After nearly 4 years in the “lab”, Google Suggest has graduated.  For those unfamiliar, Google Suggest is a service not unlike Yahoo! Search Assist, which offers to complete a user’s query in real time based on some of the most popular searches.  The change could have more of an effect on some eCommerce Sites than they’d think:

Here is what users can expect:

Google is rolling the feature out to their regular Google.com search page at the moment, and expects to be complete by this Friday.  Come next week, Google will be “suggesting” at a rate of 100 million queries per day in the US (though the feature can be turned off).

It is hard to think of a reason why the end user will not welcome the change.  The suggestions can be used to correct spelling mistakes, help complete unfamiliar terms and incomplete ideas, and most obviously, save time.  In other words, this update sticks strong to Google’s credo of making search simpler for the user.  But many small eCommerce site owners may be more affected by the change than they think.

For your average eCommerce web site, fighting for that number one spot on Google can be a daunting task.  Typically, the best strategy is to target some key terms such as an individual product, manufacturer, or category, as opposed to targeting key industry terms.  For example, a small lacrosse equipment store might have better luck targeting their STX G22 with Crankshaft 7050 lacrosse stick in their link building and various other SEO efforts, rather than targeting the general terms “lacrosse equipment” or even “STX lacrosse sticks”.  For the small lacrosse ecommerce store, they’ll be receiving plenty of quality, ready-to-buy traffic when the user searches for the G22 with Crankshaft.  This long, targeted query is what’s known as the long-tail theory.

The “Suggest” effect comes when a potential buyer is recommended to pick up a G22 with Crankshaft stick online before the season starts.  The user begins entering their query, and they see this:

The user is confronted with some options.   At this point he or she may continue typing in that long tail keyword, or choose to hit their down arrow and select the STX G22 query.  Some may very well continue to type, but you can bet a good portion will take the easy road, and the results are pretty different for the two queries.  Not to mention the folks who’ll get distracted and wonder what kind of golf products STX makes (I didn’t know either!).

What kind of effect Google Suggest will have on queries remains to be seen.  We may see some of the higher volume terms receive even more searches, and a decrease in the longer tail searches.  The SEO field is divided.  At the very least, search engine marketers should be taking Google’s suggestions into account when targeting new terms.

For some other opinions on the topic, check out Michael Jensen’s “How Google Suggest Changes SEO“,  Scott Clark’s “9 Ideas How Google Suggest Could Change Search Marketing“, and Aaron Wall’s “Free SEO Tips for Google Search Suggest“.