Blog | Google Instant: Why SEOs shouldn’t be rewriting the how to handbook just yet

I’ve been monitoring the buzz on Google instant from the media  and the blogosphere and many SEOs are keen to set out the stall as to what Google instant means for SEO.

STOP. PLEASE.

Here are three reasons why:

1.    Instant search has been tried before and it didn’t take off. There is a distinct chance Google might bin this sooner or later anyway - or just keep it as a sub division on their main search.  It may save all the time in the world, but if it eats up processor power and bandwidth and no one like it then they will scrap it.
2.    Nothing had changed it the search algorithm or even how the results are displayed – they just appear faster. Nothing about how your site ranks has changed
3.    Linear search optimisation is in itself a flawed concept – unless you have time and money to waste on optimising for highly competitive terms that are totally unrelated to your main focus, you just aren’t going to do it.

All of these are good enough reasons to stop trying to reinvent the SEO wheel, but there is one other reason that overrides them all.

I don’t think people will change their search behavior because of instant search.

I haven’t yet– and I don’t see myself doing so any time soon.  I still type in the full search query I’m looking for – and I can't see that changing.

I type pretty fast, but even a slower typist doesn’t look at the screen after every keystroke to check the results, so I can't see people changing their behavior here.

The only thing that might change for me is that I will probably get out of the habit of pressing the return button at the end of the search – but that’s about it – and that won't affect SEO at all.  

Of course, there is one other reason why Instant Search won’t mean a change for SEO, and that’s bandwidth. You need good bandwidth to use instant search or it just defaults back to standard search - and we have all had problems with that!