Posted by Ian Macfarlane July 22nd, 2009
Google Suggest and search refinements were introduced at the end of March this year. How have they impacted the shape of search?
Note: This article focuses on the UK search market.
The folks over at Latitude have written up an interesting piece looking at whether or not the introduction of Google Suggest in the UK has resulted in any changes to the volumes of searches for the search terms which are suggested.
The expected effect would be an increase in suggested search terms as they get more exposure, along with a corresponding decrease in more generic short tail searches and possibly a drop in the long tail as well. Additionally, this should also result in fewer searches for mis-spelled queries, as Google Suggest can correct spelling mistakes on the fly.
The changes expected from the introduction of Google Suggest are very much in line with the type of changes introduced by Google Search Refinements – in fact, Google launched these two new features only a week apart. Therefore, it is likely that the changes in overall search patterns reflect a combination of these two changes.
Let’s have a look at some of the findings. Some examples are really compelling, such as the huge increases in searches for [pet insurance comparison]:
[credit - image from referenced post]
Many queries recommended by Google Suggest have experienced a rise since April, although these growth rates have generally been much lower than the rate for the search term [pet insurance comparison] shown above.
However, the picture isn’t completely consistent across the board. The example of [car insurance compare] isn’t entirely accurate, given the way that Google Insights for Search matches queries. Most people are searching for variants in the phrased form “compare car insurance” (the queries for which correlate well to the set of searches containing any of these words. However, queries including the phrase “car insurance compare” are much lower than this, and volumes are relatively flat.
Note: A side effect of this quirk with Google Insights for Search is that it’s not really possible to determine accurate relative search volumes for more generic terms (which we would expect to have declined slightly) as any generic query entered will also match long-tail variants, including those provided by Google Suggest. You can get some mileage with negative keywords in some instances (here is an example, although this isn’t related to the introduction of Google Suggest) but in general this isn’t suitable.
One area in which the introduction of Google Suggest is expected to have an impact in reducing a particular type of query is with mis-spellings – unlike Google’s other technologies for providing search refinements and spelling corrections, where only after a mis-spelled query has been made is the opportunity is given to correct it (potentially resulting in a second, correctly-spelled query), Google Suggest can prevent mis-spellings from ever happening at all. Here’s an example of a common mis-spelling of the UK’s most popular search term in 2008:
It’s very difficult to pin down a particular trend to one specific change made by Google. There are constantly many changes being made to Google’s search results – 359 last year alone. Some of the experimental features which Google runs never see use beyond a small test group, whilst others are seen by so many people that they’re common knowledge in the SEO industry before they are officially announced. The dates that Google provides for product launches are only rough indications of the dates by which the majority of users will have had access to a feature.
It is also important to note that different features can have related effects – for example, Google’s search refinements launched just a week before Google Suggest came to the UK and both would be likely to have a very similar impact (although I would expect that Google Suggest has a greater impact here than search refinements, due to its relative prominence as a feature).
Side note: The spelling suggestions example above is another good example of need for care with attributing a particular impact on search results on a specific change by Google – around the same time that Google made the changes described above, they also made some changes to spelling correction.
Nevertheless, the data does seem to indicate that the introduction of Google Suggest and search refinements has had the expected effect on search patterns. To round up, I’ll quote the summary of my previous article on search refinements:
As with any change in Google there are winners and losers. Searchers will be more likely to use a wider variety of search queries, meaning that the number of potential visitors will be spread out more evenly across multiple queries. As different websites will rank for different terms, this may result in a “spreading out” of visitors across a greater number of different web sites.
Sites that ranked well for high traffic terms might potentially see a drop in traffic, but the increase in search precision from these more targeted phrases should hopefully mean that searchers are directed to the pages on your site that are most relevant to what they are looking for. That, I think we can all agree, is good for everyone.
Tags: Google, international, keywords, language, long tail
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