IT contractors helping companies get the most from search engine optimisation (SEO) have been advised that Google's redesign will mean changes must be made.

Companies must now include their sites in news and blogs to ensure that the search engine picks them up in those filters, according to SEO consultancy Idea Taxi.

While Google's new format does clutter the results page, it does provide the users - the firm's potential customers - more options when conducting their search, says SEO director at Idea Taxi Sam Tilson.

"The addition of image SEO to a site would then encourage Google to list images under their listing in the search results page, this would more than likely increase the click through rate of their listing," he added.

According to SearchEngineWatch, Google's new design makes SEO even more important, as the first organic search result now has 51 per cent of user attention, an increase of 12 per cent.