Universal Search and You!
Carrie Hill | 23 May 2007 |
Taking Advantage of a New “Search Landscape”
Recently Google announced the activation of its “Universal Search” product. From here forward you will see information from various vertical platforms within Google while performing certain queries. Examples of Vertical Platforms are Maps, Images, Videos, Blog Searches, etc.
Why is this good for Travel & Tourism Websites?
If you are conscious of your online market and work to optimize your pages to show well within various platforms, you will do well within the new Universal Search results. Do you have optimized video content on your site? Are your photos optimized within the page? Do you feature your local address and phone number prominently on your site? If so, it is possible your images, videos or local information will be integrated into queries for your best keywords.
Do a query in Google for “downtown los angeles.” You will see a variety of verticals represented in the results.
Near the top you see images, local and movie times results:
Further down the page you see news results integrated into the regular SERPs:
What this means for you?
The personalization of search means that your website must send a clear and concise message about your product, location and specialties. Make sure your images are optimized with ALT tags that describe the PHOTO – not your property. If you have great video, add it to the site and get some viral traffic. Have your marketing company optimize your site for local search results with text address and local phone number. Consider adding a blog to your site which will feature fresh content and relevant news along with specials and more.
Universal Search is just the start – the personalization of the web will require website owners to dip their fingers in many pots, simply having a website with some text is becoming just a portion of what will work online. Get a jump on your competition and start working to build your vertical search presence with the suggestions above – you’ll be adding great features your potential guests can appreciate and you will have a website that is competitive in the universal search landscape.
Carrie Hill - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.
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June 8th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Carrie brings up some excellent questions that all businesses should be asking. Consider making a checklist of her suggestions and then talk with your web designer or marketing manager to find out what more can be done to your site. You don’t have to make all those changes at once, spread out the work over a couple months. Remember, it’s important to keep your site fresh to the viewer and the search engines. Your webiste is a work in progress, get the most out of your investment.
June 24th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Our website is in Word Press. How, exactly, do I “optimize photos with ALT tags”
Curt
June 25th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Hi Curt,
Great Question!
When you upload a photo to your WordPress site to include in a page or post, you are given three boxes within the “Upload” section; “File,” “Title,” and “Description.” You can add an alt tag to any photo by using a keyword rich phrase that describes the photo in the “Title” box. If you look at our travel blog and hover over the photos - MOST if not ALL will have alt tags that will show up when you put hour cursor on the picture.
I looked at your site and on this page: http://skaneatelessuites.com/?page_id=37 if you hover over the pictures you’ll see they have alt tags. Not the BEST for optimization sake, but they’re there and should be editable depending upon your permission level.
Good Luck - thanks for the question!
~Carrie