How Google’s New Layout Changes the Search Landscape

May 13th, 2010 | Link-Assistant.Com | Posted in category Google Search Engine Optimization Search News

You sure have already seen Google's new look-n-feel that was rolled out last week. Most of the changes Google makes to its search algorithm are quite subtle and go unnoticed by the majority of Internet users. This time it's different. The design update is very prominent and can significantly change the way people search the web. And when the searchers behavior changes, as SEOs we have to adapt to the new trends.

So let's take a closer look at the new Google as well as the challenges and opportunities it brings.

The new SERPs are a three-column layout with a permanent search options menu on the right, search results in the middle and PPC ads on the right.

Skipping the slightly revamped logo and the Bing-ish search box, the first thing you notice is expanded search options menu on the right. Although the search options have been available on Google for quite a long time, they were subtly hidden under the show options link, so few searchers actually used them. Now the menu is on by default and users are more likely to refine their search before clicking one of the search results.

We've yet to see the data on how Googlers use the search options but SEOs already report drastic traffic drops apparently caused by the new layout. Depending on what search channels you use to drive traffic to your site the new SEPRs can have either positive or negative effect on your traffic. If you actively optimize for image search, invest into video SEO, local search, news and other elements of universal search, the search options should bring you more exposure. If you don't do it yet, it maybe just the right time to start.

If you played around with the new Google, you probably noticed that although the left-hand menu is always on, the set of search options varies depending on the query. It may be just news and blogs, or images and videos with other options hidden behind the 'more' link. It's a good idea to explore what the SERPs look like on your most important keywords to see what search options are on by default. Then you can decide if it makes sense to try and get your website listed in these search sections.

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Asiaplay

Hi Linky,

Yes.. a big change in layout, which just has to lead to very large changes in traffic for some websites.

One area that should very much pick up traffic changes, is the use of people, choosing to show results based on "Country" only or in "Language" only - as these buttons are much more visible now than they were previously.

This got me playing with languages more, to see what results were returned... doing this I noticed another interesting thing which appears to have recently changed (I suspect with the same layout change, as it is the first time I have seen this)...
Even though this is not directly only "page layout" related, it's importance to "International" and languages web based marketing and SEO, made me think I should mention it anyway (especially now that I believe, that it is more likely that people will choose to search for results by country or language)...

Ok... I was playing with the "search result" pages shown for Google Hong Kong, viewed using the Chinese Menu (page), compared to English Menu (page)... and noticed that the results set shown for exactly the same "English" keyword search term, were different, depending on if a person is using google in "Chinese", verse if someone is using it in "English".
Note: previously the result set returned, used to be the same, irrelevant of which language one used Google in (from what I had noticed anyway).

For example:-
http://www.google.com.hk - you can choose the language you want to use google in English (Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese).
Put any English keyword into the browser box after you have choosen your Google language of choice and the result set changes, depending on the language you have choosen to use Google in !!!

This suggests to me that Google is now taking the "searching language" and I hazard to guess also the "website language" (perhaps language meta tag of a website or it's locale) MORE into account than it they were doing so previously.

Why is this interesting, some may ask?
In many markets, English (or another 2nd language) can be used for searching and sometimes has a higher search volume, than the native language of that country.
However google is changing the "web wide" results a person sees, based ONLY on what language a person chooses to use Google in (with the Google default language, being a person's default user agent language).

This obviously has big reprocussions for checking of ranking data, keyword data etc. for a given market
i.e. you MUST set the "user agent" to that of the target users language, not just of the target keyword search language.
e.g. for an English word targeting Hong Kong, the user agent would need to be set to zh-TW, as using en-US or en-GB would return very different results!!!
Thank goodness that Link-Assistant tools already allow the "user agent" to be set / specified!

Secondly, this means that to rank higher for the Bulk of users in a market, you might need to have your websites' "meta language tag" set to the browser default language for that market(e.g. Chinese), even if that does not match the language / keywords that your website is using.

I wonder if people have noticed this language change recently in other countries / languages as well?

Cheers - Asiaplay

PS: there is another strange thing for Hong Kong... and that is that the language code Google is using for Traditional Chinese in Hong Kong is actually zh-TW (it can be seen in the URL when one chooses to switch Google into Traditional Chinese) - why TW = Taiwan for Hong Kong results... my only guess is they are lumping Traditional Chinese results together globally and ignoring the country preference... (while Google for English is non country specific e.g. &hl-en and for Simplified Chinese uses &hl=zh-CN China).
This makes me think, "maybe" this is being done with other languages too... namely Google is:-
a) changing results based on the language Google is used in AND
b) grouping language results globally, by "language" Group and not by country or native language of the keyword itself (e.g. so that an English word searched for in a Spanish speaking country, returns a different search result set based on that word found within Spanish websites used worldwide and not just that country.. rather than the websites that English keyword is used on for English websites used Worldwide).

[Reply]

Link-Assistant.Com May 24th, 2010 at 11:42 am Like or Dislike: 0 1

Thanks for the insight, Asiaplay.

That's a really interesting observation. Google has been changing a lot of things lately and every change seems to bring about new challenges for SEOs. Tailoring of webwide results based on the user's language will certainly make the game yet a notch harder.

[Reply]
Asiaplay

Hi Linky,

Yes.. a big change in layout, which just has to lead to very large changes in traffic for some websites.

One area that should very much pick up traffic changes, is the use of people, choosing to show results based on "Country" only or in "Language" only - as these buttons are much more visible now than they were previously.

This got me playing with languages more, to see what results were returned... doing this I noticed another interesting thing which appears to have recently changed (I suspect with the same layout change, as it is the first time I have seen this)...
Even though this is not directly only "page layout" related, it's importance to "International" and languages web based marketing and SEO, made me think I should mention it anyway (especially now that I believe, that it is more likely that people will choose to search for results by country or language)...

Ok... I was playing with the "search result" pages shown for Google Hong Kong, viewed using the Chinese Menu (page), compared to English Menu (page)... and noticed that the results set shown for exactly the same "English" keyword search term, were different, depending on if a person is using google in "Chinese", verse if someone is using it in "English".
Note: previously the result set returned, used to be the same, irrelevant of which language one used Google in (from what I had noticed anyway).

For example:-
http://www.google.com.hk - you can choose the language you want to use google in English (Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese).
Put any English keyword into the browser box after you have choosen your Google language of choice and the result set changes, depending on the language you have choosen to use Google in !!!

This suggests to me that Google is now taking the "searching language" and I hazard to guess also the "website language" (perhaps language meta tag of a website or it's locale) MORE into account than it they were doing so previously.

Why is this interesting, some may ask?
In many markets, English (or another 2nd language) can be used for searching and sometimes has a higher search volume, than the native language of that country.
However google is changing the "web wide" results a person sees, based ONLY on what language a person chooses to use Google in (with the Google default language, being a person's default user agent language).

This obviously has big reprocussions for checking of ranking data, keyword data etc. for a given market
i.e. you MUST set the "user agent" to that of the target users language, not just of the target keyword search language.
e.g. for an English word targeting Hong Kong, the user agent would need to be set to zh-TW, as using en-US or en-GB would return very different results!!!
Thank goodness that Link-Assistant tools already allow the "user agent" to be set / specified!

Secondly, this means that to rank higher for the Bulk of users in a market, you might need to have your websites' "meta language tag" set to the browser default language for that market(e.g. Chinese), even if that does not match the language / keywords that your website is using.

I wonder if people have noticed this language change recently in other countries / languages as well?

Cheers - Asiaplay

PS: there is another strange thing for Hong Kong... and that is that the language code Google is using for Traditional Chinese in Hong Kong is actually zh-TW (it can be seen in the URL when one chooses to switch Google into Traditional Chinese) - why TW = Taiwan for Hong Kong results... my only guess is they are lumping Traditional Chinese results together globally and ignoring the country preference... (while Google for English is non country specific e.g. &hl-en and for Simplified Chinese uses &hl=zh-CN China).
This makes me think, "maybe" this is being done with other languages too... namely Google is:-
a) changing results based on the language Google is used in AND
b) grouping language results globally, by "language" Group and not by country or native language of the keyword itself (e.g. so that an English word searched for in a Spanish speaking country, returns a different search result set based on that word found within Spanish websites used worldwide and not just that country.. rather than the websites that English keyword is used on for English websites used Worldwide).

[Reply]

Link-Assistant.Com May 24th, 2010 at 1:42 pm Like or Dislike: 0 1

Thanks for the insight, Asiaplay.

That's a really interesting observation. Google has been changing a lot of things lately and every change seems to bring about new challenges for SEOs. Tailoring of webwide results based on the user's language will certainly make the game yet a notch harder.

[Reply]
http://www.chat2luv.com Richard

If its not broken leave it alone, something google obviously doesnt understand. Just as we seem to understand how the Great 'G' works, they deceide to change it!!

[Reply]
http://www.chat2luv.com Richard

If its not broken leave it alone, something google obviously doesnt understand. Just as we seem to understand how the Great 'G' works, they deceide to change it!!

[Reply]

How Google’s New Layout Changes the Search Landscape

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How Google’s New Layout Changes the Search Landscape

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