Search Engine Optimization

As cited yesterday on our blog and by Barry at search engine land, Google launched a new search feature.

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Google officially announced it:

“Through experimentation, we found that presenting users with a search box as part of the result increases their likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for. So over the past few days we have been testing, and today we have fully rolled out, a search box that appears within some of the search results themselves. This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within a specific site. Like the rest of our snippets, the sites that display the site search box are chosen algorithmically based on metrics that measure how useful the search box is to users.”

This is essentially a continuation of Google sitelinks. Sitelinks appear whenever users do a navigational query. Examples:

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• Yahoo
• SEO Book
• SEO Montreal

As mentioned yesterday, when you use a search box, Google plugs a command:

keyword site:url.com for example: test site:nasa.gov

This search feature partially replaces internal search engines for some websites, as their relevancy is usually somewhat poor compared to Google.

Where did this come from?

It looks like Google is doing the best it can to spoil users. Google says the idea came from careful observation of navigational queries. Navigational query occurs when users enter a domain of the website saving the hassle of going through www….com. Google made an observation, after queries such as “nasa” people would come back and search for “nasa telescope”.

Why not let them search for that telescope right away?

I think it’s brilliant. 65% worldwide search market and going up? Yahoo + Microsoft won’t stop it.

It’s important to note – using the search box you are not using internal search engine(as many featured sites have it), but relying on Google’s index instead.

The Implications

Google selects domains based on algorithmical formula(at least it says so). It probably involves number of queries related to the website and a number of total pages featured on the site itself.

So far the domains with search box are the biggest on web:

• Workopolis
• New York Times
• NASA
• Wikipedia
• Ebay
• Amazon

And many more

Chances smaller guys having their own private Google search box are next to nothing as it requires strong, viral brand.

Looking at it from SEO side – is basically more work/innovation. Portals such as Workopolis will have to pay more to harner their job board to be more search friendly. Though general SEO for basic keywords is the key, having search friendly job posting board will only be of advantage to searchers.

People smell a scent of information. When searching, they want that scent represented as bolded keywords. If I searched workopolis using the new google search box for SEO and didn’t find SEO bolded in the title, I’d be disappointed.

The solution may lay in database tweaks, including refined keywords in page title by default.

Other portals, such as amazon and ebay may lose some traffic, as some users will prefer Google search. On the other hand they stand a chance of getting more direct visitors. The “I know exactly what I need” type. Come > click > buy and close. The best buyers.

Unless SEO company is invlolved with high tier branded clients, search box is not a worry, but if a website gets direct Google searches, large scale onpage optimization is something to look into.