Do we want what Google “Suggests”?
- April 16, 2009
- by Stephen Murphy
Google recently announced the international launch of Google Suggest. For those not familiar with the tool, this manifests itself in the form of a “real-time” drop down menu whilst users are searching on Google. The drop down menu provides users with a variety of suggestions, which update as the user types their query. This service has been active on Google.com since August 2008, but has now been introduced to Google.co.uk.
How does Google Suggest work?
“Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal search history.”
The international launch of the service is now available to users in the UK who are viewing Google search results through the classic homepage (it doesn’t work if you are signed in or using iGoogle or through the Google toolbar), with localised filtering now imposed depending on which country users are searching from.
To use Google’s example, this means that if you type in “Liver” into Google in the UK, you are going to be served with Liverpool FC as the first suggestion. However, if you use the same query in the U.S, you will more likely see results linked to liver diseases.
Using Car Insurance as an Example
To apply a more relevant example to the search sphere… As most of us are aware, the search engine results page 1 for car insurance is amongst the most competitive within paid and natural search. So what happens when you begin to type in the most generic of car insurance queries?
As you can see from the example, Google will show the user a range of search suggestions, as well as highlighting how may results there are for each query.
In this example, the initial search query would have been “Car Insurance”, although I now have the opportunity to refine my search before I have even completed it.
What does this mean to users?
This development certainly sits well with Google’s aims to offer users the best experience and provide them with increased choice. So for users (who can opt out of this using their preferences if they wish) this seems like a step in the usual direction of more personalised, convenient, efficient and tailored search results. Do people need help to point them in the right direction? Do they actually care that much? I think that users will like this change and use it proactively in the same way it is used on YouTube for example.
What does this mean to advertisers?
Brands advertising through Google via PPC and natural search will undoubtedly be keen to understand how this will influence user behaviour. Most campaigns will already cover the potential gains from this small piece of functionality, but where the opportunity exists advertisers should attempt to tailor their PPC and natural search mix to maximise ROI. From a purely functional perspective, Google suggest can actually be used to benefit a search campaign at quite a basic level by:
• Highlighting some more obvious keyword opportunities
This applies to both paid and natural search, as potential keywords offering lower volumes but less competitive listings can be targeted. For paid search campaigns these will often be the less expensive keywords which will ultimately offer a brand lower acquisition costs and a higher ROI… naturally complementing the use of more competitive terms and lowering the overall blended cost per acquisition. The examples below could even be used to structure your PPC accounts more effectively to target any niches in your end user market.
• Highlighting negative keywords which you may not want to be advertising on
There is no greater crime than paying for traffic which you do not want! The use of robust negative matching should be an integral part of your campaigns anyway, but the Google Suggest tool can perhaps provide you with some additional guidance on terms which you wouldn’t want to generate a visit from but perhaps hadn’t considered.
What impact will this have on campaign performance through Google?
Outside of the relatively basic functional benefits, there are a number of possible implications of this change on the way your search campaign performs and how people interact with the Google search interface. I would expect that user search patterns will be influenced by this development, so look out for some of the following during the coming months:
• A drop in the number of unique queries and long tail keywords driving traffic to your website
• Fewer visits to your website from miss-spelled keywords as users are pointed in the direction of correctly spelled search queries. However, this isn’t an excuse to not include these in your account
• Growth in the slightly more specific/refined product led keywords or “tier 2” terms as some like to refer to them
• Potential increases in the competitiveness of the auctions on some of the examples highlighted above, which will inherently increase the costs within these auctions as advertisers look to target the terms being suggested by Google
So, do we want what Google suggests? From a searchers perspective I would say why not? From an advertiser perspective it can make you more aware of where to have a presence in your market. While this isn’t a completely new development (Yahoo! have been running this functionality for over a year) it will be interesting to see how it goes when this is exposed to 87% of the search market.
4 Comments
DIGITAL MARKETING MATTERS
Making it that little bit easier for the searcher to use the “short tail” keyword rather than go for the “long tail” (less expensive PPC keywords). The big terms - “car insurance” click throughs/CPC should go through the roof! Thoughts?
Chris McElroy
I see a lot more positive potential in this new feature than negative. I like the Google Suggestions. Gives you more insight into how users think and how Google applies that data to search results.