Archives : 2010 : December
Google Instant FAQs
1. What Is Google Instant? It’s a new feature that predicts what an online user is searching for and shows results as the user types.
2. What are the benefits? Instant results allow searchers to find what they’re looking for without clicking ‘enter’ or ‘search’. According to Google this provides faster and smarter searches.
3. What has changed, and what has not? The ‘basics’ remain the same. Google has been predicting and suggesting search terms for at least a year based on a user’s search history and location. Google Instant takes this a step further by displaying a full page of results before the user has finished typing. With every character typed the organic, paid, maps and news results change in real time. It’s important to note that Google Instant does not affect all Google search results. It can be turned off by users who don’t like it. Plus, Google Instant is only available at Google.com, so for now things will stay the same for users who search exclusively in their browser toolbar.
4. Does Google Instant impact or rankings? According to Google the answer is ‘no’. A well-rounded approach to solid content development and optimization should actually benefit from Google Instant. Now it’s simply faster, and the results will change as the query changes. However, Google Instant undoubtedly creates a major traffic bias towards top ranked search results for short-tail keywords.
5. Does Google Instant impact my PPC ads? No. Targeted pay-per-click ads continue to show as they normally would – just faster, and will change as the query changes. Click here to view how Google Instant will affect Impressions and Click-Through rates.
For more information, see this article on Search Engine Land.
Is Your Web Page Fast Enough? (Part 1)
That’s the question heating up blog airwaves since Google incorporated site speed as one of more than 200 signals used to determine search rankings.
To get answers, site owners are using the Google Page Speed Tool and Google Webmaster Tools > Site Performance to track the speed of their site. The tool is bringing relief to some and heartburn to others. For those of you who are experiencing the latter, let us help you interpret what the tool compares—and what comparisons would be more valuable.
The tool may report your site is slower than XX% of sites on the Internet because it’s comparing very simple pages with a few images and little or no dynamic content. More valuable comparisons are whether your pages are faster—or as fast—than your ranking competitors and comparing actual page types. For example, if you have a blog, what are the page speeds of other blogs? If you have an ecommerce store, what are the speeds of other ecommerce stores?
Another tip about learning if your page is speedy enough for search rankings, is to assume sites that have achieved first page rank in certain categories already have a page speed that is acceptable to Google. So learning how you compare to these sites is also a valuable guideline.
Read Part 2 blog that shares simple, straightforward ways to improve page speed.
Google Product Ads Available to All Advertisers
As of November 11th, Google Product Ads are being offered to all Adwords advertisers. Up until now they have only been offered in a closed beta test involving about 800 advertisers, but now anyone will be able to take part in the program.
Google Product Ads are a way for advertisers to give Google a feed of products, have images of those products appear in the ads, and to pay on a cost-per-acquisition basis (an automatic bidding system where you set the amount you are willing to pay per conversion and Google positions your ads accordingly).
The ads are especially notable in that they show images of products. In the image below you can see a “Product Ad” in comparison to the “traditional” AdWords ads that lack images below.
Some highlights:
- They’re designed to be purchased on a CPA basis, where you pay only when a product is actually sold. However, CPC (cost-per-click pricing) is allowed. Important point: only “managed advertisers,” larger accounts with ad reps, can bid on a CPA basis. Otherwise, they have to pay on a CPC basis.
- They’re designed for merchants to put in a product feed, and Google will automatically use that to trigger the ads against keywords it determines.
- One CPA price for all products can be given, or advertisers can set different CPA pricing for different products.
- Advertisers can pay on a percentage basis (i.e., Google might get, say, 5% of a sale — or 2% – or 20%, whatever you set).
Read the full article and watch a video…
Google Launches Instant Previews
On November 9th Google launched a page preview feature called “Instant Previews.” This tool offers people a way to quickly view what’s on a web page without leaving the Google search results.
With the new Instant Previews, people will likely be able to immediately spot the most promising pages among those listed in the search results. This will streamline the online search process by decreasing the need for people to bounce around from page to page until they find a satisfying result.
How It Works
In the new feature a small magnifying glass appears next to each listing:
When you click on that magnifying glass a preview of the page appears to the right of the search results:
Once you’ve clicked on a magnifying glass Instant Preview mode will be enabled, allowing you to scroll over other results to view their previews as well. As you scroll over each listing it will be highlighted with a blue background and the preview image will change to show the selected webpage:
Callouts & Tears
Within the preview images, relevant text to the search is highlighted through “callouts,” making it easier to read:
Pages can have more than one callout:
Previews might also have what Google calls a “tear,” where a page is “torn” to show the overall context of the page, but also show all the parts that are relevant to the search:
Instant Previews & Paid Ads
The Instant Preview images cover up Google’s paid ads when they appear. Is this a problem for advertisers? Google says “no.”
Google argues that if people are interested in the unpaid “editorial” results then that’s where they’ll stay searching, rather than going back and forth to the paid ads as well. In other words, previews aren’t blocking ads because if someone decides they want to focus on editorial results, they’re probably already ignoring the paid ads.
It is reported that paid ads will also get an Instant Preview feature in the future, but as of yet there is no set timeline for this.
Not a Fan?
Site-owners: Don’t like the idea of Google making previews of your pages? You can opt-out of Google’s. To do so, just make use of the nosnippets meta tag.
Web users: Don’t like the preview? Just don’t click on the magnifying glass to turn it on. If you already have, just click again to turn it off.
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