Google Instant – Killer of Poor & Mediocre Websites

Google recently launched a new feature called Google Instant to its search results. This feature offers searchers, using Google, a preview of the websites before they click the link. The snapshot of the webpage can help the Google user make a better judgement before visiting any website.

The Ever Changing Google

Businesses spend hundreds and thousands of pounds into SEO and SEM. Every time Google brings about a change to their results page, a lot of the money that was spent on SEO – goes to waste. For example, Google started showing 3 to 5 links from the same website, if the search keyword matched a well established business. You can try search for Optimise Solutions.

You’ll notice that the top 4 results are from our own website! In the past, companies were spending a fortune on SEO to make their website appear at the second position when their competitors name was searched for. One change from Google and all the time and money spent has vanished into thin air!

Instant Approval or Rejection

While Google Instant is a great feature for consumers and searchers, it can be a killer for many poorly designed or badly laid out websites. Imagine you have a website that your target visitors can find on Google. Now assume that there is a competitor of yours appearing just above your result. Let’s take it that your competitor’s website is higher up in the ranking but not so good looking or cannot appeal to the consumers in that 0.35 second preview through a tiny screenshot. The consumers might eventually end up on your website, even without having visited your competitor’s website! Isn’t that amazing? While it sounds great, hope that your competitor’s website is not better than yours, when seen through Google Instant.

Using Google Instant to Drive Visitors

We know that Google shows a snapshot of your website. Why not make the home page and other landing pages appealing? Interesting and big banners, well formatted typography, a clean and simple interface, and clutter-free layout would work well with Google Instant. Google is only trying to provide better search results to its users.