You want to capture local business leads, but you’re worried about the cost.

Then why not give your business a boost with these FREE Local Internet Marketing tips.

Tip 1: Keyword Research like a Pro

Yes I’m afraid so keyword research, that old chestnut.

Why you ask; what’s keyword research got to do with my business?

Well the fact is that most visits online start with someone typing something into a search box.

You do want to improve your Local Internet Marketing right?

Then the trick is to understand what your prospects are typing in to find businesses like yours and use this knowledge to help them find you.

The following tips will get you started:

1. Start with a piece of paper and write down the phrases that people might type in to find your business.
2. Ask your friends and family for their thoughts, don’t laugh they’re only trying to help.
3. Combine the phrases with your main location phrase i.e. “Blue Widgets” becomes “Blue Widgets Bristol” and “Bristol Blue Widgets”.
4. Run the phrases through https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (with exact match selected) pay attention to the “Local Monthly Searches” and download the data for future use.
5. You probably shouldn’t target phrases with very low or zero searches.

You can use this data as a starting point for everything else, from creating site content to enhancing your Google Places listing…

Tip 2. How to Add Your Business to Google Places

A listing in the Google Places snippet can be shown above the normal search results and best of all its completely free.

You don’t even need a website.

If you don’t have a Google Places listing you should get one.

If you do have a Google Places listing you should check to see that it’s up to scratch.

Even if you’ve never added a Google Places listing Google could still have constructed one from the data found about your business online.  It will almost certainly be incorrect so you should look at improving it.

For info on how to add or modify a Google Places listing see: http://www.google.com/support/places/

Verifying the listing via the telephone is usually the best way to go unless you like waiting around.

Once you have access to the listing pay particular attention to the following:

• Follow the rules set down by Google (see http://www.google.com/support/places/)
• Ensure that your business name is correct, don’t place your target keyword(s) in the business name field (unless the keyword is part of your business name) or you may get your listing rejected.
• Ensure your telephone is the correct local number (i.e. not 0800…, 0845… numbers)
• Include your correct web address (if applicable).
• Ensure that your address is correct.
• Include your opening hours.
• Double check the Map location.
• Add images preferably your logo first (Google by default chooses the first uploaded image for display in the results).
• Add any other detail that you can to make the listing look professional.
• Remember the keywords that you came up with in Tip 1, use these as a starting point to write a decent description (don’t stuff the description with keywords or you may get your listing rejected).
• Use the categories that Google suggests, don’t use custom categories (hopefully you will find ones that match/somewhat match the keywords you discovered in Tip 1).

Also see Tip’s 3 and 4 for more on optimising your Goggle Places Listing.

Tip 3. How to Add Local Directory Listings & Citations

Local Directory Listings and Citations can get your business found on the internet.

They can also improve the results for your Goggle Places Listing.

You can find places to list your business by searching for “[Your City] Directory” in Google

Warning! Beware Incorrect Details

It’s important to both Google and your prospects that your details are correct in these listings.

You can normally fix incorrect details once you’ve found them.

Modifying the following Google searches should uncover your incorrect listings:

• [Old Business Name]
• [Business Name] [Incorrect Detail]

Another Warning! Beware Paid Links

You may find paid listings being advertised while researching the above.

Paid links from the wrong sources can be problematic and can get you into trouble with Google; if you want to look at paid listings my advice would be to consult a reputable SEO.

Tip 4. Encourage Reviews! How to Enhance Your Reputation

One of the best ways to enhance your reputation is by getting online reviews.

Online reviews are also one of the best ways of improving your Google Places listing.

One obvious place to get reviews from is Google Places itself.  In addition many of the sites found during your research in Tip 3 will also allow reviews.

There are many ways to prompt / encourage people to review your business:

• Ask your fans on Facebook / Twitter (don’t be too pushy)
• Ask for reviews on your website
• Add review requests in your e-mail signature
• Ask for reviews offline

Remember to link through to the site where you want reviews to be posted.

Warning! Beware Fake Reviews

Google doesn’t like being manipulated.

Please don’t fake / incentivise reviews, you can land yourself in trouble if you do this.

Tip 5. Local Press! Going Offline to Get Online

Getting noticed in the local press is a great way to get your company noticed.

The fact that the coverage is offline is immaterial; lots of local papers have online counterparts.

If you don’t have anything to say, sit-down with a blank sheet of paper and come up with some ideas.

Leverage the differences that exist between you and your competition.

Find out how to write a press release (do a Google search) remember to include all of your business details in your release including; phone number, web address and business address.

Bonus Tips! 6 onwards…

Anyone can action the above tips and they are relevant to every local business (that I can think of).

The following bonus tips either cost money are difficult to implement, or require knowledge that you may or may not have:

• Build a Website
• Start a PPC Campaign
• Get on Twitter
• Get on LinkedIn
• Get on Facebook
• Start a Blog
• Figure out what your competitor(s) are doing and replicate / improve on their methods

How to Pay for These Local Internet Marketing Tips

These Local Internet Marketing Tips are Free.

If you liked the tips please share this article with your friends/contacts via the services below.

If you have any questions/comments post them below.

You want to rank without annoying Google.

You’ve read about black hat SEO and having your site banned scares the bejesus out of you.

But how to rank without getting under the skin of the big G, after all you’ve been trying for ages and nothing seems to work.

What secret sauce do you have to plaster over your site pages to make them rank, how many chickens will you need to sacrifice, perhaps praying will help…

But you know nothing good comes easy… Sacrificing chickens is just wrong…

And in reality there is only one answer… Focus…

You need to focus on who you’re targeting, what they search for and the content they care about.

Like it or not, lack of Focus is the reason why business and websites fail, this is also true for SEO, especially if you want to be Ethical…

The following tips (although not all exclusive to Ethical SEO) will give you a great start:

Tip 1. How to Focus on The Best Keywords

Keyword selection is the most important part of SEO; get this wrong and you run the risk of positioning your site in a wasteland away from all relevant traffic.

If you’re thinking of setting up a business online then keyword selection should form part of your marketing plan.

Before you come up with your Business Name Ideas and before you go cap in hand to the bank you should understand what keywords your prospects type into the search engines.

The following ideas should help you find your keyword Zen…

Tip 2. How to Embark on Keyword Discovery

Someone once said that nothing is more inspirational than a blank sheet of paper.

You know the products / services that you’re going to sell, so the first step is to put yourself in the mind of your potential customer and write down the phrases that your customer might type in to find said products / services.

Include everything, don’t delete anything.

You should also check out a Thesaurus and ask family and friends for inspiration.

Tip 3. How to Establish Keyword Traffic

Take the list and try to establish some idea of traffic potential by firing it thru a Keyword Research Tool.

Generally I use the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) you can modify the search by location etc. and download the keywords into Excel for easy analysis.

You can also consider using Wordtracker and/or Keyword Discovery in conjunction with the above.

Please be aware the numbers are out of whack and will only offer a general idea of what’s out there, you may also find that your keyword list expands as you find other related phrases.

Also be aware of Match Type when using the Google Keyword Tool and how this can affect the results.

The only real way to be sure of what people are searching on is to run a PPC test, however this needs to be set up correctly or the results returned can be duff.

Tip 4. How to Work Out Keyword Relevancy

Consider the impact of words that can have multiple meanings a “drinking fountain” is a “drinking fountain” obviously a place to drink at. On the other hand a “fountain” can be both a place to drink at and a type of water feature.

If you’re only selling to the UK, key phrases containing the word “US” are irrelevant.

But if you’re selling anything, then a key phrase containing the word “buy” is highly relevant.

Highly competitive single word phrases (often known as vanity phrases) can get a lot of traffic but often provide less or no results in terms of sales etc.

Avoid single word phrases normally 2, 3 or 4 word phrases are better targets for your SEO efforts.

Score your keywords as relevant / somewhat relevant / irrelevant.

Tip 5. How to Work Out Keyword Competition

Ideally you want to target phrases with relatively high traffic and relatively low difficulty.

To do this you need to start to understand how competitive each keyword is.

Even general searches in Google will give you some information on the number of competing pages (note the number of results shown just below the tool bar). Please also note that the results shown only give a rough idea of the number of pages.

There are also advanced operators such as allintitle (find more advanced operators at http://www.google.com/intl/gn/help/operators.html) that will allow you to restrict your search and help you understand more clearly the number of competing pages.

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t like automated searches; and using advanced search operators in particular can upset the big G (especially if you use them repeatedly): “Google’s Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated queries of any sort to our system without express permission in advance from Google. Sending automated queries absorbs resources and includes using any software… …to send automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage ranks in Google search results for various queries.”

Source: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66357

If you’re worried or overwhelmed by the above consider talking to a decent SEO…

And finally a simple keyword search in Google to see if your competition is below par; for example if the site owner is pictured on holiday red faced holding a wine glass, if the site has little content, or the content is poorly written, these and other points may lead you to the conclusion that you could do better.

Phew, if you made it through that, then well done, hopefully you are still focused, so onto the next step…

Tip 6. How to Focus on The Best Domain Name

Domain names can be useful in terms of helping you rank; this article is getting long, so if you’re interested in domain name selection take a look at “Business Name Ideas! Top 15 Tips for Start-up Success” an article of mine specifically dealing with this issue.

Tip 7. How to Focus Your Site’s Content for SEO

I’m not going to be able to teach anyone SEO in 1 or even a few articles, if you don’t know SEO you have 2 choices hire someone who does, or start reading up.

This from the horse’s mouth so to speak… Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf)

Please be careful what you read there is an awful lot of rubbish out there, as the following will hopefully start to demonstrate…

Tip 8. How to Avoid The Search Engine Friendly Myth

“All the sites I design are search engine friendly”, this and similar comments seem to be a commonly bandied about by web designers.

I have no problem with the phrase “search engine friendly” excepting that “search engine friendly” (and the other phrases like it) can be either intentionally or unintentionally deceptive when it comes to SEO.

I can’t count the number of times that:

• I’ve seen a site with glaring SEO issues rank well.
• I’ve seen a site failing (or being far less successful than it could be) due to technical SEO issues.
• I’ve seen an SEO or a Web Designer claming that they offer SEO, and their site is awash with technical SEO issues.
• I’ve been told by a client that their site is SEO friendly and then… well do I need to go on…

It’s not a Myth it’s just Mythplaced:

• I would never advise this; but in terms of making your site successful, you can get a lot of things wrong from a technical SEO standpoint and still rank well in the natural search results.
• All too often a “Search Engine Friendly” site seems to lead to a design where there is little or no focus on the keywords that are targeted, and that can be a real problem.

What I’m saying…

• I’m saying that in my opinion you should avoid making SEO mistakes and give your site an immediate advantage in your niche.
• More importantly I am saying that ideally your site shouldn’t be just search engine friendly it should be focused and built around the keywords that you’re targeting.
• Focusing on keywords is beneficial, not only because Google responds to this, but because your prospects will as well.

Tip 9. How to Create Great Content That Google Loves

You need to add as much value to your site as possible; Google rewards good unique content, users respond to good unique content, so start creating some…

• Look at your keyword research, does it give you any ideas.
• Look at your competition, what do they do that you can do better, what do they do that you can do differently.
• Don’t be limited by the written word there are many ways of producing content that people will just naturally link to.

There are tons of other ways to create content, but actually these 3 steps best reflect what it takes to be different within a niche.

Tip 10. How to Create Great Links That Google Loves

To be 100% Ethical the best way to get links according to Google is to never build any…

“The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page’s visitors?”

Source: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356

That’s a bit limited for some niches, there are also some widely accepted ways to actively build links that are considered low risk, however as the scope of this article is Ethical SEO I’m going to stop here.

In short then Google wants you to be exceptional enough for people to want to link to you.

Bonus Tip. How to Be Exceptional

And now the grand finale of the post… and the tip is…

You need to be exceptional…

If you succeed here then a lot of the other stuff is optional.

Being exceptional is not as tough as it sounds its more about being different, being aware of that difference and leveraging the difference to help your SEO.

Any Questions

I am happy to answer any questions you might have about Ethical SEO, feel free to comment below:

Will you fail because of a poor Business Name?

You want a name your prospects will identify with.

You want a name that helps your position in Google.

You want to run a website that succeeds.

Then you need to consider SEO when you’re thinking about Business Name Ideas.

Most especially you need to consider keywords when selecting your business name, because…

If your prospects search for a phrase then they are likely to identify with that phrase. If they identify with a phrase in your business name then they are more likely to identify with your business.

It’s never been essential to have a keyword rich domain name in order to rank in Google, but the consensus among SEO’s is that it helps, so why not at least consider keywords during the selection process.

The following ideas could help you find a killer business name that’s a perfect marriage between branding and SEO.

How to SEO Your Business Name Ideas

First you need to remember that it’s not a business name as such it’s actually a domain name that you’re looking for.

And as with all good SEO we need to start with the keywords.

Most essentially; you need to include you top keywords within the name, and if you’re interested in branding the business you also need to combine the phrases (perhaps along with another phrase) to create a brand.

For example ZapWebDesign.com contains the “web design” phrase and a phrase that makes the business name a potential contender as a brand; it also does what it says on the tin.

I think that the addition of “Zap” lends the above to being branded, but what about the addition of more common words like “Buy” or “Direct” would these be sufficient? Perhaps not, in the end you have to decide.

You may find that you can buy an exact match domain name (one that contains just your target keywords and nothing else). Exact match domains can be very powerful, although you should probably consider whether the resulting domain makes a great business name and brand.

Whether you want to brand or not if you want to help your SEO with a keyword rich domain name the following rules apply:

• Include your top keyword(s) preferably in the right order
• It’s preferable (but not essential) that your keywords come before any additional phrases
• Recombining several target phrases can also work well if done correctly
• Avoid hyphens; they are not great for branding purposes and maybe considered spammy
• Avoid numbers; people will end up typing in the other version
• It should be short and easy to type in (like when people search for you in Google)
• If you are targeting a specific country go for the Country Code top-level domain (CCtld), so for example if you are UK based I would go for the .co.uk
• Also consider the .com particularly if you are interested in branding, as a .com can receive lots of type in traffic
• You could also consider .net or .org which are ideal for some uses
• Personally I would avoid the more unusual CCtld such as .info, .ws, .cc and .name, please note that I know some SEO’s who think these work just fine

You should also consider the above points in terms of branding which I touch on below…

How to Take Charge of Your Brand

What is a brand…?

Well it’s more than just a name, or a logo, it’s really a relationship and encompasses… well more than I’m going to cover in this article. The point is your brand is nothing without a good name

But here are some important points to consider in terms of branding:

• Be objective; think how your prospects will view your name, for example nothing offensive
• Don’t be complicated; this will confuse people and they won’t remember you, not a good idea when it comes to branding
• Make it relevant to what you’re selling; hopefully with your main target keyword(s) hint, hint
• It should be memorable, easy to pronounce and easy to spell
• It should be easy to type in (like when people search for you in Google)

Warning: Prevent Possible Twitter Disaster

The Twitter username is limited to 15 characters.

So if branding and social media are important to you then you need to keep your domain name 15 characters long.

I have made this mistake myself and regretted it afterwards…

Another Warning: Legal Issues

Please note that (assuming that you’re UK based) you need to complete all of the normal searches at Companies House to ensure that you’re not treading on anyone’s toes. You also need to check the sensitive words lists also found at Companies House see: Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C and for Trademark infringement.

Ughhh I hate legal stuff; I’m not a lawyer OK so the above may not be an exhaustive list and also the above comments / links only relate to the UK.

Business Name Ideas! Speed Up Selection with Excel

You can use Excel to speed this all up, for example:

=CONCATENATE(A2,B2) joins the content of cells A2 and B2 together, you can add more cells to this formula if you wish.

=LEN(B3) shows the number of characters in the resulting cell (this example assumes that the complete name is compiled in B3) this can help ensure you don’t exceed the desired character number.

Now check the resulting names by searching your favourite provider.

Other Business Name Ideas!

Has anyone got any comments in terms of the rules they follow when sorting through potential Business Name Ideas? If so I would love to hear about them…

Buttons, Buttons everywhere… Twitter has launched a one-click ‘Follow’ button allowing site owners to “…increase engagement and create a lasting connection with your audience.”

Simply copy and post the code from here https://twitter.com/about/resources/followbutton into your website and users can click to follow you without leaving your site.  I have bitten and added the code see the nav bar.

Standard rules apply in terms of can you / should you be worrying about Twitter as a way to market your business.

Google has launched (and is now rolling out) a new social addition to its search results a Plus 1 Button, the button will allow users to recommend sites and share these recommendations with their friends.

Similar to Facebook’s “like” functionality it looks like we will start to see more and more reliance on the personal preferences of an individual surfer (and their friends) in the search engine results.

The recommendation will (where appropriate) influence the ranking within the organic search results.  The impact will be seen within the context of similar / relevant searches, even then the results are unlikely to catapult a site from zero to hero so no need to panic.  In short the likely impact will be to make certain sites more visible.

The company has used social clues from the likes of Twitter and Flikr to impact the results for over a year so this is part of a trend.

The feature will be extended to websites in due course.

I wonder how long it will be before someone link baits “Google Plus 1 Button the Death of SEO”.

What are your thoughts; obviously the button puts another tool into the arsenal of the search spammer.

As promised, behold the redesign of my blog… Oh and can I have some Guest Posts about SEO please?

Now that it’s redesigned all I need to do is to get people to read the dang thing, and start posting more often and life will be good.

New Year’s Resolutions:

• Post more on this blog.
• Stop making promises to myself that I can’t keep.

Amended New Year’s Resolutions:

• Yes try the above, but also ask people if they can help.

Given my recent illness and my determination to keep things moving, I have decided to open up this blog and allow a select few to submit Guest Posts.  I have some pretty strict rules about which sites I am happy to link to and how good the posts have to be.

Guidelines and Rules for submitting your Guest Post

Your SEO Guest Post should:

• Relate to SEO or Web Design.
• Be completely unique no spinning allowed (that includes spinning posts on your own blog).

Reasons why Guest Posts may not be approved:

• If they link thru to sites owned by a direct competitor.
• If they link thru to sites with no inbound links; I want to be sure that you actually care about your site.
• If they link thru to sites that look unprofessional, I want to be sure that your site has a decent reason for existing.
• If your Guest Post is overly self-serving.
• Not every submission is going to be posted, don’t be offended.
• I reserve the right to delete the article from this blog at any time, especially if you break any of the rules, or are found to be doing so after the fact.
• I won’t add Guest Posts that have not been spell checked and please no keyword stuffing.

Things to ask yourself before you submit a Guest Post:

• Is the Guest Post good enough to post on this blog? (chances are if it’s not good enough for your blog it’s not going to be good enough for mine)
• Could your Guest Post be improved, is it all that it can be?
• Do your research, if the Guest Post is inaccurate, makes flimsy conclusions etc.  (This is where my opinion counts) then it won’t be included on this blog.
• Is the Guest Post formatted in the best way?
• Have I made my Guest Post exciting to the soon to be much larger readership?
• Have I read David Leonhardt’s “The Golden Rules of Guest Blogging” or “The Five Unwritten Rules of Guest Posting on Blogs” by Danny Brown?

How to submit your SEO Guest Post:

Fancy submitting a SEO Guest Post then you may want to try the following:

• If you’re nervous perhaps think about reading this blog first and submit a few comments, NB: I operate a dofollow policy but only for those who leave decent comments.
• Send your Guest Posts to info [at] JustinMarch [dot] com with the subject line set as “SEO Guest Post” include your name and contact details.

I am pleased to announce that after lots of research, coding, site validation and a few headaches JustinMarch.com has finally been redesigned.

The site has been redesigned to reflect my decision to concentrate on my Web Design, SEO, & PPC services.  There is also a new page dealing with Social Media Marketing and a bunch of revamped pages including my Profile Page.  I am still offering simple Graphic Design Services to compliment my other work but Graphic Design will not be my main focus moving forward.

The redesign not only signals a determination to enlarge the business this year, but also a realisation that I have projects of my own that I want to start concentrating on.

The new site features updated graphics and focuses on pushing my SEO & Web Design services in the Gloucester and Cheltenham areas.

Next step is to redesign this blog in an effort to make it more readable and to help me get more enthusiastic about posting again.

It is essential that any new web design is thoroughly tested across the various browsers that the target site visitors may be using.  This is not as easy as it sounds there are a lot of browsers out there, Windows based users often use Internet Explorer (IE) but can also install additional browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Opera or Google Chrome.  Mac uses commonly use Safari but can also run Firefox or Google Chrome.  For more information see the W3schools.com  Browser Statistics.

While most modern browsers are fairly stable IE 6 and 7 are widely used and are particularly prone to displaying web pages with unexpected quirks.  The issue is further complicated by the limitations of Windows when it comes to installing more than one version of IE.  In order to test a web design there are thankfully a few alternatives to running a suit of Mac’s and PC’s:

Web Developers working with Windows
Luckily for me and other web developers who work with Windows the installation of the following software provides a good starting point for cross browser testing.

• IE Tester
  This fantastic piece of free software bypasses the problem of Windows limiting the number of IE installations on one PC.  Currently the software supports versions 5.5, 6, 7 and 8 of IE and you can view your page across all of these versions via a handy tabbed interface.
• Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Opera
• Safari
  Luckily there is a PC version of this the standard Mac browser.

Web Developers working on a Mac
Unfortunately Mac based Web developers are unable to run any version of IE unless they run virtual Windows software or set up a virtual PC.  Alternatives are to purchase a PC for testing purposes or to use the Cross Browser Testing Tools below.

Cross Browser Testing Tools
An alternative to installing software; there are a number of Cross Browser Testing Services available online, some free and some paid:

BrowserCam.com
A multitude of options on this rather confusing website include screenshots and live testing (depending on option selected).  Options include testing mobile devices and e-mail; prices start from $19.95 for one day of browser capture, but can sharply increase depending on your requirements.

CrossBrowserTesting.com
The service costs from $19.95 per month and includes automated screenshots and live testing.

BrowserShots.org
A free service; simply type in the web address that you wish to test, select the browsers and view the generated thumbnails. The service also allows you to set the screen size and enable or disable Flash and JavaScript.  It’s best to limit the number of browsers you select to prevent excessive waiting around.

Adobe Browser Lab
Compare side by side views of your test pages in different browsers using a Flash interface.  You will need an Adobe Account to view this site which is free until the end of 2010.

Please note this post is completely incorrect, I wish it was near April so that I could at least it was an attempt at a bad joke.  What it does do is remind me of how easy it is to attribute the wrong cause to a given occurrence in the search engines, which provoke comments like “My rankings have dropped why is Google punishing me?”

I am afraid I too have fallen into the trap of adding 1 plus 1 to come up with 5.

I noted in the post that the images were shown in Firefox with “Search Preview” turned on it is in fact this very add-on that adds these adverts. As stated in the following detail “For some search terms, this version will insert sponsored links into the Google search results (labelled as ‘SearchPreview Sponsored Links’).”

Source: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/189/

It’s an excellent add-on BTW great for establishing if a given site is worth looking at before you visit it.

Other cringe worthy points are:

“I have not seen this before and I cannot find any reference to this in the Adwords help”

[JM] And why would it be.

“It doesn’t appear in my other browser so am assuming that this is a test.”

[JM] No you dunce it’s an add-on Firefox not IE.

Searching on Google today I noticed the following when I typed in “Bristol web design” Google are now showing a “SearchPreview Sponsored Link” below the main PPC results, obviously this is a development leading on from the implementation of “Google Instant”.

SearchPreview Sponsored Link Bristol Web Design Full Screen

And here’s a close up:

SearchPreview Sponsored Link Bristol Web Design Close Up

NB: Images shown in Firefox with “Search Preview” turned on.

I have not seen this before and I cannot find any reference to this in the adwords help https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/search.py?hl=en-uk&query=searchpreview&ctx=en-uk:searchbox

It doesn’t appear in my other browser so am assuming that this is a test.

Google recently launched “Google Instant” a new enhancement to Google search that shows results as a user types in a search query.  The new functionality allows the user to see content much faster than before; the user will be shown results before they have finished typing in their search term and before they have even pressed the “search” button.  Google argues that this functionality will enhance the user experience as it allows users to modify their results on the fly, formulating adapted search terms influenced by the search results and predictions that appear as they type their search terms into Google.   

The most important part of the new functionality (if you are interested in SEO) is the smart predictions functionality, as Google puts it: “Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.”

SOURCE: http://www.google.com/instant/

Rather importantly the search results that Google Instant shows depends on individual personalisation settings (http://www.justinmarch.com/blog/google-search-engine-results-influenced-personalisation/) and where Google thinks a user is physically located.   

Rather predictably this has led many to make (er) predictions about the future of SEO including Steve Rubel, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital who argues that “Here’s what this means: no two people will see the same web. Once a single search would do the trick – and everyone saw the same results. That’s what made search engine optimization work. Now, with this, everyone is going to start tweaking their searches in real-time. The reason this is a game changer is feedback. When you get feedback, you change your behaviors.“ he goes onto state that “Google Instant means no one will see the same web anymore, making optimizing it virtually impossible. Real-time feedback will change and personalize people’s search behaviors.”

SOURCE: http://www.steverubel.com/google-instant-makes-seo-irrelevant

I agree with some of what Steve is saying here, I think that how people use Google will inevitably change as a result of Google Instant, however I don’t see the change as being negative to either the user or to good SEO’s.

Google Instant will affect SEO (but it won’t kill it)
It’s important to understand that good SEO is about improving more than the ranking for a given keyword it’s about improving the level of targeted traffic across the board for a range of phrase, along with increasing onsite conversion rates.  The fact is that good SEO starts with keyword research and that will never change the fact that the keywords themselves get more or less diverse is somewhat immaterial.  It maybe that that searchers will tweak their queries in real time but they aren’t going to completely switch focus mid search and end up purchasing a holiday in Mexico having started with the intention of sourcing a carpet fitter in Bristol. 

Articles about the death of SEO misunderstand what search engines actually are in that a search engine by its nature will always want to discover the most relevant results possible; otherwise it will become of little use to its users and will soon start losing market share. 

Fundamentally if user behaviour becomes impossible to predict this will not only destroy SEO but it will also make the Google Adwords system unworkable.  Since Adwords is itself based on predicting what users type in (and since this is the way in which Google monetorise itself) I just don’t see them continuing with a system that effectively flushes their company down the toilet.   

I think that Matt Cutts (Google’s anti-spam and SEO spokesman) put it best when he wrote: “The best SEOs recognize, adapt, and even flourish when changes happen.”
SOURCE: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/thoughts-on-google-instant/

So what else can we expect from Google Instant:

Google Instant will continue to predict search (just as badly as Google did in the past)
None of the search engines have ever been that good at determining user intent and this seems set to continue see: http://mashable.com/2009/08/11/funniest-google-suggest-results/

Google Instant won’t disrupt Google Rankings
Google Instant won’t disrupt Rankings, just to clarify this for all the SEO fraidy cats, as Google themselves put it “No, this change does not impact the ranking of search results.”
SOURCE:  http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-instant-search.html

Google Instant may lead to shorter search terms
Over the years there has been a steady increase in the number of words used within a search query, it seems likely that Google Instant may halt or reverse this trend and lead to an increase in the lower number 2-4 term searches.   Potentially searchers may find that less is more settling on the results provided by the 2-4 word searches rather than continuing to type in a long tail search term.

Google Instant may annoy users (or it may just be ignored)
Aside from the inaccurate predictions it would be interesting to know how many people will actively use Google Instant.  Google Instant will not appear when people search via iGoogle, use the Google toolbar or search via a browser’s search box.  It also occurs that many people are not trained typists and stare at their keyboards when they are typing, making the new functionality rather redundant in this instance.  Upon surfing the web it also seems to me that many users are actually annoyed by Google Instant, will this make a significant number of people turn it off or move over to BING, only time will tell?

Google Instant will disrupt Google Impressions (and may alienate Google Adwords Users)
Impressions are the number of times an advert has been displayed to web users, as Google Instant displays the results on the fly as the user types them in, there has been some concern that each change in results will count as an impression.  The reason why this is important is that the cost and performance of a Google Adwords Account is partly based on the Click Thru Rate (CTR) the higher the CTR the better.  

Google has clarified how Google Instance judges when an impression has occurred: 

“When someone searches using Google Instant, ad impressions are counted in these situations:
    * The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
    * The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
    * The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.”
SOURCE:  http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-instant-search.html

It does look like the number of impressions is set to increase which will be of particular concern to those inexperienced users using the Adwords system.

Google Instant will not lead to partial phrases appearing in Google Analytics

To clarify the most concerning point in terms of where users simply have to pause for 3 seconds for an impression to occur:

“The keyword analytics sends is not the partial one but the predicted query. If a user was typing “web metrics” but got the search result she wanted at “web met” with the predicted term being “web metrics”, then you will see “web metrics” in your Google Analytics reports.”
SOURCE:  http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-instant-search.html

Google Instant may boost Google’s profits (and alienate Google Adwords users)
As well as skewing impression data, it would seem that more generic searches containing fewer words are more likely.  Adwords accounts have become harder and harder to set up and I can well imagine the costs associated with generic broad match phrases in particular spiralling out of control for the inexperienced Adwords user.