Search Improvements from Google – What effects will they have?

Yesterday, Google announced two new amendments to the way that search results are presented to the user – extra search refinements and longer snippets for 3+ word searches.

We’d seen those search refinements in action already – look at the number there are for [search engine optimisation].

My guess is this shows a likely second search from a user; what isn’t certain is whether this is before or after clicking on results from the first search. They are still showing the brand bias that we have mentioned before.

What these related searches will certainly do is increase the already strong tendency for people to search again on a query, instead of going on to page two – particularly given their position at the bottom of the page.

From an SEO point of view, it means that the importance of the first page is reinforced; not that we needed it reinforcing how important it is.

And what of longer snippets?

These should reduce the number of people returning to click a second result, because the first one they clicked was a better match. Whilst frequent queries use click through analysis to determine the relevant results (moving up the sites that are clicked on more often), longer tail queries don’t have enough data to make this part of the algorithm work.

Giving the user more information helps them make a better choice the first time round. I’d surmise that Google’s testing on this behaviour showed that the longer the query string, the more times the user returned to the search page to click on a different result. I know that is what happens to me!

Overall, both these refinements are part of the Google mantra to improve the search experience – getting users to the results they want faster.