Google's New Universal Search and Your Website
Thursday May 17, 2007
Google is rolling out its new Universal Search capability. What it means is that instead of having to perform separate search for blog entries, news articles, images, videos, maps, etc. what Google considers to be the most relevant (in its eyes) search results will be rolled into one. There will be links at the upper-left of the search results page if you want to search online within certain types of content - such as video, for example - but it won't be necessary for users to actively do anything to get results that include all types of content just by performing one "normal" search query.
Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience at Google explains that the idea for Universal Search goes all the way back to 2001. In Google's Official Blog post titled, "Universal search: the best answer is still the best answer", she says: "Even then, we could see that people could easily become overwhelmed with the number of different search tools available on Google -- let alone those that would be created over the next few years. This proliferation of tools, while useful, has outgrown the old model of search. We want to help you find the very best answer, even if you don't know where to look."
An example of the new Google look can be seen on a search for darth vader. Images appear at the top of the results with other types of "vertical results" interspersed on the page". While Google has been doing this for awhile, the most recent method involved placing the images at the top with links to search more images of Darth Vader. Through its usability studies, Google found no one seemed to want to click those links. Google also found that its brief experiment with tabs didn't go over well with users either. The end result? Lump all of the "most relevant" search results together, regardless of the media. This appears to be Google's way of trying to keep up with its competitors, such as Brightcove, that specialize in web video search.
What Does Universal Search Mean for Search Engine Optimization?
What will this mean for small and home businesses who are fighting tooth and nail to get on the first page of Google's search results? It remains to be seen in actual practice, of course, but I can see some business owners who have been fighting to stay up with the big boys in the search results and have spent a lot of time and money doing so, falling a bit lower in the results as their sites get bumped by images, books, blogs, and more.
Are There any SEO Benefits?
There could be, again it remains to be seen. If you incorporate additional "content assets", like web video, images, and blog content into your online home business presence and you "optimize" those assets as much as possible, it's conceivable that not only your web page, but your video and images could rank in the top 10 universal results (the Holy Grail of SEO). So, if done properly, your home business could benefit by ranking in the top 3 or 4 search results for your keyword phrase - who knows? But it will have to be done right and it should be done relatively early on before everyone else tries to take advantage of universal search and jump on the bandwagon by spamming Google to death with content that's not even related to the search query.
Traditional SEO tactics appear to be losing value for pulling in traffic anyway, as social media optimization - gaining maximum traffic to you website through blogs, wikis, Digg, Redd-it, etc. - can all result in large jumps in website traffic and are growing exponentially in popularity. These days, it's all about "link bait" - putting content out there you hope gets picked up by the masses so that it gets tons of incoming links and as a result, a great deal of traffic. YouTube videos have been a big part of this as amateurs tried to get their homemade videos to rate well in YouTube. I suppose it will mean you may want to consider adding additional types of multimedia to your online presence - all of which can serve as "link bait".
More on Google Universal Search The best discussion I've seen so far on Google's Universal Search is over at SearchEngineLand, where Danny Sullivan takes it apart and provides an excellent analysis of the features that are incorporated into it, as well as a strong discussion on exactly what vertical search is all about. He also did a very good post on Google's new navigational links.
Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience at Google explains that the idea for Universal Search goes all the way back to 2001. In Google's Official Blog post titled, "Universal search: the best answer is still the best answer", she says: "Even then, we could see that people could easily become overwhelmed with the number of different search tools available on Google -- let alone those that would be created over the next few years. This proliferation of tools, while useful, has outgrown the old model of search. We want to help you find the very best answer, even if you don't know where to look."
An example of the new Google look can be seen on a search for darth vader. Images appear at the top of the results with other types of "vertical results" interspersed on the page". While Google has been doing this for awhile, the most recent method involved placing the images at the top with links to search more images of Darth Vader. Through its usability studies, Google found no one seemed to want to click those links. Google also found that its brief experiment with tabs didn't go over well with users either. The end result? Lump all of the "most relevant" search results together, regardless of the media. This appears to be Google's way of trying to keep up with its competitors, such as Brightcove, that specialize in web video search.
What Does Universal Search Mean for Search Engine Optimization?
What will this mean for small and home businesses who are fighting tooth and nail to get on the first page of Google's search results? It remains to be seen in actual practice, of course, but I can see some business owners who have been fighting to stay up with the big boys in the search results and have spent a lot of time and money doing so, falling a bit lower in the results as their sites get bumped by images, books, blogs, and more.
Are There any SEO Benefits?
There could be, again it remains to be seen. If you incorporate additional "content assets", like web video, images, and blog content into your online home business presence and you "optimize" those assets as much as possible, it's conceivable that not only your web page, but your video and images could rank in the top 10 universal results (the Holy Grail of SEO). So, if done properly, your home business could benefit by ranking in the top 3 or 4 search results for your keyword phrase - who knows? But it will have to be done right and it should be done relatively early on before everyone else tries to take advantage of universal search and jump on the bandwagon by spamming Google to death with content that's not even related to the search query.
Traditional SEO tactics appear to be losing value for pulling in traffic anyway, as social media optimization - gaining maximum traffic to you website through blogs, wikis, Digg, Redd-it, etc. - can all result in large jumps in website traffic and are growing exponentially in popularity. These days, it's all about "link bait" - putting content out there you hope gets picked up by the masses so that it gets tons of incoming links and as a result, a great deal of traffic. YouTube videos have been a big part of this as amateurs tried to get their homemade videos to rate well in YouTube. I suppose it will mean you may want to consider adding additional types of multimedia to your online presence - all of which can serve as "link bait".
More on Google Universal Search The best discussion I've seen so far on Google's Universal Search is over at SearchEngineLand, where Danny Sullivan takes it apart and provides an excellent analysis of the features that are incorporated into it, as well as a strong discussion on exactly what vertical search is all about. He also did a very good post on Google's new navigational links.
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