Google has been on the move lately making a number of additions and changes that will directly affect the way Organic Search Engine Results are displayed.  These include:

Google Instant:

Google Instant is the new drop-down box of suggestions that appears when you begin typing a search term. This is a major departure from Google Suggest where they simply provided popular search terms after you finished typing a term, now with Google Instant they are changing the results and the suggested terms on-the-fly based on the letters in the term you're typing. One thing to notice is that many of the suggestions being offered are actually websites and this goes to show that it is important to be in the top results of a keyword search as now your website can be one of the things suggested by Google directly to a searcher. This also opens up a lot more terms that any site should optimize for and it means more on-the-go optimization is required.

Google Instant Preview:

Google's new preview feature provides an opportunity for searchers to get a quick snapshot of the websites in the results before clicking on them. This is a great feature in our opinion as it allows one to see how designed, serious or spammy a site may be before spending the time to click-through. This does mean that Google's SERPs are now adding in a greater requirement of Conversion Optimization as you'll now need to make sure your site is presentable. Clear and current design will now be as important via Google Instant Preview.

Google Local Business Search (Maps):

This is by far the most disturbing change that Google is in the process of making. With some keyword searches you'll find that Google is now placing the local map results at the top but not in the usual way. They're making them appear more like organic results, including providing them with far more space on the page. Even more disturbing is that they remove some of the 10 organic results to the second page so that there are no longer 10 organic results on the page. This means that unless you're in the top 3-6 organic results, in Google Local or in Google PPC then you may not even make the first page. Also the top organic results are pushed even further down the first page. Google is moving away from the core of organic search that it (and all other Search Engines were) founded on.

Contact us today to see how these changes can affect your site and how to take advantage of them.