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Universal Search - Strategize Your Way to the Top
By Leona Griffin (c) 2009 

While we all work to beat the competitors for targeted search
terms, hoping to land that top ten ranking; Google's Universal
search provides additional opportunities to increase your
website's exposure by mixing in universal search results.

Most companies are not taking full advantage of universal search
and are really missing the opportunity to increase their
exposure and interact with their visitors in a new exciting way.
We'll show you how you can utilize Universal Search to push your
website to the top of the search results and drive more traffic
to your website with this exciting addition to Google Search.

Introduction to Google's Universal Search

While Google offers up paid search results via Google
Adwords and organic search results within the center of their
search results page; they are now mixing in other types of
results in attempt to give visitors a taste of everything that
is related to their search. This includes:

    * Products (Google Product Search [http://www.google.com/products])
    * News (Google News [http://www.google.com/news])
    * Images (Google Image Search [http://images.google.com/])
    * Blogs (Google Blogs [http://blogsearch.google.com/])
    * Geo-targeted Business Listings (Google Maps [http://maps.google.com/])
    * Video (Google Video [http://video.google.com/])

Benefits of Universal Search

For visitors, the benefits of universal search are that they can
see various types of results without having to leave the organic
search results page. Another benefit is that it breaks up the
page adding images, video still shots and information in a way
that is appealing.

For site owners, there are quite a few benefits. First, there
are now multiple ways to have your products and services listed
on the 1st or 2nd page of Google.

Second, if visitors did not select your organic listing, they
may select your image, blog or business listing; offering more
opportunities to obtain targeted visitors to your website.

And finally, some Universal Search results are bumped ahead of
the organic listings. If your website is listed in the #12 spot
on page two and you just can't get your site to the 1st page,
you may be able to have your images, videos or products listed
above the organic results for specific search terms.

Users Intent

If you searched for the word "Apple" using Google in 1999, you
were presented with various types of informational websites;
discussing the various types of apples, how to use them in
recipes and other great apple related information. But over
time, people who typed in "Apple" would complete their search
and then run another search for "Apple computers". As this trend
continued to happen, Google's Algorithm learned that a trend was
emerging. Most visitors who typed in the word Apple were looking
for computers, not fruit.

Now when you type in "Apple" into Google, you are presented with
the Macintosh Apple website, websites that review Apple
computers and e-commerce stores where you can purchase an Apple
computer. Google's focus is to not only provide searchers with
relevant search queries based on their search term, but to
emulate the thought process that is derived from the search term
itself.

When a searcher enters a query, Google's artificial intelligence
attempts to understand what the visitor may want to see before
returning the search results. They have come to learn that when
a visitor types in a brand name or a product, that searchers may
want to:

    * See Photos of the Product
    * Read Product Reviews
    * Purchase The Product
    * Research The Product

In an attempt to give the visitor what they want they try to
return the types of results related to the user's intent.

To use Universal Search to your advantage, you must understand
the user's intent when they type in the search terms related to
your website. The best way to see which universal search
products are being used for your search terms is to search them
within Google. Once you enter the search query, above the search
results in the top left area of the screen you will see a
listing for the products pulled into the results. For example,
if I enter the search query "red scarf" I see the following
Google Products listed at the top left area of the screen:

1. Web

2. Shopping

3. Images

Essentially this means that Google attempted to pull in (web)
organic search results, Google Product Search and Google
Images.

The Strategy

Creating a strategy to increase your rankings through Universal
Search can allow you to locate opportunities that your
competitors missed; giving you more exposure and targeted
traffic.

In the example of the "red scarf", you will notice that although
Google attempted to pull in images, there aren't any images
displayed within the results. This essentially means that you
could possibly receive a listing on the 1st page of Google via
Google Images if you optimize your images and submit an Image
Map through Google Webmaster Central. Additionally, you can
upload your red scarves to Google Base to get them listed within
the Google Shopping results.

Now if you visit the second page of results, you'll see that
they are now showing different universal search results.

    * Web
    * Video
    * Images

Towards the top of the results you will see 1 video; however in
most searches where videos are in the results, you will usually
see two. This indicates that you could potentially have a video
listed towards the top of the second page. As you continue to
view the remaining results on page two you will again notice
that you don't see any photos on page two; another opportunity
to gain exposure over your competitors.

Once you have completed this type of research and analysis for
the keywords important to your website, begin creating and
optimizing your shopping feeds, videos, images, blog posts and
other universal search products to gain the competitive
advantage before your competitors do.

Optimizing Images

You can increase the chances of your images showing up for
relevant search queries by optimizing your images. There are a
few key areas that will help improve your ability to increase
rankings for your images in Google Image Search, as well as
where images are shown in Google Search.

Although these tips are for Google Images, these examples can be
used throughout various areas of your website; to improve all of
your universal search results.

File Names - Give your images accurate names rather than
defaulting to what your camera or image editor provides. If the
image is of a cashmere red scarf, then consider naming our image
cashmere-red-scarf.jpg. This help to further classify the image
and show relevancy to the search terms you are targeting.

Image Alt Attribute - Ensure that you have provided a quality
description for your images using the image alt attribute. Try
using product colors, sizes, materials, brand names, textures,
manufacturer names etc. Remember not to overdo it, but provide
an accurate description of the product to assist with increasing
relevancy for desired search terms.

Captions - Include a caption for your image that describes or
relates to the product. The text that surrounds the image helps
Google to understand the subject matter of the image.

Anchor Text - The text you use when linking to the image helps
to describe and classify the image. Try using descriptive anchor
text rather than words such as "click here", "larger image" or
"more photos" when describing the link.

Google Image Labeler - While you can do your part in helping to
optimize your images, you can also increase your chances of
having your images appear in Google Image Search by allowing
others to help classify your images through Google's Image
Labeler. By simply enabling the Google Image Labeler from the
Google Webmaster Console, you allow Image Labeler users to
provide words and phrases they believe accurately describe your
images in a fun online game. As users are shown images from your
website, they type in a few words they feel accurately describe
the photo, which is later used to further classify the subject
matter of your image.

Summary

Google has provided many new opportunities for you to reach
searchers in the ways they want to be reached. Search engine
optimization has been taken to another level; it's no longer
about who has the most number of pages, the best density; or who
has the most inbound links. It is about who is utilizing all
their available opportunities.

Almost every aspect of your website is being analyzed and
classified; use it to your advantage. Now is the time to take
advantage of these opportunities and increase your visibility in
every area of universal search; allowing you to increase your
traffic and exposure in new and exciting ways.
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Leona Griffin is a SEO Specialist at 1st on the List Promotion
Inc. (http://www.1stonthelist.ca/). As a 12 veteran search
marketing professional, she specializes in universal search,
on-page SEO and creating search marketing strategies that
deliver long-term results for their clients.
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