Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Blazen Web Marketing Analysis
On 22/09 Google announced the new version of its Instant Previews feature, which Mark Reynolds of Blazen explained when he spotted Google’s testing of the feature.
The new Google Instant Previews can be accessed from Google’s organic results and in the PPC adverts at the top, as well as in the Site Links. Mark’s video shows how it works.
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Google’s announcement clearly shows that this innovation is to make searching quicker (and to reduce load on it’s server?) through encouraging more use of this feature:
“Sometimes you’re searching for a page with a specific type of visual - like a seating chart when you want to buy baseball tickets - but can’t tell from the results page which one will have exactly what you’re looking for. Or you’ve already seen a specific page and would recognize it in an instant if you saw it again. You can now quickly glance at a preview of the page without having to click and see if it’s the page you want.”
I’m not sure, even with this change how many users will use this feature - has anyone seen any data on this? But it is worth asking your search agency about how you fare against competitors, although it’s not “world changing”. As Mark’s video shows, this changes also applies to Adwords - so it’s also worth checking how your PPC landing pages look.
Mark suggests asking these questions:
Stand back and look subjectively at your website's instant preview.Does your website look professional, does it look inviting? Does it look clean, uncomplicated and easy to use? Does your text look easy to read, rather than being grouped together in one or two big clumps?
Start with the aesthetics and get those right, then hopefully the content that Google highlights is the content that motivates the searcher to click.
It’s also worth being aware of the implications of this in analytics. Since Google pre-fetches page previews for all the sites on the SERPS you can get additional visits in your Analytics. This post explains how you can identify these.
By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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