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Has Google Gone Too Far With Instant Previews?

Has Google Gone Too Far With Instant Previews?

If you’re a regular reader of this small newsletter, you will know
I keep my eyes peeled to what Google is doing. I do this mainly because
Google sends me the best quality traffic and Google accounts for 60%
to 80% of the traffic on most of my sites. And since I am heavily into
affiliate marketing and keyword targeting in free organic search,
anything affecting those searches directly affects my bottom line.

Now, I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, but this has been
the most disruptive year for online marketing in a long, long time.

This all comes back to the massive changes Google has made over the
last six months or so. Starting first with Google Caffeine which really
affected which keywords were ranking, then we had Google Instant Search
which affected HOW your keyword results were displayed. Instant Search
has and is playing havoc with “long-tail keyword” phrases because
searchers don’t get a chance to get to those lucrative keywords since
they are constantly being bombarded with instant results.

Just a few days ago, Google introduced Instant Previews.


Already, warning bells are ringing in my head, now don’t get me wrong –
there’s nothing wrong with these Instant Previews. Actually for the average
searcher this is a great innovation. And I believe it will prove very popular
with Google users.

However, from a webmaster and marketing perspective, these new previews could
potentially prove very troublesome. Why? Because if Google users find the
information on the SERPs or Google’s landing results pages – THEY WILL HAVE
NO NEED TO CLICK YOUR LINK.

If searchers find the information they need on these results landing pages,
they won’t click through to your site. Your site loses a visitor. What really
bothers me is how large these previews are. Thankfully, the small print can’t
be read but they do take up a lot of your browser’s space.

Click Here to check out – http://www.google.com/landing/instantpreviews

It’s just one more marketing hurdle, webmasters and marketers have to jump
through in order to get that quality traffic from Google. This could prove
very pragmatic for everyone, especially the small online marketer who now
has to not only compete with other webmasters’ listings/previews in order
to get the click, but they may just have to compete with Google itself.

What are you talking about? Google, how will I have to compete with Google?

Maybe I am jumping to some big conclusions here, but I have been following
Google religiously since they began, and recent changes within Google has me
very worried. With all these new changes, Google is keeping the searcher/visitor
on their Results Pages for as long as they can. If they keep these searchers
on the Google site, it greatly increases the chance that they will eventually
click an ad.

If you were a search engine like Google, it is in your own best interest to
decrease the importance of organic search and increase the emphasis on your
paid links. You have to do everything in your power to increase the chances
that those ad links are clicked. One obvious way is to increase the time spent
on your site.

Sound silly, not really.

If you look on Alexa, Google’s “Time Spent On Site” has increased from around
7 minutes in 2009 to around 14 minutes in 2010. That’s nearly a 100% increase,
double the time and double your chances of getting those ads clicked. No wonder
Google workers got that 10% raise, they really deserved it.

Now, as I said before, there is nothing really wrong with this, Google visitors
don’t pay for those ads and if they can get a better search result by staying on
Google longer, they will still find what they’re looking for and come away happy.

However, if you’re a webmaster or marketer, you’re now competing with Google
for that searcher’s attention. And all the recent changes within Google has made
your job of getting that click through to your site much more difficult. You have
to compete with all the limitless resources of Google and everything they can
throw the searcher’s way.

So what can the small webmaster or marketer do to increase their chances of
getting those clicks. Well, I believe your site’s design and layout/look will
play a more IMPORTANT role in getting those all important clicks. Here’s what
I think will happen:

1. You really have to capture the searcher’s attention in those Instant Previews
so your graphics may become much more vital. So add a few eye-popping graphics
next to your important information.

2. Headlines will become more important. Place some great headlines in these
previews to grab the searcher’s attention, nothing works like a good bold
headline which can be read in Google’s Preview.

3. Bullet summaries or placing your important information in a nice summary
format could draw the searcher’s attention to your site. But webmasters can’t
give away all the information because the searcher will have no need to click
through to your site.

4. Take a multi-layered approach to your Google marketing. Just don’t aim for
free organic search (which I believe is becoming a dead duck for extremely
lucrative keywords, especially within Google) but try video listings, news listings,
image listings… to get those all-important clicks from Google.

5. Lastly, no one wants to hear this, but paid listings with Google Adwords
may soon be your only option to get on the first page of Google. As major
companies pour unlimited resources into SEO and Keyword Link Buying, organic
search is not really free or available to everyone anymore. In the not so
future, paid listings may be the only way to get that Google click.

On a brighter note, these Instant Previews may also decrease the importance
of your rankings on the first page. Getting the top or number one ranking will
not be so important, if searchers spend more time checking out ALL of the top 10
listings on the page. A nice preview could help you get the click, regardless
of position.

Of course, how all these recent changes within Google plays out, makes all
this online marketing stuff very interesting. Will searchers even use Google’s
Instant search and these previews? Or will they be turned off by all these
improvements? More importantly, has Google just become every webmaster’s
and marketer’s most daunting competitor? Enquiring marketing minds want to know!

Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

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