Internet Marketing

Universal Search and Search Engine Optimization

As I announced at the beginning of the first article from this series, I will now focus on the way universal search will affect the search engine optimization process.

Since I’ve already shown, in the first article about the benefits of universal search, what search engines like Google, Ask, or even Yahoo! mean by the term Universal Search, I will present now its effects on search results pages and also I’ll provide some efficient advice for search engine optimizers, who now must keep in mind this new web search way.

The most important fact one must keep in mind in what universal search is concerned is that by using this type of internet search, search result pages will provide results in different media types: texts, news, videos, images, blogs, etc. Therefore, I believe the first thing that must be done in order to optimize a site for a search engine using universal search is making sure it contains all these media types. Here are some hints about the way each of these media types could be optimized for the search engines.

Images and Search Engine Optimization

Including images on your web site is a great idea, having in mind the concept of universal search; however, there are some things to be considered when trying to optimize an image for a search engine, such as:

• First of all, you must choose the correct title for a picture; the title must describe exactly what the picture is showing since most graphic search engines use descriptions to tell what the picture is about. Do not allow the software to pick the name for the picture (!!!);
• Also a very important thing when it comes to image optimizing is making the image easy downloadable; this is a very important aspect, since it is a very well known fact that the downloading time is a key issue (try to optimize your images as much as possible to decrease their file size);
• Remember to choose good contrast images, since they look better in thumbnails and will attract more clicks;
• It is also of great importance to tag the images with alt attribute using keywords;
• Even if you feel that for your domain pictures could prove to be a little bit irrelevant, you shouldn’t dismiss the idea of introducing them from the start; for example, if you are a shoes factory, make sure you add as many good-looking pictures of your products. It will help not only with your rankings but also will increase your conversion rates.

I recommend also reading this article about using images for local SEO.

Optimizing sites by adding videos

I have already tackled the matter of videos in terms of marketing in a previous article; the bottom line is that they are very important when it comes to optimizing a site for a search engine using universal search. But, as it was the case with optimizing images for the search engine, there are also some things to be considered when it comes to including videos to your site:

• First, you must tag the video with keywords, and, of course, you should name it properly and attractively (for instance, instead of "12032002.mov" use "XYZ- antivirus-demo.mov");
• Use meta tags for the content (text) of the page where your video is placed;
• A very important thing that needs to be taken into consideration is that the first image of a video is very important, because very often that image alone determines a user to click and watch the video;
• Use anchor text if you link to the video from other pages of your Web site.
• Downloading time is also a crucial aspect; you could upload your video on Youtube, of course adding next to it a link to your own site; also, you could use sites like Youtube as part of a teasing policy: upload there part one of video and part two on your on site; in this case, you should specify clearly that part two of the video can be found at your URL address.
• SEO professionals recommend creating separate video site maps, which can be submitted to video and content search engines alike. Both kinds of SEs will index these site maps.
• As in the case of images, even if you feel like you couldn’t produce a relevant video, you really should reconsider that: you could, for example use a power point slide show, add some sounds and present the result as a video, thus increasing your ranking.

You might consider some tips about best video marketing practices: engagement potential, SEO value, and measurement opportunities.

The role of news in the optimization process for universal search

Since universal search brings the possibility of differentiated results, and among these we find the news, when trying to optimize a site for a search engine using universal search, we must remember to add to that certain site content that could be considered news: press releases, short columns focusing on different themes, etc.

Here are some tips on how to write and optimize your press releases.

Blogs and Search Engine Optimization for Universal Search

If your web site doesn’t have a blog structure, well now it’s the best time to start one. Two of the most obvious reasons for doing so are:

• On the one hand, this will directly help the SEO process, considering the changes brought by universal search
• And, on the other hand, it will indirectly help your page ranking, since it may contain different links, brought by its users

But in order to create a blog which will be useful for the SEO process in both of the ways described above, you should keep in mind some of the following things:

• You should periodically refresh and update your blog content;
• You should encourage users to post relevant comments on it;
• Your blog should contain links for other blogs;

Here's a very interesting discussion on Marketing Pilgrim - Capitalizing on Universal Search, basically focusing or trying to respond to this dilemma, whether to change or not our entire campaigns to capitalize on universal search.

Conclusions

By introducing Universal Search, Google (I say Google, because it is this search engine that has by now the most advanced type of universal search) has managed to change forever the SEO process. Search Engine Optimizers must work having in mind all the changes brought by Universal Search and must learn to adapt their techniques to the new requirements in order to stay on the market. So, I believe, the keyword that must stay now in their minds is adaptation: adapting the old fashioned ways of the SEO to the requirements of the modern Universal Search.