What is Universal Search and Why Should You Care?
Universal Search combines all the information within its
Vertical engines/databases into one index to serve a single
set of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
An example of Vertical engines/databases are Google News,
Google Video, Google Images etc.
What this means is when you go to www.google.com, (their
most highly trafficked domain) and do a search, rather than
just getting websites from their main index, you will also
get results from the News, Images, Video, etc databases as
well. It is a more comprehensive results page.
Google Vice President of Search Products and User
Experience Marissa Mayer said the company's goal for
universal search is to create "a seamless, integrated
experience to get users the best answers."
Sometimes the information you are looking for is best
delivered by video, or images or a news story. Currently
you would have to search each of the Vertical
engines/databases to get all the information. Google is
planning to integrate it into one search engine.
As a searcher this means easier access to various forms of
information with only one search. It seems like a good
thing, as long as the results are easily organized on the
page. It could mean more scrolling to get to the different
areas of results, depending how they lay it out.
What To Do and Why
Changes with the search engines can sometimes be confusing.
There is a lot of information to evaluate and some
decisions to be made. Before you decide anything, you need
to understand what your options are.
If your site isn't already properly optimized for organic
rankings, that would be the place to start. You want to
make sure you have clean, search engine friendly code and a
solid foundation, as well as on-page optimization. This
would be the starting point, without this in place you have
no hope of competing in the engines - with or without
Universal Search.
If your site is already properly and aggressively optimized
then you are in good shape to build on that and benefit
from Universal Search.
Since Universal Search will take information from the
Verticals (like images, press releases, videos, audios,
Blog postings, etc) you want to make sure that you have
some exposure in each of those areas.
Imagine someone does a search for what you have to offer,
and in the Universal Search results your webpage comes up.
In the same search your competitor's site comes up PLUS
your competitor has video, images and Blog posts as well. A
searcher is more likely to click on your competitor's site
since more of the total number of results that come up will
belong to your competitor.
The other factor is the layout of the results page. We
don't know yet how it will play out. If Google mixes all
the results together (ex: videos, web pages, Blog posts,
images, etc all come up intermingled) that creates one
scenario. It means you aren't competing apples to apples
for the top spot. It could be video in the 1st position and
you are hoping to get your web pages ranked in the 1st
position.
Another way of delivering the results would be to group
them by category. They could list all the Blog results,
then all the video results under that, and then all the
image results under that, etc.
If that is the case, you want to have something listed in
each category section because if you happen to have a
ranking in the last category section but nothing higher on
the page, you are not likely to get a click.
What you really need to do in addition to adding content
and optimizing your site, is also focus on getting
something in the other Verticals.
Top 5 Ways To Participate in Universal Search
1. Google Image Search: It has always been a good idea to
use images on your site for illustrating your products and
services. Now customers can find your site via Google Image
Search. Optimize your images with descriptive, keyword-rich
file names and ALT tags. Use accurate descriptions of your
image files for the benefit of those who might need to view
the site in text only format.
2. Google Video (beta): Use descriptive, keyword-rich file
names for your video files. Also create a keyword-rich
title tag, description tag, and video site map.
3. Google News: Submit your press releases for display as
news, and also as a new content page on your site.
4. Google Maps: AKA Google Local - this has been included
in Google search results for a while. Give your site a
local presence through the Google Maps Local Business
Center where local businesses can get a free basic listing
to extend their reach in the SERPs.
5. Google Blog Search (beta): Use social media and Blog
engines to drive traffic to the site. Submit to the Google
Blog search and have your Blog help boost you in the new
world of Universal Search.
With a better understanding of the options, it becomes
clear that in order to increase your exposure in the search
engines and get new traffic you need to be proactive in
anticipation of these Universal Search changes. Don't wait
until it is too late and you are scrambling to catch up.
----------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner
of http://www.EcomBuffet.com
Since 1998, her expertise in
online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has
helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business
goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search
Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and
marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at
Jennifer@ecombuffet.com
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