A month has passed since Google released Google Instant to the general public. Despite what the naysayers were predicting upon its release those many moons ago – the death of SEO (again), the impending pointlessness of long-tail keyword search, the need to bid on every partial spelling of your primary keywords and possibly even locusts, the fact remains that not much has changed.
True, Google Instant helped Google to see an average of 20% higher click through rates in the first month, which in turn led to a 4% increase in PPC clicks. Total PPC spending was up 18% over the previous quarter, but Google Instant’s late entry into the market is hardly the reason why.
We couldn’t help but notice that once the heat died down on Instant, everything was pretty much back to normal. Within two weeks of Google Instant’s release, it had gone from being the talk of the industry to yesterday’s news. People who should have known better in the first place suddenly came around to the realization that Instant was not a monkey wrench in the SEO machinery, but simply a useful tool that speeds things up a bit.
It did not, as Google confirmed in a press release, goof with your SEO search dollar. It wasn’t ranking partial keywords. Amazingly, Google wasn’t trying to disrupt the flow of making money. Imagine that.
It’s interesting how many expert bloggers – the people we read every day and rely upon for great SEO information – can get so bent out of shape about everything Google does. It sometimes appears that the pundits literally think that everything Google puts out is a blatant attempt to upset the status quo.
Obviously, a business model like that wouldn’t make any sense. Why would one of the world’s biggest companies –a company with enough challenging problems on its hands, such as having to pull its service away from China, the world’s most populous country—try to further bite the hand that feeds it by turning SEO upside down?
Short answer: They wouldn’t. And they won’t.
What the general reaction to Google Instant will be in another month or a year remains to be seen. That is, if anybody even cares once the next “major” Google change comes out.