I’ve not blogged in a while even though there’s so much to write about. This isn’t a new topic but I felt I should touch on it as it seems much more prevalent in recent times.

Google will regularly display a different title tag to a site’s original title if they feel it’s more appropriate. For a long time, it’s known that Google will take the headline from the site’s ODP listing if the page in question lacks a title. In a similar fashion, Google will display a title created from a mixture of but not limited to text from the page, anchor text links pointing to the page and the actual page title itself.

Another instance of Google changing titles is when a user searches for a brand. Take the site Shoot Blue for example, searching for “ex3 camcorder hire” will return the following result and corresponding title:

However, searching for the company name “Shoot Blue” will show this result instead:

The proper, optimised title for this site is “RED M-X Camera, DSLR & Sony EX3 camcorder hire in London, UK” however, if you type the company name (or brand), Google assumes a title displaying the company/brand name is more appropriate. This isn’t always a bad thing – Google’s main aim (they say) is to improve user experience and to serve up the most relevant results to the user – if Google believes an altered title is more suitable, then it will display accordingly.

This happens sporadically and seems out of our control, another example is MSN’s breaking news site, as demonstrated on a great post on page titles over at Search Engine Land.

An interesting thread over at Webmaster World discusses the issue of Google changing page titles, well worth a read. Tedster states that title changes are definitely query related and combines a mixture of factors including having an overly short title tag or using multiple keywords within the title as opposed to a more grammatical one.

What do you make of it all?

Google announced yet another shuffle in the SERPs this week and they call it the petit fours. They claim this new change is aimed at bringing the searcher, where they feel appropriate, better tailored listings by displaying up to four results from the same domain. But is it?

I can’t see how this makes results more useful or helpful – surely displaying relevant results from different mix of quality domains is the way to go?

A random example I came across whilst performing a search on the product “shark sheilds” brought up the petit fours results. If I cut the ads off from the right off the screenshot, this is what I’m left with when viewing from my 13.3″ Vaio.

Okay, so the petit fours results are from a site with an exact match domain which happens to be the official site for Shark Shields. But the first result takes me to the site’s splash page where I choose my country in order to proceed onto the site – not particularly useful. And the second result is the homepage the site takes me to had I chosen a country. The third result is a media statement released by the owner of the site dated 2008 on the effectiveness of shark shields and fourth is yet more articles on sharks and shark attacks.

It seems brands are at an advantage when it comes to this new display format, as various search terms had been tested and only branded terms return the petit fours results.

Here the brand Pashley dominates the SERPs with eight site links below the first result and a link to view more from the site. Along with three further links to inner pages Google thinks are of interest to us, there is yet another “Show more results” link to the site. If expanded, would take up almost the whole page.

I thought “fair enough”, the Pashley site ranking for it’s own term. Let’s try a more specific product, “Pashley Princess” and see if we get any sites ranking in the top 4 that stock this particular bike. Nope. Pashley again. Third result links to a completely different Pashley bike range, why would Google think this would be of use to me if that’s not what I was searching for?

As if it wasn’t difficult enough for site’s to rank in such competitive markets, they have to contend with big brand’s sites. Matt Cutts made a statement in the video below which basically confirms that yes, brands do hold more weight in the SERPs simply because they are more authoritative and trustworthy.

Personally, it seems Google is keen to focus more on brands as it means more money for them. The same applies with the launch of Google Instant – that was nothing to do with “providing better, faster results” but just another way for them to increase their revenue.

Very sneaky of them, it seems they are intent on controlling us; how we search and giving us the results they want us to see purely for their own benefit. What are your thoughts on the petit fours results and Google in general?

The latest talk on the net is Google’s Instant Preview, supposedly complementing Google’s recent roll out of “Instant” which presents results to the user as they key phrase is being typed. Now, users are able to preview the sites listed in the SERPs before deciding whether to proceed further and click ahead.

Google states that

In our testing, we’ve found that people who use Instant Previews are about 5% more likely to be satisfied with the results they click.

Personally, I’d like to know how they got the 5% result – what the test was based on, who the people were, the number of testers, etc. I’m a bit dubious of test results with no publicly available information to back it up.

Examples of various instant previews

Here’s an example of an instant preview (of my blog) when you click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the page title. Once the initial click of any magnifying glass is made, the previews of other the sites are automatically activated and you just hover over (instead of clicking)  the magnifier to view the other site’s snapshot.

If the web page runs longer than it can fit within the standard thumbnail screen, you’ll see a jagged edge indicating that there’s more to the page but that it’s been cut off (see Amazon example below).

Also interestingly, Google will attempt to highlight a paragraph or snippet of text off the page where the search term first appears making it more prominent, with the main keyword(s) in bold. Would this result in a decrease in CTR if the information given provides the user with what they were looking for?

"Amazon" preview of a site

When a site is not targeted specifically to the particular key phrase searched for, Google attempts to find the keywords within close proximity to each other within a cluster and provide this as the highlighted text. I searched for “Panasoni fx35 review” and the snippet of text given for this site is “Find out in our Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35 full review where we’ll compare its quality and features to its predecessor and key rivals”.

This shows that Google is able to pick out related words within clusters and highlights the importance long tail strategy and using keyword modifiers when optimising for your main keyword.

"Panasonic fx35 Review"

I was still getting the instant preview intermittently up until yesterday, so if you can’t see the instant preview in your results, simply append the parameter &esrch=instantpreviews to the end of the URL of the SERP and you’ll get it.

Similar to Google instant, instant preview is unavailable for “adult” search results. I was going to screenshot a SERP to put up here to demonstrate but wisely decided not to… :)

So, what does this mean?

We’ll have to wait and see what the long term impact of this new feature will be as it’s still early days. However, site’s that’s created in or uses Flash may need to reconsider an alternative approach as their page preview results in unsightly missing chunks or worse still, no preview at all.

Preview of a site using Flash

Preview of site that is created in Flash

Good design and usability has always been important but more so now than ever. With instant previews, users are able to single out ugly sites from aesthetically pleasing ones and may well sway the user to click based on this factor.

As mentioned earlier, the snippet of text highlighted to the user in the form of a yellow box in the preview thumbnail may be the exact information the user is looking for therefore no need to click through to your site. What do you think?