Google recently launched a new Search Results Page for searches made on Desktop and Laptop computers. This brings the desktop results page in line with the tablet results page, which was launched in July 2011, and the mobile results page that launched last month. The new results page is focused on spacing paid listings, organic listings, and other features such the Google Knowledge Graph or a map or local results consistently on each platform.
The new layout does not represent a drastic change in the way search results are presented. Whereas the Google Knowledge Graph and the Bing Social Sidebar injected new features into search results, this layout change is only a slight reorganization of existing search result features. Many users may not notice that the results page has changed at all; Google’s new look does not present a drastically new experience to their search users.
Google’s goal with the design of the new pan-platform results page is to deliver the most relevant information to their users as quickly as possible by providing a consistent space to display these new search products. Google has already launched the new features which it hopes will help users find their answers more quickly. The Knowledge Graph gives a short-form rundown of the most relevant information on the search query; it seems to most often appear with the biographical information of a person queried in a search. The Google+ Local listings are accompanied by a map that plots the locations of local businesses that relate to the search query. The Google Shopper ad fills this auxiliary space when Google believes that the user is trying to buy a product online. By highlighting their new search products, Google hopes to funnel users into a Google product that will deliver the user their information instead of leading the user to a relevant, non-Google, result that is listed in their organic search listings.
This redesign does not change the way that Google Organic listings are displayed but it does but more focus on optimizing for local search. As we have covered several times before, local search provides many benefits for both search users and search engines and Google will continue to push their local search products. This redesign reinforces the idea that Google believes it can provide results that will be more useful to their users than a user can find anywhere else on the web. Optimizing for local search continues to be a way to find a top spot on the Google Search results page and this Google’s redesign pushes the local results further up the page. Don’t miss this opportunity to get your business’s website in front of more eyes. Contact Boston Web Marketing to learn more about optimizing for local search.
-Andrew Wise
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