One of the biggest stories of the month so far (alongside Personalised search, of course) is Google’s dive into real time search, in the form of ‘Latest Results’. On certain searches Google will provide & update real-time results (pulled from newspapers, magazines, blogs & social networks – primarily twitter) into the results page.
This video highlights quite nicely what ‘Latest Results’ is all about…
Much has already been written about the potential spamming of Google’s result pages as a result of this update, so I’m going to focus more on the reputation management side of the story for the time being.
This change has been met with some consternation from the SEO community who, quite rightly, feel that they’ve lost a degree of control over the results pages for any given search due to uncontrollable real-time results.
Imagine years of hard work getting to #1 for a competitive generic keyword only for a red-hot prospect to be put off by a slightly negative tweet about the brand, or your PPC quality score falling as CTR drops from the result of negative tweets on a search that you advertise against.
As ever though, the search industry will roll with the punches. To me there’s a few clear strategies advertisers can employ to regain an element of control over the SERPs.
Increase PPC coverage
This is still one area where advertisers have a great level of direct control over their listings. The age-old question of PPC advertising on pages where you have a natural ranking now has a new factor to consider. If it costs you to appear towards the top of the page but it stops the user scrolling down to real-time content that you can’t control, don’t you think it’s worth considering?
Full optimization of digital assets
Universal search might not be the answer to all of life’s problems – but it’s certainly a handy tool in the fight against volatile results pages. From what I’ve read about & seen of Latest Results, it’s rarely at the expense of universal search (it’s not one or the other). Optimise all of your digital assets so that you stand a chance of getting your pictures & videos appearing on the search engine results pages.
It’s another element of the results page that a brand can try to influence – potentially taking away eyeballs from real-time results. Really, this sort of optimisation is something all brands should be doing anyway, but I would argue this is even more important given the situation brands now find themselves in.
Online (Real-Time) Reputation Management
This is something that a lot of brands seem to have been taking more seriously in 2009 and it’s a trend which will only continue in 2010. Previously brands entering into the social media environment (and by this I mean in a social role, not just showing display ads alongside Facebook pages) have been told that they need to relinquish control & accept user’s comments, for good or for bad. Well now the problems that brands entering into the social environment faced will be faced by all brands – reputations can be made or broken before a user has even clicked away from Google’s results page.
Companies have started to pay agencies to track online ‘buzz’ & feedback on whether it is mainly positive, negative or neutral – then they can work together to come up with a strategy to make the best of the situation. This might not be enough anymore, brands need someone who can quickly sooth annoyed consumers (and stop FAIL trends appearing) and likewise encourage those with good things to say about the brand to be more vocal. Strong comments will increase natural & paid CTRs on search engine results pages, while negative comments will have opposite effect.
Summary
We talk constantly about the ‘online ecosystem’ that consumers live in, but this Latest Results change from Google will really force brands to reconsider their preconceptions. Doing search without a social strategy will soon seem archaic, as will brands who don’t properly tag & seed digital assets all over the web. The integrated planning that should currently be going into PPC & SEO will also also need to be realigned and fully integrated with said social strategy & buzz monitoring activity.
In short, the ecosystem lives and Latest Results feeds it – brands that embrace it can survive & prosper, but ignoring it is not longer a feasible options for brands who are serious about online.
