Get ready for Universal search
All the latest news has been about all the wonderful and possible changes that all the Search engines have been under going.
The presumable changes have come in waves, therefore have brought on a flurry of debates and controversy. People have filled
the forums and blogs wondering if the changes in algorithms have caused the drop in ranking or page positioning of their site.
The change that has everyone in an uproar is the use of keyphrases and
Universal search .
How Universal search works - Googles technical example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars character
Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor – not just web pages
that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the
movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor
James Earl Jones – all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google
search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic.
The best descriptions I’ve read for the new type of search criteria that will be used for universal search is - in
general terms:
One - spiders will be smarter and pick up on more of the content as written [ meaning the natural use of words and grouping
of key words as in keyphrases ]. Therefore creating a more focus and relevant search of what is being sought after by
searcher.
Two - That in an attempt to get better results for search, spiders will pick up on keyphrases, or as some might call -
long tail key words.
Example: instead of typing in a key word like “credit” and getting an assorted array of information to filter
thru to find what you are looking for - a search will produce better results if the search engine itself produced results
based on these search criteria:
- how to fix bad credit
-legal credit repair help
- how to improve credit score
Not to insinuate that I understand how universal search will work [ I’m not sure even Google has it all sorted out
yet ] but that is the general idea.
Use natural terms for universal search
The question is, how do you and I find the best use of natural used terms [ universal ] to help us place high on the search
engine results? After all, no matter how much the search engines evolves, it is still subject to the use of it’s user.
So my concern with choosing “natural phrases” or “long tail key words” is being able to choose the
best and most common used natural phrases people will use to search for an item or subject.
** remembering full well universal search is still a ways of and is gradually moving forward and still does not undo the
need for good content and simple seo tips [ such as key words, tag, descriptions, page title, etc..]
So in my search I remembered a simple tool offered by
yahoo.
Yahoo offers a search suggestion help tool as you search. Sort of a guide to better help you find what you are looking
for.
The tool is there to help users find what their looking for. In more professional terms, more relevant search. But since
the tool also captures the most used terms or phrases that have been most frequently used by users, it also gives you a better
feel what terms to use yourself. Using the above screen shot of a yahoo search for credit - you can see how they offer more
precise terms to use with your key word.
The benefit I find is in setting up my web site with key words and content. Just like keywords and the need to have them
frequently used in your content and meta tag for keywords, by using yahoo you don’t have to guess at what group of words
may or may not be used by searchers. Yahoo takes the guessing out of if.
Not only is it difficult to break into niche markets, but there are keywords that will always keep a beginner at the bottom
of the search pile. It is always offered as a second choice to use “long tail key words” to help pages get traffic,
but since universal search may rely on “long tail key word” use, it may help to find the most common used phrases.
And this is where a tool like Yahoo’s suggestion tip can come in handy.
Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to be Found in a Universal Search?
By mediumblue.com
Clearly, Universal Search will change how an SEO campaign is run if it catches on. But this is a real if - users' search
habits are hard to change overnight, even if you are Google and you essentially define what searching is and how it works.
If it does catch on, you'll need to analyze the industry you are in and figure out which types of media might be most important
for you. For example, if you are a real estate firm, images of the buildings and homes you are selling might become a very
important part of your site, and so you will want to focus on adding alt tags to each image so that not only does your site
show up for certain keyphrases, but your images do as well. If you are a business services firm, you instead might want to
focus on news items produced by your company - press releases and white papers - and make sure that those are available to
search engine spiders and optimized for critical keyphrases.
