Google rolled out both interface changes and results pages updates to their WEB and Mobile Versions over the last week, it appears as if all servers are now updated in the first week of May 2010. The interface Change is Called Google Jazz according to internal Google Staff.

The changes have been implemented across all of Google Europe.
Google.dk, Google.se, Google.no, Google.pt. Google.es, Google.gr, Google.de, Google.bg, Google.pl, Google.ch, Google.hu, Google.rs, Google.hr, Google.at, Google.lu, Google.nl, Google.be, Google.it, Google.fi, Google.ro,
Google.ru

The interface changes have also been implemented across Google Asia
google.com.hk, google.co.th, google.com.vn, google.co.kr ( different front page with photos) google.co.jp with more services on the front page,
All major asian googles have been updated,

In Africa the majority of google sites are also updated
google.com.gh and google.co.za, google.co.zw

In South America the Google sites are also updated with the new interface layout:
google.com.br, google.com.ar, google.com.pe,

google.is Iceland remains unchanged for now, and doesn’t look like it’s updated their algorithm lately either, this could be down to a lot of issues maybe the late volcanic eruption, but also more to the economical situation in Iceland.

But the Google Interface updates are widespread.

Lets look at the Changes:

The main visual change is the left side panel. The options lets you narrow your search results for quick discovery and easy sorting
these options were available long before but not visually on the Google Results page.

Google official video of their changes can be seen in the video below:

The main changes are thus a lot of visuals to help the user get more real time results, perhaps as a response to twitter and facebook and the need for real time results in the Search engine results pages.
The search by date is relevant when trying to find out which airlines ahve updated their websites to show real time news of the disruption on the volcanic ash cloud in Europe or similar breakign news events.

What does the Google layout changes mean for my Ranking in Google?
The changes are not different than what was predicted late in 2009 that there will be more relevant results and that social media and time critical information will have a higher ranking.
So your ranking might actually disappear if you are not in the top 4 of results as this space will be taken over by news and social media articles.
What can i do to prevent it, as always aim for a higher ranking, change the way you do your SEO, and then also include Social Media in your Online Marketing budget.

This change is similar to the impact of google maps, however with local search specialists such as First Online Solutions you can tailor your marketing to fit Google’s changes and direct more weight onto local based search and to increase your social media announcements and your social media strategy.

It’s not much of a change besides the visual changes however if you are working on keywords and key phrases that are infiltrated with news items your Google strategy must change and we can help you improve this.

The Google Mobile interface in the US on Google.com have also changed but this change also keep a left side bar, it’s not integrated in Google Europe uk or any other european google mobile results pages.

So if you haven’t already reviewed your search Engine Optimisation Strategy across Europe or the rest of the world now is the time to start this.
Contact us today on info@1stOnlineSolutions.com and we will help you have success with your international Google strategy.

For Paid search however this new Google JAZZ interface is much more of an inconvenience
On large scale PPC Accounts you can see the CTR dropping in areas where Google have implemented the Jazz interface, this means that google will have made this change not for natural SERPs bur for creating more serps and thus adding more Impressions to any given ad, now when Click through rate drops because of google interface changes, then this have a direct impact on your CPC, as the CTR will be a part determine your rank on the placement “auction”, when your Click through rate drops then automatically your bid prices will increase, as there will be more ads competing for more space, as there now is 6 times the number of pages as there was before.

It’s a very deliberate way of driving up CPC clicks and adding to the google paid search inflation, the cost per click inflation is not only drive by competition, last time we saw a big hike in Cost per click inflation, it was when google introduced Google Maps results on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), in some case it went up with 15% spend on click as more people clicked the paid ads than the natural ads.

An analysis we did with a major UK traffic monitoring company showed however this was driven by market and vertical.
I.e. hotels Vertical only saw 1% clicks on the map listings, where car rental saw a 11% click rate on the maps, and local services saw 15% click rate on local searches. Again we cannot ignore the fact that Google Local listings is a must for any company that operates with local Services.

Contact First Online Solutions for more information on Google Local Search Results on contact@1stonlinesolutions.com