Google Suggest is testing new formats

We have noticed that Google Suggest, Google’s autocomplete service, is currently running several tests on how it displays its results. The goal: to improve the experience of its users on its search engine. This is a good opportunity to walk you through the latest (likely) changes Google would like to bring to its tool.

1. Google Suggest with direct links

Google is testing the appearance of rich results at the bottom of the Google Suggest predictions display (it’s worth noting that Google uses the word “prediction” to refer to its Google Suggest results.) Indeed, a Twitter user recently pointed out that a mobile query (“Louis Vuitton”) quickly displayed, in the last position of the Google Suggest results, a direct link to the official Louis Vuitton website. He wondered whether this link might be an Adwords result in Google Suggest.

Our test carried out on Google.fr from Safari/Chrome on an iPhone 6 confirmed the presence of this direct link, but the URL chosen by Google is not an Adwords URL. The destination URL in question has no automatic Google Adwords tagging, nor any Google Analytics tracking parameter or the like.

We tested other queries such as “paris m” (for “Paris Match”), and we saw the same display of the official Paris Match website appear, with the title in blue and the URL shown in green (colors used by Google search). Here again, the “parismatch.com” URL had no tracking parameter.

The statistics Google has access to must show that the vast majority of people who type “paris m” choose the Paris Match Google Suggest, and that those who type “Louis Vu” also end up clicking mostly on “Louis Vuitton”, and that it therefore makes sense to offer direct access to the official website from the Google Suggest suggestions.

This test thus leads us to think that Google could decide to display direct links in its semi-automatic suggestions tool, just as it does when it decides to show Mega Sitelinks rather than mini Sitelinks (Sitelink: links displayed below certain sites in Google search results), that is, by taking into account the high search volume and the (very) significant CTR of the query in question (with, of course, a site structure optimized so that Google’s algorithm can find the sitelink links easily).

Example of a mega sitelink displayed on the first page of Google for the query “Somfy”

2. Google Suggest and trends

Another interesting thing to note: Google seems to be testing the appearance of search trends in how its semi-automatic suggestions tool displays results. A few users have in fact noted very recently (in France and Austria) the appearance of search trends in the suggestions of Google mobile.

A distinctive feature of these suggestions is that they appear before any search performed by the user. The queries displayed in Google Suggest are made up of trending topics, distinguishable from the usual queries proposed by Google Suggest by the arrow located to their left.

Note that we were unable to reproduce this and that these tests seem less advanced than those for direct URLs in Google Suggest.

3. Google Suggest and the Knowledge Graph

These various tests come on top of a new feature, which isn’t really a new one: the display within Google Suggest results of data drawn from answer boxes or direct answers, commonly known as Google’s Knowledge Graph for more than a year now.

According to our tests, the query “barcelona” on the Google USA address displays data drawn from the Knowledge Graph, with “Barcelona” offered as a film or as a city (see below).

If they proved conclusive, these tests could serve various purposes:

1. Direct links in the display of Google Suggest allow the Mountain View firm to offer a new results space outside of paid or organic results.

Two options seem relevant to us if these tests were made official:

• Either Google prioritizes the user experience by displaying the direct URL of sites free of charge, without going through its classic results page and therefore without going through the display of Adwords ads (!)
• Or Google is running a test to (later) offer these direct links in the form of Adwords ads.

2. The arrival in the results of Google Suggest trends would allow Google to keep the user captive on its search engine, by enabling the latter to learn about trending topics without going through other channels such as social networks (example: Twitter’s famous trending topics, or even its new homepage that highlights the trending news of the moment).

Whether or not Google confirms these changes in the display of Google Suggest is therefore something to keep an eye on. In the meantime, these changes/improvements clearly show the interest Google has in its Google Suggest, so it is becoming particularly important to work on Google Suggest for a brand, a company or even a person for e-reputation or even pure SEO purposes.