Google is about to roll out Google Suggest onto the main Google search page after a few years in beta.
At present a lot of people have search history drop down boxes generated by their browser like the one below that show the users search history as an aid to save them from typing common queries again in full.
These will now be replaced by results like the ones below generated by Google that show popular queries other people are searching for.
Can you tell the difference? I can but 95% of Google users won’t be able to.
Search Suggest is actually a very clever move by Google, as well as helping people search they are able to direct them away from long tail queries and towards the very lucrative Adwords filled short tail queries.
Some blogs are already predicting a fall in long tail traffic because of this.
Personally I don’t predict that websites will see any difference in the traffic they receive but I have no doubt whatsoever that this enhancement in user experience will have the added effect of making a few million dollars a year in revenue for Google.
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I happen to disagree, I think the long tail will grow with this enhancement because most users don’t think of searches beyond Shania Twain but once they have all those suggestions they will look and say hey I could choose – or if they were clever have typed it themselves – shania Twain lyrics fun with boots on.
This will send them to precisely what they wanted and ‘precise’ searches are the long-tail.
So nope I couldn’t disagree with you more. This will expand user horizons and give them a chance to see what else is out there if they just made a few tweaks to their searches.
Good discussion point though. I only started reading your site and like it.
Cheers
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Roger thanks for the comment & welcome to Blogstorm.:)
From my tests with Google Suggest they only seem to show results with moderate search volume in the suggestions – they don’t show true long tail queries.
You are right they might expand their horizons a bit however the results Google suggests are all likely to be popular ones (and therefore commercial).
More comments from Patrick AltoftFair play, but for me the Long-Tail doesn’t exist in volume yet as my mom and even my sisters don’t have a clue how to search so that leads me to believe that users need to be educated and this tool educates and re-enforces the existence of alternatives.
An aunt called me the other day to help her find music lyrics online. And I said “Auntie…(in that cute way), all you need to do is put “’s around a specific…..” and you your song will come up usually right away.
They don’t know. The fastest growing demographic has no idea how to find their information so no way Suggest can be bad as they are users that would never find the long-tail but they might once they get their head around it. Same with my sister she is in her 40’s which means she is in her highest earning years and she has no clue.
That is a huge amount of the market the long-tail isn’t even reaching which means the current ‘online’ long-tail is reaching 5% of 5% (just an example don’t quote me), if you know what I mean.
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The long tail is pretty big – 25% of all queries are brand new never been seen before.
More comments from Patrick AltoftI know I have the book on my shelf but its 4am for me so I figured I would slap down my perspective by using any old number.
I think my point still stands regardless of the numbers you replace my with, no?
PS. I don’t like your commenting system. Just wanted you to know that it is really irritating and likely to keep me from commeting in the future.
Cheers for the chat.
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Yes it’s rubbish – we have a new design and system coming in the next week or two.
More comments from Patrick AltoftI like the commentary Pat. I’m inclined to agree with your analysis that this will funnel folks towards the shorttail where advertisers abound. Should also cut into the margins of search campaigns that took the time to build out well and create massive keyword lists with targeted copy, since they’ll have less volume.
All for one, and Google for itself
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P.s. I like threaded comments.
Interesting discussion, Patrick and Roger
I can understand both sides of the argument, but am leaning slightly towards Roger’s perspective. I’m pretty tech-literate, but I still find the suggestions Google currently offers in the toolbar version are often useful, especially when I’m not at my brightest!
They can help me more quickly find a way to phrase my query, or they can suggest queries I hadn’t thought of, which can lead to useful tangents
Cheers, Jon
Very interesting observation. I hadn’t even considered this possibility… If this is the case, webmasters can also opt to reoptimize their websites for these ‘Adwords’ keywords.
Additionally, the search feature is only on the main homepage. Users probably perform more searches from inner Google pages, so… there will still be a lot of user-selected search terms.
This search functionality already exists… and is live…
check out google.fr
I noticed it the other day while checking my international ppc campaigns, and was surprised to see it to say the least!
Martin
Yes i also found this google.com
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