How to Take Advantage of Google’s new Instant Preview Search Results

Google has once again taken a cue from Bing

Google recently has added a bunch of features to their search engine: live results, keyboard navigation using directional arrows, and a completely re-vamped interface. Today, Google rolled out Instant Previews – a feature that involves Google taking a snapshot of the website. Instant Previews result in — according to Google — 5% more user satisfaction in the search results they get.

While Bing doesn’t feature image snapshots, they do have a pop-out box with additional text. Google has consistently augmented their “eye candy” since Bing launched.

Google doesn’t close lightboxes in the Instant Previews.

If you’re trying to show someone a message when they view the Instant Preview, showing a lightbox with an image in it might work. The Instant Previews are 302 x 405px, so the ratio is 1.34. If you were to create a large image that was larger than your content and had a ratio of 1.34, you may be able to display something unique to Google users.

Non-standard indexing rate

Google does not generate the screenshots live; they seem to be generated when crawling the website, which makes sense. Google’s Instant Preview of a Twitter page corresponds to the “Latest Results from…” scroller results. If it’s not updated in  Google’s index, the image will not be updated.

For local SEO, consider adding a banner with local images

If you’re trying to reach an audience that is looking for a local result and not some spammy directory, consider adding images of the area. This may includes pictures of Denver skyline, the mountains, etc.