Regarding Dale Lovell’s letter (nma 30 September 2010), Google Instant has certainly had an impact on the search space. But is this for the better? Analysis is already illustrating an increased importance on retail keyword terms related to coupons, promotions and vouchers, because these terms are so popular. As a result, Google’s search suggestions have become even more powerful. However, discount-related keyword terms are leading the way in recommendations.
Google Instant is already squeezing the long tail, which is likely to drive up the competition and, therefore, costs of popular core brand and generic terms. Who are the winners? Voucher code sites.
For example, if you type in ’ASOS’, the first recommendation is for the site, the second is ’ASOS discount code’, and three further discount variants feature in the remaining eight suggestions. A user could end up seeing results for ’ASOS discount’ when they weren’t even looking for it. Not only is Google changing the long-tail search space, it’s highly possible it’s changing user intent, impacting consumers, agencies and, significantly, merchants’ margins. And as voucher searches grow, the inclusion of voucher-related terms in Google’s suggestions will grow, increasing search volume exponentially. Voucher code sites are going to have a great Christmas.
