Google changes the game… again

Those excited cheers you heard this morning weren’t coming from the Coalition party room (although they apparently were pretty happy), but rather from the search engine optimisation experts around the world.

While judging SmartCompany‘s Web Awards a few months ago, it was clear that the SEO playing the field had really levelled out. Most website operators had a very good working knowledge of SEO and had developed solid keyword strategies. SEO experts we spoke to as part of the judging process confirmed the trend – the gap between the best SEO users and the worst had narrowed considerably.

Well, you can forget that now. As Patrick Stafford explains today, Google’s new search product, Google Instant, will change the landscape and force every entrepreneur to review the SEO strategy.

And, most likely, they’ll go out and get the help of their local SEO expert – whose business has just received a giant shot in the arm today.

The idea behind Google Instant is that it uses predictive technology to show lightening fast search results that change as you type your search query.

So for example, start typing the word “SmartCompany” and with each letter you type you will see search suggestions and, in the background, changing search results.

While SEO experts are still digesting exactly what the changes mean, the feeling is that companies will need to try to rank for a lot more keywords (and variations of those keywords) than they currently do.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt says it’s all about speed.

“Our new definition of Google, we’re trying to get you something fast – never underestimate the importance of fast,” he told a conference in Germany.

Schmidt also hinted that this is the start of something much bigger in Google’s world, where it starts to use a wealth of personal information to deliver much more personal search results.

“Ultimately, search is not just the web but literally all of your information – your email, the things you care about, with your permission – this is personal search, for you and only for you.”

It’s early days of course, but that sort of idea would probably make life harder for website operators and SEO experts. It would seem logical website owners are going to have a much harder job figuring out how their potential customers are going to find them, given the website owner won’t have much of an idea of how personal data is influencing the search results.

And there will no doubt be debate about how Google is using personal information. Overnight, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joked that “Google wants to be the third half of your brain” while Schmidt painted a future where Google showed users how to live their lives.

“We can suggest what you should do next, what you care about. Imagine: We know where you are, we know what you like.”

As some commentators have suggested, it all sounds a bit over-the-top.

But it’s all very possible too – and why SEO has just become a huge challenge again for website owners.