Google’s new way of presenting search results has caused a bit of stir in all areas of online business and web marketing around the globe. Their new ‘faster’ system gives you search engine results as you type. So when you are looking for ‘cheese’ for example – as soon as you type ‘c’ you will start receiving results, then when you type ‘h’ you get more results and so on. Basically Google are trying to predict your search term before you have finished typing it. Sounds good? But what effect will this have on your online business?
Well, the concern is that people who invest in search engine marketing may have to re-evaluate their strategy. Some people think that those who have spent long hours working hard to optimise their page for something like ‘lubricated widgets Wales’ may no longer get as many impressions or indeed conversions as some of their traffic will be gobbled up by those who only typed as far as ‘lubricated’ before being distracted by some other website offering similar products.
Worry not business owners! The concern around instant search is unfounded as Google’s core system will remain unchanged. The fact is, if someone is really looking for ‘lubricated widgets Wales’ then the chances are that they will still make it to your site eventually – your hard earned search engine ranking will still perform the same. Once people get used to the interface it may even increase your visitors as people can see their results as they type, they may get closer to your site even quicker. For example, say someone was looking for ‘lubricated widgets South of England’ and could see that the resulting companies were nowhere near where they needed those businesses to be. In the past they may have just accepted the results for their initial search. But now with Instant Search, users will be more inclined to back up and try another term, such as ‘Wales’, to try and get closer to what they want.
While it won’t hurt to also optimise for shorter terms, it may well be unnecessary in the long run, as it is conversions and not impressions that really count. Just make sure that your payment service provider is equipped to handle your massive influx of profit all you Welsh widget sellers.
While Google’s Instant Search may feel like a big concern for online business owners, it really shouldn’t be. As long as you have well selected keyphrases and great content, products and services you should have nothing to worry about.
With news brewing that Royal Mail, the UK’s national mail service, is in line to be either sold or privatised, this could well spell a boon for online business owners up and down the country. With a large portion of business done by post still, be it mail order cataloguing, direct sales marketing with flyers and leaflets or by sales letter, the fact that it may soon be harder or more expensive to send out large amounts of mail could well have an impact for online businesses.
Net neutrality has been a phrase thrust around the news recently, but what would its demise mean for online business? Well, net neutrality is the principle of user access to the internet being equal for every person surfing the net no matter where they are, what they are doing or who their service provider is. The fear is that internet service providers could throttle their bandwidth, giving some users faster connection than others. This would allow them to give preferential treatment to those who pay for say, an internet TV service, over those wanting to watch a video from a regular website.
