Spun Digital - Finding customers online

Google has rolled out a number of significant changes to its interface this week, altering both the look and feel of its flagship service. But will the changes have any impact on businesses and - in particular - their search engine optimisation strategies?

According to Google, the latest updates to its search interface reflect the "increasing richness of the web and the increasing power of search".

From now on, users will be presented with a sidebar that incorporates a number of search tools.

Google claims that the major overhaul of its search engine interface is just the first in a long-line of changes that are being made.

"Today's changes showcase the latest evolutions in our search technology, making it easier than ever to find exactly what you're looking for," the company claimed.

"We've been testing these changes with users over the past few months, and what we're launching today reflects the feedback we've received," Google added.

And from these comments alone, it is clear that these developments will have an impact on SEO companies and their search engine marketing strategies.

The biggest changes appear to be the incorporation of news and blog content into the firm's universal search, which means constantly updating websites with relevant SEO-friendly content is a must as users will be able to pick up on the latest information; filtering out legacy posts in favour of up-to-date pages.

Google has also introduced a tool called Google Squared, which allows users to compare results from related search terms with what they have actually been looking for.

So businesses engaged in SEO and other search marketing strategies may need to broaden their scope so that their content covers a range of keywords and related topics.

At the end of last month, industry experts Andre Voget and Johannes Selbach told Free SEO News that as search engine algorithms get more complex it is more important than ever for businesses to cast their SEO net far and wide, incorporating content that is "optimised for many different but related search terms".

They urged firms to abandon single-keyword strategies and ensure the content they offer is diverse.