UNIVERSAL SEARCH
Google has recently introduced “universal search” results which now features results from their previously separate search silos, ie images, video, books, maps, news etc.
Search Engine Land has a great article looking at this in detail.
In case you haven’t come across it yet, here are some nice examples that bring together results from the various search results:
- Steve Jobs (video, images, news)
- Melbourne (map, images, related searches)
The Opportunity
- optimise your images – logos, product names, key executives through file naming and ALT tags.
- ensure relevant video content is on You Tube (or other major video portals). It appears that the popularity of the video has a part to play in rankings. The Smirnoff Tea Partay video (well worth a watch!) crept up the search results over a matter of days as the popularity of the video increased on You Tube.
- Video and images have opportunity to work really well with the traditionally more staid industries, ie those where competitors are less likely to also have relevant multimedia content
- if your business has a physical location, get a local business listing on Google
- Search is a key way that journalists research a story. Make sure that you release online versions of your press releases as a matter of course. This gets you into the news search results, and is also a good tactic for building inbound links.
Google doesn’t have the monopoly on this – they were late to the game. Ask.com introduced the concept first with their blended search results and some pundits prefer their results. However, when was the last time you used Ask.com?
