Avinash Kaushik - world leader in web business optimisation
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Implications of Google’s secondary search (search within site) box
From March 2008, Google incorporated a secondary search box beneath the listing for some brands within it’s natural listings which, if used invokes a "search within site search". These are the implications for search marketers.
Google secondary search box
To see the secondary search box, search for a retailer like Argos and you will see a prominent search box and button prompting “Search Argos.co.uk” as shown if you click on the figure. Since “Argos” is a trademark protected brand search, you won’t see any paid ads other than the Argos one, so this limits Google’s capacity to earn paid clicks.
It's similar to the Google Sitelinks (site links) feature which appears when more popular sites are searched for. It is similar to site links in that it is a user tool and Google confirm in their release they have tested it through user preference testing.
If you then search for a product, Google fires off a “search within site” search, e.g. [site:www.argos.co.uk lawnmowers] and you will see plenty of competitor ads, so more potential for ad click dollars, but what retailers will see as brand abuse.
Implications for marketers
You can see why this has sparked quite a bit of anger amongst paid search marketers and particularly e-retailers since Google is effectively encouraging brand abuse and cannabalising brand search traffic, diverting it to other sites.
The situation is made worse because it's implemented using an algorithm which excludes some sites, but not others, for example, in the UK, Amazon, a rival of Argos is not affected.
So, these are the steps I would recommend:
- Check whether this is happening for your brand searches (and continue checking so, since as with Sitelinks Google will tweak the algorithm and introduce more sites).
- If you are affected, check for changed impression volumes and reduced visits from brand searches and drill down with your web analytics tool to track down referrals from those “site:” searches and adjust your Pay Per Click for the most common "navigational searches", i.e. brand plus category or product names.
- Check whether your competitors are affected. Hitwise will be good for this. If they are, there may be opportunities for advertising on a generic keyword or a broad match to feature on your competitor's "within a site" site: searches.
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Thanks, Dave Chaffey.
It mainly affects retailers/transactional sites
I don't think I'm overstating this because the volume of brand searches is so high for a big brand like Argos that a fair percentage will use it and will be diverted / hijacked to competitors' sites. Google knows the magic percentage 0.1%, 1%, 10% of people who will use it since they say they tested it before launch, so they must reckon the additional revenue/usability improvement is worth all the negative vibes it will generate!
For publishers it's not a big deal - just a nice usability feature to connect visitos with content.
I think it reflects a change in behaviour in search and will encourage even more "navigational search", i.e. brand plus product category / name, which is subject to ads being displayed on a broad match.
There was some recent research I haven't written up yet on www.atlassolutions.com showing that 50% of searches are navigational.
As you say, lets wait and see.
a lot of hot air?
My gut feel is that most people who are looking for a specific product from a particular retailer (e.g. 'John Lewis playpen' - odd example but a real life example from my own searches recently) will go straight to the most appropriate page on the retailer site (assuming they have done their SEO properly...) and you are not given the additional site search box.
The site search box only appears for generic brand searches (e.g. 'John Lewis') and I would be surprised if most users don't click through to the site and use the search functionality on the site itself. I may well be proved wrong on this one, but I just don't believe that it will be a highly used feature.
As for the 'brand abuse' argument, competition is competition and you will already see a lot of alternative brands using PPC to attract product related searches (as in the john lewis playpen example above - Mothercare is in the top PPC ads).
If someone is actively looking for a 'brand / product' type phrase, it is likely that they have already done their research and are in the buying phase. Yes, they may be distracted by other advertisers, but I just wonder how often this will happen.
Whilst I am always a little uncomfortable with the steps that Google is taking to own every step of our journeys online, I have been surprised at just how much of a fuss this one has started. Only time will tell what the true impact will be.
Joe Friedlein
www.browsermedia.co.uk