In their pursuit to maintain their position as the most popular search engine, the innovators at Google have added new search tools to improve functionality. Although it is understandable for them to continually improve the user experience, such changes do have ramifications for websites that rank well in organic search results.

Google’s most recent round of updates provides some additional tools for refining your search, providing useful benefits for the user – which is, after all, Google’s number one concern. But what difference does it make to the way you market your website?<!–more–>

Adapting to Google’s New Update
Google announced the launch of the latest new search features in May, calling them Search Options. These changes provide significant new functionality to the way users can refine their search. Hardcore search users will undoubtedly welcome such new features.

The New Features
The new features can be accessed once you have conducted a search. Once your search results are returned, you will see a ‘Show options…’ link situated to the left of the blue bar above the first website listed. Click on this link and a new left column will reveal a number of options for sorting the returned search results, such as:

Sort by content: The first option allows you to sort the suggested search results by content types, letting you view the results from videos, forums, and reviews.

Sort by time: View the suggested search results according to when they were created – most recent, last 24 hours, past week, and past year.

Change the view: This option allows you see more text and images from the suggested search result pages.

Additional tools enable users to see related searches and some suggested search options as well as a timeline view function.

You can also combine the sort options to see, for example, ‘videos relating to your search term posted last week’. Used in such a way, these advanced search functions will significantly improve the way searches are conducted.

What do the changes mean to you?
With additional search-refining tools sure to follow, it’s important to make sure your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts can adapt to reflect how your website can be found. Here are some ideas:

• Publish your content in different formats and across various platforms. This will let you take advantage of the ‘sort by content’ feature, potentially improving your ranking position once the searcher refines the content (by videos, for example).
• Keep your website (or business blog) updated and the ‘sort by time’ search option could potentially catapult your newly posted content above your strongest competitor, allowing you to win new traffic that might otherwise not come your way.
• Focus on the quality of your content. The ‘change view’ option will immediately allow the searcher to see more of the content on your page before clicking through; using images where appropriate will immediately convey your strongest message right from within Google’s search results.

In some ways, Google’s new search tools completely levels the playing field, enabling quality content providers to gain some advantage over competitors with huge SEO budgets. If you would like help with improving your SEO efforts, call us on 01484 690430.