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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Google Instant Preview: 3 Things That Will Get Your Blog or Website Ready

Have you heard of Google Instant Preview? This new feature allows searchers to see an instant visual preview of their results, and it's important that your blog or website is ready to be seen "under the magnifying glass". 

Is your site visually appealing?  Google Instant Preview allows the searcher to choose relevant sites based on a quick glance.  Short blocks of text, as opposed to long paragraphs are more visually appealing.  A clean, uncluttered site is more more appealing.  Complementary colors, font size, graphics, all of that is going to make a difference.  If you're not sure what design mistakes you could be making, check out this article. 

With Google Instant Preview, your content will not make a difference.  Your content will not even be relevant in a searcher's initial decision.  It will all be based on the visual appeal of your site.

So, what can you do to improve your site?

1) Clear the Clutter-- What takes priority?  Make sure that's what your reader sees first.

2) Use Good Headlines-- Make them compelling; draw your reader in!  I discussed a good headline tip  in this article. 

3) Make Your Content ScannableCopyblogger puts it like this: Readers can’t see individual sentences from Instant Preview.  But they can see if your content has been broken up into short paragraphs, with plenty of white space.  Long stretches of unbroken text can intimidate your searcher. They make your content look difficult and painful to digest.  Just about any piece of writing can be made more reader-friendly by breaking it into short sentences, short paragraphs, and using strong subheads to keep the reader oriented.

You can read more advice from copyblogger here.

These are the benefits Google touts for the searcher by using this tool.

Quickly Compare Results
A visual comparison of search results helps you pick which result is right for you.
Pinpoint Relevant Content
Text call outs highlight where your search term appears on the web page so you can evaluate if it’s what you're looking for.
Interact with the Results Page
Page previews let you see the layout of a web page before clicking the search result.

You can try Google Instant Preview on your site here.

Do you like what you see?

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