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Roberto Hortal, Head of eBusiness
Use Universal Search to your
advantage to optimise the User
Experience and enhance your
Online Visibility
Universal Search
• Launched May 2007, Google's attempt to deliver the best result for a particular user query by including video, images, news, podcasts or any other form of digital content.
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Model graph: http://searchengineland.com/search-30-the-blended-vertical-search-revolution-12775
Universal Search principles
• Comparative ranking
– Before: web results ranked in isolation, given priority. Other types ranked separately
– After: web results compared directly with other types, more relevant wins
• Blending
– Before: 10 results per page, any media results added to top or bottom
– After: media results may appear anywhere on the page, blended with web results
– These may displace web results or add to them, resulting in more than 10 results per page at times.
– Blending is informed by usage – Google showing types of results at certain positions where they are more likely to be used
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What does Universal Search change?
• Encourage Browsing attitude on visitors
– Watch a video
– Read a review
– Explore latest news
– Find where to buy
• Break the Golden Triangle
– Provide visual anchors across the page
– Much more engaging User Experience
• Return to SERP a lot more frequently
• Product Portal across the lifecycle
– Consider, Buy, Use...
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Implications of Universal Search
• Expand your definition of SEO
– From site-centric content and tags
• to multimedia, multi-site
– From content pages
• to video, pictures, news, geographic information...
– From protecting your brand and product info
• to seeding the ecosystem: local listings, Google Base, reviews sites, Video sites, Photo sharing sites, good blog coverage, online PR...
• Most importantly
– From Direct Response
• to Hybrid Brand + DR metrics and KPIs
• Brand Advertising as content creation, social media participation
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Blending rules – hurry, they change fast!
• Images
– Typically top of the page, sometimes bottom
• News
– Frequently top of the page but may appear anywhere
• Video
– Fully blended, anywhere on the page
– Can be played right on the SERP (YouTube)
– Subtractive (they’ll replace a normal result for a total of 10)
• Shopping
– Top typically, sometimes bottom
• Blogs
– Bottom
– Instant (if blogs ping Google Blog Search)
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Original research by http://searchengineland.com/
Use blending rules to inform your SEO
• Images and Google Shopping results appear at the top
– Assume most likely to be clicked
– Ensure you have both types of results for key terms
• News and video appear anywhere
– Become a news source
– Use video to pull eyes down, push competitors to lower pages
– Ensure video remains relevant in SERP player
• Blogs appear bottom, update instantly
– Assume dedicated searcher
– Great for timely content, offers; remember to ping
– Must remain relevant, blog will join normal results and stay
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Becoming Universal: the MORE TH>N Business Knowledge Centre
• An information resource for small business owners, covering all aspects of life in the business world
• Risk management content abundant, but not exclusive
• Aim: become an authoritative source
– In-depth pieces – relevant over time, useful, exclusive
– News – timely, engaging, personality
• Impressive SEO results
– Sustained higher positions for key insurance terms
– Top positions for wide range or business-related keywords
– Fused into the conversation: frequent references from 3rd parties, links, etc
• Listening and evolving
– Design evolution informed by user feedback
– Video featuring members of our business audience
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Knowledge Centre – Business news
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Impact of Universal Search on MORE TH>N Business Site Traffic
• Overall traffic to MORE TH>N Business since news went live in May 2007
• News has generated regular spikes for M>B, driven by Universal Search
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Visitors
VisitorsfromSearch
Becoming a news resource = long lasting impact
• News story about what motivates people to work published 4 June 08
– Sustained traffic, peaked 13 June 08 drawing significant attention over 2 weeks
– Currently the most read news story on site
– Average time on this page: 3mins 11
– Average time on site overall: 1min 32
• Traffic came from a range of sources – there was lots of email traffic and links from blogs and Delicio.us
– Many of these people found the article through Universal Search
– As a result, M>B seen as authority on Business topics by Google
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Google News is your friend
• News story about triple science GCSEs was published 11 August 08
– Currently second most read news story on site
– Average time on this page: 2mins 20
– Average time on site overall: 1min 32
• Traffic for this story driven primarily by Google news result embedded on Universal Results page.
• Residual staying power – now appears as standard result next to BBC
• It also helped generate incoming links from blogs, impacting pagerank
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Knowledge Centre next steps - Video
• Video launched days ago
• Business profile format for wider appeal
• Hosted on YouTube for SERP support
• Raises potential links on SERP to 3
• May help displace competing results
• Transcript for accessibility, traditional SEO
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Long-lasting impact
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Network Map: iCrossing
MORE TH>N’s Social Media Centre
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• Applying the lessons from M>B, Living
• Online newsroom redesigned to maximise social and community elements
• Visual design and Tech platform
• SEO optimisation for findability
• Blog platform, instant ping
• Goal: be recognised as news source, appear in Google News results
• Photos, video and podcasts for further SEO effectiveness (remember, photos appear top!)
• Engaging stories that people want to talk about (i.e. Car Aerobics)
• Every news piece is optimised for use online
• Links, Tags, Comments
Use Universal Search to your advantage to optimise the User
Experience and enhance your Online Visibility
• How are consumers responding to the new era in asset optimisation
• Discover how your business can benefit from the rich media search experience and develop tactical strategies to improve the quality of your clickthroughs
• Understand the different elements of your search strategy
• Interact and learn cutting-edge techniques for adapting website’s content to the new “system”
• Different approaches – Google “inline” vs Yahoo “PPC”
• 14:25 – 14:45
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