Yesterday I was presenting at the Webforward conference in Sydney. During the Q & A session, one of the question that was posed was “What according to me are the most significant changes in Google from an SEO standpoint over the last one year.” I talked about Google Universal search and local business results. While we were at the conference the Google team was at their Searcheology event where they announced the release of Google Search Options. It is basically enabling the user to further refine their search by presenting them with options.
Here is an example, I did a search for Jet Boating and on the blue bar with number of results is a new feature called show options. If I click on that I can further refine the search results to show me videos, reviews etc , get results sorted by time, see related searches. In this case it was trying to refine the search according to location. If I am a searcher who just wants to know more about the sport, safety tips etc it did not present with those options. What it did do in the last column was present few other entertainment options like bridge climb, go karting which is kind of cool.
In my opinion, this is more for the advanced searcher. For common users we just like the simplicity of Google search results and don’t want it to get cluttered or complicated. Personally, I don’t see myself digging deeper into search options unless the search results don’t match my query.
From an SEO perspective, nothing much has changed except keeping your site updated has become even more important.
Share your thoughts on what you think of this Google update.
