By Pete Dudchenko and Craig Macdonald

Google rolled out this week two key changes to their Search Engine Result Page and organic search management processes. The purpose of this note is to provide Covario clients with Talking Points on how to address these changes.

Issue 1.  Changes to the Google Search Engine Results Page

The Search Engine Result Page (or SERP) for Google has been altered. This change has been in beta for about 6 months now – and it appears to be gaining prominence in the last week.  The new SERP layout looks like this (for the example keyword “roller coaster”)

• Primary Results Zone.  There is a redesigned, image heavy “primary zone” at the top of the organic or natural search results section, which lays out advertisements in a quadrant, as opposed to the traditional stacked list format.
• Context Relevancy Section. In addition, there is a left hand navigation bar, which, in an obvious response to the other natural search results format on other platforms (Bing, Ask), provides navigation to related searches and related categories of information – including “Latest” which shows blogs, social media updates, and tweets.

The newly selectable search options help searchers refine the results and offer suggestions around related queries. Aside from the new left sided menu structure, the layout for the page appears to be the same except for some minor color and logo alterations. The natural results and the sponsored listings still appear to follow the same layout as before.

In addition, the same changes have been applied to Google’s Mobile search SERPs as shown below.   Note, this menu appears hidden by default and must be accessed through active selection by the user to view the refinement options.

The key issue for Covario customers to be aware is the impact of the “Any Time” section which now allows searching by a whole new dimension – time.  For example, the “Latest” link provides searchers with a pass through to a new SERP where the results are ranked by relevancy, but more importantly by recency. There are few statistics on this – however, the use case that Google is envisioning is that users will search for a topic, see a natural listing, then want to see if there are any updates to the information.  When they go to “Latest” they are going to see tweets, blogs, and other significant new content.    A couple of points on this.

• Google has not defined what an appropriate “agitation” of traditional content would be, so the process by which to be added to “Latest” is still unclear.  What is coming up often in the searches we conducted are postings on the subject on social media sources – digg and blogs being the most prevalent.
• This means that social media will take a larger precedence in SEO – in that having dynamic content is now a necessity to maintain premium content – in addition to excellent optimization.  The need for use of high traffic keywords in blog content, and having dedicated strategies on high value keywords to create significant new content to be positioned in the Google “Any Time” filters will become a part and parcel of SEO.
• And, it will be important the web analytics systems be able to follow clicks through to the Any Time section as these “derivative” clicks will need to be tracked through to the original search query in order to understand keyword share of clicks and impact on overall keyword strategy.

Issue 2.  Reported Change to the Google Natural Search Algorithm

The more critical issue is that it appears Google has made an adjustment to their algorithm logic for ranking natural search terms. [link to relevant articles?]  Here is what we understand at this time:

• Changes to the algorithm are usually made to improve the “relevancy” of search results.  This usually benefits larger advertisers – who tend to a) leverage “white hat” methodologies and b) tend to have better and more relevant content for appropriate queries.   The company does not often comment on the specific changes that are made – so there is often guess work that takes place in order for advertisers to understand what changes need be made to their website.  This case is no different.  Rampant speculation at this point – but nothing definitive and nothing from Google.
• Google recently had a patent awarded regarding how to improve the basic matching processes of multiple query length search phrases with underlying content.  It is our speculation that this change in the natural search algorithm is a result of that patent.
• There have been “hysterical” reports in the blogs and trade press about how the change in the algorithms is pushing ranking for multiple keyword phrase searches down – which is a ludicrous statement given that, for a  particular search query, the number of ups and downs is a zero-sum game.  If 10 listings go down, 10 must go up. Overall, we saw a net improvement in our customers' average improvements versus degradations in rank – but that is logical given our focus on larger brands.
• Either way, we have seen an uptick in ranking movement in the past week for multiple keyword search phrases.  We did a quick test on our Organic Search Optimizer database and the following sample of data shows the amount of movement we have seen.

Issue 3.  Will this Impact PPC

We don’t believe so, except in one area which is unknown yet.  Our tests showed that the Any Time buttons lead searchers to organic listings and to social media listing.  In no case did we see a click through to a paid listing. So it seems that this will have minimal impact on PPC programs at this time since advertisers cannot buy their way to the top of the Any Time stack. 

What could change this is purchased Tweets.  Twitter is running a beta now to allow advertisers to bump Tweets to the top of the Tweet stack in the Twitter data stream.  If Google carried these paid Tweets through, it would be a huge boon to Twitters program, and cause an obvious change to the approach to paid social media.  We think the likelihood of this is small, however, as Google tends to prioritize relevancy above payment – for now. 

Actionable Insights

We will continue to monitor this situation to see if we can ascertain the specific details on the changes that have been made.

Actionable Insight #1: Survey current high value keywords – top 50-100 on Google – and ascertain whether there have been any changes in ranking that are causing material impact on the program performance.  We have tested Organic Search Insight and Competitive Search Insight systems and both are able to analyze the new SERP structure – so we do expect to be able to provide the data to do this analysis directly within the system during the mid-May audit.

Actionable Insight #2: SEO will become increasingly about the generation of dynamic content, not just SEO.  The reason is the Any Time bar on Google, Bing, Ask and other search engines.  The need to constantly refresh significant content, even if through blogs, Tweets, Facebook updated, Linked In updates on brands, will be key if ~10% or more of searchers click through to Any Time links – then the branding opportunity will become so important, it cannot be ignored.  This will hasten a drive to combine SEO and Social Media practices within large organization.  The measurement of the clicks throughs, and the coordination of the placement on the main SERP with the Any Time SERP, dictated often by social media, will necessitate this organizational change.

Actionable Insight #3: If the hypothesis is correct, that the change to the algorithm for multiple keyword search queries is to improve relevancy, this should be to the benefit of larger advertisers.  If so, renewed effort and attention should be given to long tail SEO management.  


As more information comes available – we will update this POV to help customers hone their internal education of their search constituencies.