Google Testing Website Previews in Search Results

Just a few weeks after successfully launching Google Instant, reports from all over the web world are pouring in that the tech giant is already testing their next possible product: A full page image preview of target websites with blue backgrounds hovering over search results if you scroll over them.

A page preview of the webpage pops up on the side of the search result page with certain section of highlighted text relevant to the search query and by clicking on this image you will be taken to the full website.

Here is an example of how the My Voucher Codes website appears in the preview.

The fact that the highlighted text is relevant to the search result shows that Google has the technology to bring out the exact piece of text on every single web page indexed for the search terms.

Its worth noting that the full details of a longer web pages will not be shown in the preview, the page will be cut off at a certain point. This gives even more weight to the rule that all the important information on your webpage should be above the fold.

This testing is not be confused with the thumbnail previews that Google introduced about a year ago as a search option (available in the left hand options bar).

Google is yet to confirm if this just a test or if Google plans to roll this out to all their users. When Mashable approached Google about it a spokesperson simply said: “At any given time we are running between 50-200 search experiments”. Clearly Google is giving nothing away!

Page Preview could dramatically affect click through rates as we will get to see the effect of web page designs has on converting searches into visitors.

As a daily Google searcher, I would love this feature to become a staple in the Google search results. The layout and design of a website plays quite a role in determining if I am going to purchase from the site or not.

How Google Instant Will Impact Your SEO & PPC Campaigns Read more: How Google Instant Will Impact Your SEO & PPC Campaigns

The introduction of Google Instant means that searchers can constantly refine their query without actually clicking on the “search” or “enter” button and still get a concrete list of better & faster results. However, many are trying to figure out what effect Googl

e Instant will have on their businesses and are asking “is SEO dead?” The answer is simple: “Of course not.”

Google Instant does not change the ranking process of Google’s search results (says Google engineer, Ben Gomes). However, SEO techniques are continuously changing and although Google Instant Search will not kill SEO, there might be a few changes to your SEO strategy.

How will Google Instant affect your SEO/PPC strategy?
Google Instant will now change how many people see and click on your site because for all you know Google Instant could be persuading searchers to enter a completely different keyword than what they had actually set out to search for.

The first major change is in the drop down “suggestion box” that tries to predict queries even before they are completely typed. Depending on the query, the search result occupies one and sometime up to three of the advertisement positions on the first page. Google is bringing the paid and universal search listings as high as possible, but is simultaneously pushing the SEO results “below the fold.”

So you need to plan out your SEO strategy keeping in mind:

• Your page Titles are going to need to be even more compelling than before.

You need to not only attract the searcher to your listing, but you have to get them to commit to the search query. That’s going to take a lot of engagement on your part.

• Take a close look at what long tail keywords Google Instant suggests.

Make sure you have a page ranked for all the important variations. Show up, no matter what final keyword string the searcher commits to.
(Suggestions from Andy Beal)

• Top ranking is now more important than ever.

Users are less likely to scroll below the fold as related results are instantly reconfigured as the search query is completed.

Good & bad news for PPC advertiers:

Google’s Johanna Wright says there will be no change to the ranking of ads under Google Instant, however ad impressions will change (for the better). Google will now record an ad impression if a searcher types a partial query and clicks within the search results page or if he stops typing for three seconds while an ad is displayed.
For PPC campaigns it will calculate as an impression (affecting CTR) only after a pause of three seconds.

Showing PPC ads on “predictive queries” that may or may not be relevant to what the user is ultimately searching for could push down the click-thru-rates of these ads.

Here is what Google’s Advertiser FAQs say:

• 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.

At an average of 9 seconds per query, that’s 2 additional add impressions before a customer actually tells Google exactly what they are looking for. This should give your business even more exposure to searchers.

While Google Instant is great for searchers by giving them faster results, it will certainly pose a challenge for business owners and search marketers.