Many sites are arguing that Google Instant has changed the way search works dramatically and have even idnicated it could go so far as to be the end of Ad-Words as we know it.

But is it really?

Sure, its cool to see the results as you type, but at the end of the day, you are still typing in a search query containing key words, when you see something that perks your interest you bring in the search results, along with the ad-word generated results too. Just as before, you get to decide what link you want to follow, weather that be generic search results or a paid for ad.

What will change?

Keywords to optimize for. Instead of long search phrases, it will now become essential to optimize your website so that you achive number one for the sub searches. Eg instead of optimizing for whitebunnywabbit, we will need ideally to be number one result for “w”, “wh”, “whi”, “whit” and so on and so forth. Doing so will ensure that as the user is typing they find us as early as possible instead of having to type the full phrase in.

From Google’s point of view, I suspect this change will really claw in a lot more revenue in ad-words. How many sites can you imagine would want to achive number one for every letter of the alphabet? Incidently, “m” leads us to MSN. And apparently, I need to do some SEO for this site! I had to type in the full name before I even got onto the results!