The Many Faces of Google: How To Leverage Universal Search In Your Online Search Engine Marketing Campaigns
Some years ago, Google revamped its search engine to include more than just webpages. Google Universal Search now includes results from things like Google owned YouTube, Google images, Google maps, etc.
Although it makes search engine marketing slightly more involved, this also means there are more areas that will allow you to don your SEO thinking cap in order to boost your Google rankings.
Images: Google images, to be exact. The images on your website can affect your Google rank. While you don’t have to name every picture the same thing, instead of something arbitrary, try to use some keywords in title tags and alt text.
In addition to the existing images on your website, you can create images with the purpose of spreading them around the internet. Of course, this depends on your industry, and whether or not it is appropriate for your company, but if it is, why not create some entertaining pictures that people will want to link to others? It doesn’t have to be the next great LOLcat, but if your customers link it to others, and it is linking to certain pages on your website, then it will help your ranking and possibly create some backlinks for you.
Video SEO: This isn’t the first time this blog has mentioned YouTube in regards to SEO, and with good reason. Haven’t you heard? YouTube is the SECOND MOST USED SEARCH ENGINE. If you’re not exposing your business on YouTube, you’re doing a disservice to your online marketing campaign.
YouTube tends to carry a certain stigma with it because its content is usually catered towards entertainment, but you don’t need to participate in this. A couple of easy ways to get exposure on YouTube are by creating instructional videos that are relevant to your industry, or even just a video portfolio or some of your products and services. You can link your website from individual videos and your YouTube profile, which will increase the number of inbound links to your website. (Plus, if people like your videos, they can easily embed them in their blog posts, Tweets, or web pages).
Google Maps: That’s right! If you make an entry into Google Maps for your business, your customers will have another way to find your business. You can fill your profile with relevant keywords and phrases, which helps all sorts of SEO campaigns, but most particularly local campaigns. It also ensures that if someone searches for your business name specifically, they will be provided with quick, relevant results. You’d be surprised at how many businesses don’t show up as the top result when someone searches for their website specifically.
The inclusion of other services into Google’s Universal search shows that search engines are moving beyond just web page indexes. Search engines want to provide users with all sorts of helpful information regarding their searches, and if your business isn’t making itself visible in as many relevant aspects of search engines as possible, then you’re already behind the search engine marketing curve.