The announcement of Google Instant made shockwaves throughout the online world, far beyond RE.net, with many wondering how that would affect SERPs. In an industry heavily dependent on traffic coming by way of search engines, any major changes in algorhythms, patterns, services, etc., can have a monumental effect and is to be taken seriously.
Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team and summarily the public voice of 
Google when it comes to SEO practices, answered “Does Google Instant kill search engine optimization (SEO)?” with an unequivocal ‘NO!”
What Google Instant does (and does remarkably well) is bring a functionality that had been lacking: an intuitive ability to search-as-you-type by predicting terms that an individual may be searching for, while remaining relevant and providing an user-friendly experience.
I, for one, did not initially enjoy having terms spelled out for me, after all, my line of thinking was ‘I know what I am searching, I don’t need a silly computer to fill it out for me’. That is until I gave it a chance, it allowed me an effortless, yet more thorough, search experience that went well beyond my expectations.
For now, real estate professionals should continue practicing solid SEO fundamentals/principles of on-site optimization (meta data implementation and valuable content creation) and off-site optimization (to include emphasis on quality link-building).
After all, whether it’s SEO, real estate (and for many of us, a marriage thereof) or any comparable industry, those who are able to conform/adapt to their environments will succeed when their peers do nothing but complain.
Somebody has to be #1.
Good point, Alex. Too many people called this the end of SEO, yet they were jumping the gun too early. Good sound principles will go far, regardless of what changes Google makes. After all, SOMEBODY has to be on the first page.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Google Instant is pretty cool but really doesn’t have much affect on SEO. To date, the biggest effect on SEO and search engine rankings was the Google Brand update in early 2009. Google for years has always been about providing a level playing field but as soon as the “brand” update took effect, things changed.
I now see sites ranking in the top spot for competitive key words even though they have no business in that position but because Google gives so much weight to brands, they hold these top spots.
The days of a level playing field are over!
October 1st, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Good points, Tony. I wrote this article as a response to the many blogs posts on SEO sites which claimed that Google Instant was changing all major principles and fundamentals (claims which Matt Cutts summarily put to rest). Competing against the big brands can be disheartening. I would suggest focusing on longtail phrases; as much juice as the big brands have, they can target but so many major search terms… Besides, longtail searches typically result in visitors who are further along in their search and more likely to be serious (at least from my observations).
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:32 am
Google Instant is good, but may be Google will change its policy of SEO to provide more faster searches and results. Lets hope for good. Offsite Link Building can also help Google to redefine its search parameters.
July 26th, 2012 at 5:13 am
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September 10th, 2012 at 5:17 am