In the past videos were a nice, extra piece to your eCommerce site. These days, video is a necessity, and eCommerce sites that fail to have video fall behind their competitors. One important reason to have video is that multi-media on a site is a crucial part of gaining conversions. According to a recent eMarketer report approximately 80% of online users will watch the entire video, and 25% will convert, which in turn could lift revenue by 10-15%.

The importance of implementing multi-media started back in 2007 when Google started integrating video into the universal search offering. Since then, sites featuring video have gained a significant SEO advantage. One good example of putting video to good use is Macy’s. They feature a “Macy’s TV” page on their website, as well as interactive videos throughout the site.

When a site uses relevant videos that match the site’s content, search engine’s find and index that video. The eMarketer report also said that 68% of the top 50 retailers used video in 2009, which is an 18% increase from 2008.

The article “If you care about SEO, you need to know about video” gives six good reasons why eCommerce businesses should start implementing multi-media on their sites. Offering video on a website eventually increases rankings, sales, and the visitor experience.

Do you have a success story you would like to share?

In case you haven’t heard, Google Instant has made a quite an impact on the world of search since its launch last week. It has lit the SEO world on fire with questions such as:

•    How will this impact my rankings?
•    Will Adwords count impressions the same way?
•    What if users no longer look past page 2 of SERP’s?

Of course, the biggest question last week, and the one on everyone’s minds, is: Will Google Instant kill SEO?

In simple terms: No, no, and NO! SEO is not going anywhere.

The fact that Google Instant completes a search before a user has finished typing his/her query does not harm SEO at all. Above all else, search engine marketers need to consider who the audience is and how they search. Yes, this new interface may change the way that users search, and as search engine marketers, we need to evolve with them. There is no set list of tactics that we need to implement right now. There are SEO tactics that continue to hold true such as on page optimization, article distribution, link development, etc.

Many have argued that SEO is now irrelevant because Google Instant supplies highly personal results but Google has been giving users personalized results since 2005, so that is nothing new. Google Instant is actually going to be a great tool for SEO. It provides valuable information on what users are searching for such as local weather, super brands (i.e. Best Buy), etc.

As search engine marketers we still influence the results users get for their queries. As we learn more about Instant and what it has to offer, people see ways that Instant showcases good SEO tactics and fundamentals.

What are your thoughts on SEO and Instant?

Google’s Press Event

Today, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Google held a press event. For those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be at MOMA, Google broadcasted the event live over their YouTube channel. The event announced a brand new aspect of Google’s user-side interface.

Leading up to the event, Google changed its homepage logo. Yesterday, the logo consisted of flying colored balls that eventually formed “Google.” Before the press event, Google’s logo was blank – until you began to type. The theme of these logo changes? “Fun, fast, and interactive.”

So what was the “fun, fast, and interactive” change to Google that was announced at the event? The one that would, in the future, save 350 million hours of users’ time?

Google Instant

Google Instant was introduced as Google knowing “searches before you type.” Google claimed that Instant would predict what you’re likely to search and the bring results to you in real time. Google Instant was created using AJAX. AJAX is a programming language that basically allows a web page to provide new information without reloading the entire page. It’s quick. It’s simple. It’s… just plain neat.

The folks at Google said that there are three parts to Instant: Predictions, Instant Results, and Scroll to Search. When Instant is live, the engine is going to predict what you want to search, give you the results as soon as you begin to type, and let you scroll through the provided results.

Google Instant is live in Chrome, FireFox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 8 in the U.S.. In the next few months, other countries will see it as well. You will be able to turn Google Instant off. However, there is one caveat – you must be signed in to Google.

Google Raises Questions

Even though Google Instant is incredibly cool (and an amazing distraction), how is it going to affect us? What issues should be addressed in the future? After this streaming event was over, these were my primary concerns:

• How will this change SEO? Even if the fundamentals of optimization for search engines will remain the same, how will the users interact with Google moving forward? Will they abandon checking past page 1, if they can instantly change their query? Why would they want to spend more time on one search, when they can complete multiple in nearly the same amount of time?
• Since Big Brother Google will require users to be logged in to use Instant, will these cause any privacy concerns? If they are “predicting” our searches, how much more information are they going to collect from their users?
• For those who are still stuck with 256mb of RAM (if that’s even possible), will this slow down their machines? For the uneducated user, this could pose a problem.
• If you use Google Adwords, will the way impressions are counted be changed? With the dynamic of the search changed, I imagine there will be additional changes to these policies in the near future.

In summary – Google Instant is “fun, fast, and interactive.” But it will also pose a challenge for search engine marketers who are trying to adapt and stay ahead of the curve.