serp

Google Unveils Instant Previews

4
Dec
google-instant-previews-logo

Google recently unveiled a new feature, called Instant Previews, that allows users to instantly see a preview of a website within Google’s search results page.

How to use Google Instant Previews

In order to enable Instant Previews, users need to click once on the magnifying glass located next to the search results. After activating the feature, the result will be highlighted in a blue background and you will be able to see a full preview of the web page on the right sidebar.

If you click anywhere on the preview, you’ll be directly taken to the website. For example, here is a search for [seo Beijing] :

SEO Beijing Instant Previews
Click screenshot to enlarge
 
Below is a video introducing Google Instant Previews :
 

Instant Previews increase user satisfaction

In some cases, Google can also highlight the words on the page being previewed. According to Google, people using Instant Previews are 5% more satisfied with the results they clicked on. Indeed, they can preview and evaluate the page before visiting the website and find the information they were looking for.

From a SEO point of view, Google Instant Previews doesn’t change anything in Google’s search algorithm and rankings. When a user clicks on the title of a result and visits a website, it counts as a normal click, regardless of whether the result has been previewed. Keep in mind that previewing a result doesn't count as a click.

However, some webmasters noticed problems with Analytics since the introduction of Instant Previews. Indeed, some users complained of an unusual increase in their pageviews. However, Google indicated that it resolved the issue.

A few months ago, Google also launched Instant Search, allowing users to get search results as they type their query and leading to changes on SEO & SEM. 

Google Instant Ad Previews next ?

After launching Instant Previews on search results, Google could create an Instant Ad Previews.

As you may have noticed, users who enabled Instant Previews don't see Google’s ads anymore, and then may do some damage to ad clicks. Google said it was OK because most users interested in the organic results focus on the unpaid results rather than the ads.

So, according to Google, previews won't have any effect on users already ignoring the ads. And you, what do you think ? Will Google Instant Previews impact paid search ?

Google site wide Search Box in SERP

14
Jul
google search box in search engine reponse page

Google added site wide search box in SERP. It's the same thing as searching in google using "site" operator. for example (site:them.pro  seo) will show you all the pages of this website about search engine optimization. Google started testing this feature last year, and now it's live.

 

As you can see on the example above, when you type microsoft, there is a search box in the search engine response page (see it here). They use it mainly for the very very big websites... maybe someday will it appear on them.pro.

 

The logic behind it is that "when you type imdb, it is more likely you are looking for a specific film page" ... well, that sounds wise to me.

It's also a way for google to make you (and me) use their search functions instead of the ones imbed in the targeted website, and that's smart too. king of search (aka google) is not ready to let his place to yahoo, baidu or bing as it seems... who doubted that anyways.

 

 

What is Spamdexing?

24
Mar
spamdexing

You're guilty of spamdexing when you use several forbidden technics to trick search engines like google or baidu, to be ranked among the firsts while you shouldn’t.

Let’s take an example : say you sell cars. But you’re eager to have the maximum traffic you can have on internet, even though you just sell cars. If you try to be first on “chocolate”, if you use shadow pages “pages just with keywords”, then you do spamdexing.

I don’t want to show all the technics you can use here, I just want to explain than you should NOT be doing it for several reasons :

  1. The traffic you get is NOT targeted traffic, so it costs you bandwith and brings you NOTHING. So why the hell would you bother.
  2. You can be banned from SERP (search engine response pages), and sooner or later, you will be if you do spamdexing. Yes, you’re website will not appear on google for the keywords you were hunting, but for pretty much all the other keywords as well. And this hurts doesn’t it …
  3. You deceive visitors, and therefore you also hurt your brand. Is it really worth it?

You have to think as a search engine first. The goal of a search engine is to give the most accurate response. If you’re not, if you’re website is not, then, no need to appear in those pages. Focus on your customers to grow, and yes, I bet you what you want that “NO, you don’t reach all your potential customers yet”. So leave spamdexing behind and start the smart and hard work.

It’s not easy… but this time, it definitely worths it…