You may have noticed that Google features a variety of results, such as news, images, and video on the main search engine results pages (SERPs). This is know as “blended” or “universal” search, and these multi-media results can be used to your advantage – for at least some keywords, anyways.
When multi-media results show up in the SERPs, users’ eyes are often drawn to them first, simply because they stand out. While thumbnails of images and videos are obvious lures, news results seem more objective and credible than normal sites, and blogs offer the allure of interaction.
There are two things you should to consider in leveraging blended search results: (1) what keywords you’re trying to rank for, and (2) producing content in a relevant search vertical.
Selecting Keywords for Blended Search Optimization
Chances are that you won’t be able to rank for any keyword on a blended search that you’re not already ranking for on a regular search. When choosing keywords, then, you have to consider how competitive the keywords you want to rank for are within each search vertical.
Don’t think that a keyword isn’t competitive for blended search just because there are no blended search results. The lack of multi-media search results might just be Google deciding that results from various verticals are not relevant to the average user. For example, a Google search for “online casino” probably won’t return any blended results because a user searching for that keyword is more likely looking for a type of product rather than any broad number of things.
Before trying to optimize for blended search, then, (1) consider the keywords you want to rank for and whether Google might be likely to display blended results for them, and (2) run those keywords through each of Google’s independent search verticals to determine their competitiveness. In the end, you’ll have much more success ranking in blended search for keywords that you already rank for.
Creating Vertical Content
Obviously, if you want to rank on blended search, you have to rank within various search verticals, which means you have to produce content for each of those verticals. As far as search verticals go, the best search verticals to target are news, blogs, images, and video.
- News: There are two way to produce news content: First, get actual news media coverage, Secondly, issue press releases through major online newswires such as PR Web – but be sure to read the newswire’s FAQs so that you can prepare a quality release that will rank better.
- Blogs: Start blogging about your niche, and don’t be a shameless self-promoter about it. Rather, blog from a perspective that you think your visitor would actually appreciate.
- Images: There are two ways to search optimize images. First, use appropriate keywords to re-name all the images on your site and add title and alt tags. Second, upload additional images to popular image hosting sites, tag them according, and then embed those images in your blog posts, making sure to add title and alt tags to the HTML embed code.
- Video: optimizing video content for blended search is like optimizing images. Simply upload your videos to popular hosting sites, tag them appropriately, and embed them on your blog, adding title and alt tags.
Blended Search Traffic
Organic traffic can be an immensely powerful source of revenue. After all, users regard organic search results as more credible than sponsored results.
By leveraging blended search strategies, you can not only increase your click-through-rater from the SERPs, but also other sources of traffic. After all, by producing content across a variety of verticals, you’re engaging users across several new channels.
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