Pierce Martin
Project Director
The most significant difference in Gboard results is a preference for Knowledge Graph, direct answer and news results.
Pierce Martin discusses Google’s recent release of the Gboard keyboard app for iPhone: what it means in the search marketplace and specifically for Maxus clients.
What’s Changed
On May 12, 2016 Google announced the launch of the Gboard app for iPhone, which allows users to replace the standard iPhone keyboard with a keyboard that directly integrates with Google search. Gboard works across any app with keyboard functionality, including messaging and mail. Initiating a Google search from Gboard gives the user card-type search results, which can then be sent directly from the keyboard without leaving the app.
Gboard draws directly from Google search and delivers results for any type of query.
What the Change Means
With the introduction of Gboard there are now two possible scenarios for an iPhone user sharing a link:
- Without Gboard installed, a user finds a page to share via traditional mobile organic search, clicks through on the result and then copy/paste the destination link to their correspondent in a message.
- With Gboard installed, the user performs the same search directly from Gboard then sends the destination link to their correspondent without leaving the message and without the need to click through on a search result. The link sent from a Gboard result is a shortened link to the site, so the users clicking through on a link will be taken to the destination page, not a search result page.
According to Rajan Patel, the principal engineer for Google’s mobile search results, Gboard’s search rankings largely use the same algorithms as mobile search, but may diverge depending on the query type and use case.[1]
The most significant difference in Gboard results is a preference for Knowledge Graph, direct answer and news results. These preferences were directly called out by Patel as examples of Gboard gearing results toward sharing, which Google believes will be the primary use of search in Gboard.
Local results have changed the least between mobile and Gboard results. With the vast majority of searches showing exactly the same results, in the same order, between Gboard and mobile.
Implications for Advertisers
At launch, Gboard had no integration for paid search ads or shopping listings. Google stated that there were “no current plans around ads in Gboard.”[2] However, it is more than likely that Google will eventually integrate ads into the Gboard experience as offering relevant ads to users inside of apps is a significant opportunity.
Depending on how broadly Gboard is adopted, websites may see a noticeable decrease in organic search from mobile, and a concurrent increase in direct traffic from mobile, as users with Gboard no longer need to click through on an organic search result in order to share a link, but will instead send links directly from their keyboard.
For SEO purposes, this puts even more emphasis on optimization for direct answers and Knowledge Graph. This means ensuring that all assets on a brand’s site are correctly marked up with Structured Data, and that any source feeding the Knowledge Graph is correct and up to date. As well, brands should ensure an official representative is verified to directly change information in the Knowledge Graph through Google’s “Suggest a Change” link.[3]
For local optimization purposes, this means continuing to follow the same best practices for ranking in mobile local results. However, given the card-result style in Gboard, ranking first in the local three pack becomes even more important, as users only see one result a time and must swipe to see any further results.
Key takeaways:
- Gboard automatically integrates Google search across any installed iPhone app with keyboard functionality
- Gboard varies in significant ways from the mobile search algorithm, making mobile best practices, local optimization, Structured Data markup, and Knowledge Graph management even more important for brands
- Paid ads are not currently integrated in Gboard
- Mobile traffic patterns to your site may change significantly, if Gboard is widely adopted.
[1] http://searchengineland.com/how-gboard-ranks-249569
[2] http://searchengineland.com/google-gboard-ads-249486
[3] https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6325583?hl=en
