Initial thoughts on Affiliates and Google Instant

Having just caught some of the Live video stream on Google’s new launch Google Instant, I've scribbled down some initial threats and opportunities.

Affiliate Concerns

• Auto-correction of spelling mistakes within the search box
• A big rise in CTR for potentially unrelated terms in Adwords (time will tell)
• A 3 second pause = impression for QS purposes
• Affiliates appear to be wiped out of single term keywords; especially brands
• The long tail devalued as users are tempted by shorter recommended keyword phrases

Opportunities

• The keyword research tool / suggest just became a lot more influential!
• Could we see optimisation for partial words or phrases?
• Search behaviour changing
• The long tail devalued as users are tempted by recommended keyword phrases!

I'm no SEO expert so I’ll leave it all the real SEO’s to digest, however I thought I’d share my initial reaction from an affiliates perspective.

Whether it’s right or wrong we’ll have to see once the initial panic dies down and Google make their usual tweaks.

I’ll leave you with a comment from one lady in the video ‘It’s guessing for you’ and whether that's good or bad for us all!

What are your thoughts?