You’ve probably noticed by now the latest changes to the world’s favourite search engine, Google. As you start to type words into Google the organic results, and PPC ads, start to change in accordance with the keywords you’re typing. This can save you time in that you can get straight to the results you are looking for. It can be useful as it means you can do away with typing in those long search strings. However, herein lies another problem.
If you have taken time to research your keywords and haven’t gone for those popular search phrases, then you could get punished. The reason is that many searchers will take the first results that appear on Google and won’t bother to drill down to the end of the long tail. For those of you asking, ‘what is the Long Tail?’, here is an overview:
The long tail suggests that more people are likely to buy a product (or search for one) at the head of the tail than at the end of it. As Wikipedia says: “the majority of occurrences (more than half, and where the Pareto principle applies, 80%) are accounted for by the first 20% of items in the distribution”. The internet lends itself so well to products at the end of the tail as powerful search engines (like Google) allow you to find pretty much anything that you are looking to buy – if it’s a niche or hard-to-find product you may have to go a little further down the tail.
This brings me to the issue that I have with Google Instant. I run the CAM Diploma in Digital Marketing and at the moment I only run this particular qualification, though other centres run a range of CAM qualifications – some of them run the Digital Diploma. Up until now I have tried to ensure that my web pages(s) for keyword searches on CAM Diploma In Digital Marketing appear fairly high up – and have succeeded. But Google Instant has now created a problem for me by prompting people to stop their keyword searches when they get as far as CAM Diploma; it also means that some people are seeing the words CAM Diploma In Managing Digital Media – which I don’t offer but other centres do!
The way around it is to now focus my keyword searches on terms which are further up the tail – which are not a perfect match for my courses but mean that I can try and get ahead of the competition. I do think that Google by trying to match the social media/real-time mood of the internet has created problems for website owners and for itself. Smaller websites may well find that their entry to potential markets and customers will be held back; whilst Google may also see revenue from smaller advertisers (through AdWords) reduce markedly.
To conclude, Google Instant can be seen as useful in terms of throwing up suggestions that you may not have considered. The negative side is that firms that rely on traffic from searches further down the tail, may have to focus towards the head of the tail to generate their traffic from now on.
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