What is 'Google Instant' and does it impact SEO?

[watson.johe86]

Google instant, of course, refers to the 'instant' results you see as you start typing a search. Don't confusee this with Google suggest, which are the instant pull down suggestions! They are different.

So, assuming we are talking about Google instant, most people believe that Google Instant is encouraging searches to consolidate around the short tail searches and particular word order that Google suggests. Therefore it becomes more important to focus on the short tail, and on the exact word order of your target searches.

But no one knows for certain, yet, what the real impact will be on user behavior. I personally do not like Google Instant. I find it annoying and often turn it off - so there may be many people like me, that do not use it. Time will tell.

 

[tomjorge74]

As the example image below illustrates, the default state of Google Instant uses up almost 200 additional pixels versus the previous design, eliminating space that would have been used to show two more organic search results above the page fold. That means users running in 1024×768 resolution are likely to see only one organic search result above the page fold along with three sponsored search results.