Why is SEO World Panicking, Google Instant Ante Portas
For those of you who haven’t heard the news Google Instant was launched, and as you can imagine from my title people are locking their door in the fear of the great mighty Google and jesters are running down the streets yelling “Google Instant Ante Portas, SEO is Dead, SEO is Dead”!
I had it yesterday with all the questions and most of all the presumptions by the so called technical journalists that know about SEO. I mean every single headline was suggesting that SEO is DEAD, that we will never see the web the same again… Haven’t I heard this before? I wonder… Personally I wrote about this on my blog last night, and I overreacted and probably made some bold statements which will either make me famous or burn me as an SEO. But again, I will make the same statements here, only in a milder tone.
- Google, Illuminati and the Cybersheep
We all know the story behind Google; well at least the ones who try to live of it know. The basic idea is we cant do anything without Googles approval or their knowledge. Mess with Google and your earnings will be close to zero. So we have to bow dow
What is Google Instant?
The big question is what is Google Instant, how I see it, it is just an overly promoted and flashy Google update, nothing else. What it does is that it gives you “relevant” search results as you type the words in the search box. So if you start with “A” you will immediately see Amazon popping up to greet you.
Google says that this will increase the web standards for the average user by saving 2 to 5 seconds per search. Well, that is quite a presumption they have there and I’ll tell you why. The main reason is that the average internet user doesn’t look at the monitor while typing, but he looks at his keyboard. So anything going on at the screen while he types will not affect him at all. Second reason is that Google Instant works really good with one word, head word, once you go for the long tail combinations are limitless. Second word is incredibly tough to predict, but if I want to type in 3 word search phrase or more Google has no idea what I want to type. I tested it and 10 out of 10 times for normal searches that have a high daily count it gave me different results and not once the thing I was going for.
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- Practical SEO Principles
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Is SEO Dead?
So much for the great Google Instant, I don’t want put Google’s name through the mud here, it is not my intention actually. The fact that they made a flashy update is their thing, the fact that they are making it sound grand is also their thing, what I want to talk about here is the fact that no names and once thought to be highly qualified journalists are acting like tabloid press and running headlines like “SEO is Dead”!
Well we all know what happens at the first sign of trouble. I will say one thing; I’m acting stupid running my mouth before evaluating the situation clearly. I mean I thought about it whole night and I’m still behind most of the things I said on my Practical SEO Blog, but to fully understand the impact on the SEO world we will have to wait a month or two. I’m sure there will be some changes, but I am also sure that one of the great minds in the SEO industry will find a way to take advantage of this new Google Instant thing as well.
That aside, SEO is not dead and again, I will tell you why. I already told you about the long tail above, and SEO has switched to long tail long time ago. So that is mostly what concerns us. I mean if a guy comes to me and says I want to rank number one for “flowers” I will tell him good luck and show him the door, as most of the SEO’s will, well at least the honest ones. (Not talking about grand ones like SEOmoz & Majestic SEO & SEObook).
The reason why most of the press wrote about death of SEO is the “fact” that every single person will see the web differently based on the Google Instant search and the well known Google personalization that is already running. Well, personalization has been in place for quite some time and we managed to cope with it without large problems, that doesn’t change anything, as Google also announced that this doesn’t affect rankings one bit, just how we experience the search, so I’m really struggling to make the connection between Google Instant and the death of SEO, it sounds really far fetched.
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Conclusion or SEO CPR
I’ll be the one first to run to the injured guy and perform CPR and other first aid techniques, but wait, the guy is not dead, he is on the ground laughing like crazy. Well, so much for heroism, and so much for press being newsworthy sometimes. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the great Google and how will Google Instant affect SEO in the future.
Comments
up and useful! as above-you've cut through to the real meat. Appreciate your awareness...
Thanks Russ and thanks Samson, we will see how things go, but there is no need to scream things we know nothing about.
But hey, on the other side, because of my bold statements my blog had 4 times more traffic last night than it did the entire week before :)
People are always quick to be negative and panic about nothing !!
@Computerrecording1, you are absolutely right, people just love to spread panic for some reason...
Yes I was reading about Google Instant and when I clicked on it, it said it is not up and running just yet? But anyway, I understand SEO's and now have to learn Instant. Good hub.
I too was following the hype. Pleased to read what you have had to say and put it in perspective. Thank you.
For now, it's just running in US, UK, Germany and few more countries, it should be global in a month or so according to Google, but you have a link in the Hub for the test version if you want to check it out.
The bottom line is that SEO always changes, this is one of those changes we will have to adapt to, nothing more, so there is no need for panic and "SEO is Dead" headlines!
Good journalism used to be about reporting the facts and being unbiased...guess journalism and news reporting is dead, huh? Good Hub...putting things in perspective so we don't all panic!
"guess journalism and news reporting is dead, huh?" maybe :)
Great information here. the wait and see works for me, because I'm just not that savvy about it all.that is why I am following you!Lol!
Actually Bayoulady, the "wait and see" is the smartest move for all of us, but I had to run my mouth :)
Hey, on the bright side I was one of the first to say what I did, and 2 days later plenty of great SEO names are joining me in my opinion, so it may be that I beat them to it. But I should let this as a one time fluke, next time I might say something really stupid :)
SEO is by no means dead it's just that with Google instant it has once again changed the rules and moved the goal posts, or that is what I feel. One of the biggest knock ons from my perspective will be in that once popular long tail phrases will perform less well as people get distracted by a result which crops up as they type.
But then SEO is always changing and for those who take up the challenge of SEO will just have something different to take on board.
Right on Andy, SEO is changing and no matter how much we say that, no one seems to listen and people start panicking at every change.
Yes, there is the chance that people will get sidetracked by the possible results dangling in front of them, but the fact that people are going for the long tail shows that they know what they want! That was the idea behind long tail! People who use long tail keywords in search know what they are looking for and that is why we use them, to get better conversions. So I don't think it will effect the long tail search on a drastic level, it will in fact sort out the window shoppers from the serious people :)
I agree with Andy - the biggest concern is with long-tail keywords. While we can speculate all we like about how it will or will not affect searches, the fact is that it does! If you read some of the webmaster forums out there, you'll find more than a handful of IMers who have observed a sudden drop in organic traffic since Instant went live.
@larrylim, yes, but at the same time you have the same number of people who have observed their traffic going up :)
You are over reacting, it is not affecting our searches in a grand matter, not yet, this is a slight difference and you hear moping from the people not in the SEO business and they have no real clue of what is going on! I mean this is my job, I have an SEO firm, and so far neither have I, nor have any other SEO's I know and respect published any concrete changes in the Search results, it's too early, so I would stop listening to amateurs wining in the forums, wait until there is an official announcement from anyone that is an authority on this subject!
Hi Zarko! Excellent hub.. and very straight forward too..
I would like to mention here that, post Instant, SEO has definitely changed. But far from dead!
I have also observed that for most of the clients, the traffic volume is fluctuating like a cat on a hot tin.. may be because of Google dance or the side effects of this new implementation.. what ever be the reason, I think its an exciting time for SEO.
You are right, I mean SEO would be boring if it didn't change every few months :)
Nothing changed and it has already been a few weeks, I guess you are right.
PS. @larrylim, yeah, Zarko is right, the guys screaming in the forums are babies who don't have a clue why their rankings and traffic are fluctuating, I wouldn't worry about that!
Russ Baleson 20 months ago
Thanks Zarko, you have a great way of explaining things in a way that cuts through all the rubbish. Much appreciated. Russ