access the Keyword Tool, you will be prompted to type in a security word as it appears on the screen to continue using the program. You may also have to do this occasionally if your session times out, but you may stay logged in using a Google account. Once the Keyword Tool page is active, you may input any amount of keywords to test. There are a number of keyword tools out there that you may use for this research, but the most accurate and trusted is Google's. Google’s Keyword Tool gives you 100% accurate data on the keywords you search, giving you reliable information to help you decide which keywords you should be targeting.

Once you have generated a list of keywords along with the corresponding data, you may begin to analyze your options. The first column will list your keyword along with its relevant variants and additional keywords Google suggests you consider based on your search. The second column will display the level of competition for that keyword, while the third and fourth columns show the global and local average monthly search volumes for each keyword, respectively. The last column is also helpful in case what you are offering is seasonal. The Local Search Trends column shows a bar graph that indicates the search volume for each keyword during each month of the year. The previous Keyword Tool interface – which can be accessed by the link provided in the upper right hand corner of the current Keyword Tool page – is a more simplified version that allows you to show or hide certain columns of data that you may or may not be interested in analyzing. If you decide that the newer version is better for you, simply click back to the new Keyword Tool interface using the link provided in the upper left hand corner of the page.

The information above is meant to give you a quick overview and basic instructions on how to use Google’s Keyword Tool to discover data on keywords you are using or want to use and to help you with suggesting additional keywords. No matter what you are conducting SEO for, knowing which keywords to target needs to be Step One. Keywords are essentially the building blocks of successful SEO. Proper keyword targeting will increase the traffic and conversion rate to your website. There are many ways to successfully apply keywords in optimizing your website for high traffic and conversion rates, but the purpose of this article is to simply show you how to get started. For more information on how to use Google's Keyword Tool, visit eHow.