We don’t always share the praise received from running quality Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns, but when Better Homes and Gardens (Meredith Corporation) doles out a testimonial for us you better believe we’d spread the <3!
Here’s a testimonial we received from Marketing Director, Heather Proctor:
Josh exceeded our expectations by running a seasonal Internet Marketing campaign that resulted in approximately 25,000 new subscribers to multiple Better Homes and Gardens newsletters! Josh was very professional, easy to work with and always kept us in the loop about how our campaign was performing. We were very pleased with the outcome, and in working with Jtree.net.
As we were pleased in providing you with a quality-driven campaign! Thank you, Heather!
It’s that time of the year again! SXSW has taken over Austin, Texas! If you didn’t make it or you’re already there and you need to know what’s going on – welcome! Check out the Social and Web updates below, as soon as they are online – they’re here!
SXSW Social
SXSW Web
SXSW – South by Southwest is a series of interactive, film and music festivals and conferences that typically take place in Austin, Texas every March (since 1987). More…
Instant coffee, pancakes and oatmeal never really hit the spot with me, unless I just happen to be backpacking or camping. So ,what about Google Instant? Is it good to go? Or, does it only perform well in a specific instance?
Google Instant
Basically, Google Instant represents searching while typing. Search engine result pages (SERP) are dynamically displayed WHILE keying-in search queries. Google even tries to help you complete the search query by predicting it (denoted in light gray text).
The prediction is essentially based on historical search volume, returning the most likely terms you are searching for.
Watch the video below to learn more about Google Instant.
What does this mean for SEOs, webmasters, website owners and bloggers?
According to Google; when checking analytics you might notice an increase in impressions. It only makes sense, displaying results while typing will do that. They also noted that now (post Google Instant) they are measuring impressions in 3 ways. Great, just what we needed – more metrics to keep tabs on. 🙂
Aaron Wall of SEOBook brought up some interesting points, and thinks that Google Instant consolidates search volume into smaller buckets of keywords. I tend to agree with this, as long as the smaller buckets are representative of relative results. Otherwise, the searcher will more than likely go for the long-tail term because it is actually the most relevant.
Graywolf’s description of Google Instant:
They think they know you so well that they can guess what you want without being told.
He goes on to mention that it really doesn’t solve any type of relevancy/understanding problem, but it could (on the PPC side of the equation) ensure high dollar value advertising will almost always show first.
Think about it, we all know that one keyword or a two-word keyphrase takes a lot more coin for clicks versus that nicely converting, low cost-per-click (CPC) three and four-word keyphrase.
What’s It Really Mean, Man?
For starters, it means you better have an SEO that pays attention. 😉 If ranking positions and traffic for you website or blog start to slide because of Google Instant, SEO strategy will need to be adjusted.
It seems, that the general consensus finds Google Instant annoying and somewhat distracting. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Google change the presentation of Google Instant before speculating on pulling the plug.
Key Google Instant Takeaways
Google Instant allows for increased Sponsored Results real estate by pushing organic results further down the page. This could lead to lower click-through-ratios (CTRs) on organic listings, which equates to less organic traffic for your website.
More exposure for PPC campaigns that are based-on highly competitive one and two-word keyphrases, in addition to expanded screen real estate – which could bump PPC CTRs up.
Potential to disrupt long tail targeting – given relevant short tail results are served. If more people click on shorter, predicted results – focusing on longer keyphrases would become less important.
Could cause some searchers to switch search engines unless visual presentation is improved or Google Instant is disabled.
Despite seeming somewhat annoying, I plan on continuing to use Google. The reason is simple – the results are the most relevant.
We don’t spend a penny on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising for Jtree.net.
Thanks to sound Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices, we outrank our competitors in the non-paid (organic/natural) search engine results for every keyphrase in the search engines that matter.
If we didn’t rank well organically, we would have to spend approximately $170/day on PPC advertising to make up the difference (see chart).
Our stellar organic search engine rankings have allowed us to save money, boost our ROI, increase our online reputation and eliminate reliance on expensive PPC advertising campaigns.
The $170/day we save equates to over $60,000/year in online advertising savings! Despite the immediate short-term benefits of PPC advertising, SEO should always be in motion in regard to strategic long-term objectives.
Learn more about our SEO and PPC services
Curious about how well your website ranks, or even if there are people actively searching the web for what you are offering?
Instant coffee, pancakes and oatmeal never really hit the spot with me, unless I just happen to be backpacking or camping. So ,what about Google Instant? Is it good to go? Or, does it only perform well in a specific instance?