Google had posted ‘recommendations on how to take advantage of universal search‘ last year, in an effort to let the webmasters receive more relevant search traffic. In spite of this previous post, at the SMX West conference last month ‘universal’ and ‘personalized’ search remained the core of the conference topics. Webmasters were very keen to know as to how these leaps in search technologies will influence their content visibility in the SERP.
This show of enthusiasm from the webmasters and site owners, led Google to put up an another post by the name of ‘Take advantage of Universal Search part 2‘. Here, the Google trend analysts have provided more recommendations to satisfy the webmasters’ appetite for answers.
Some of these recommendation are as follows:
Local search- Help nearby searchers find your business: The site owners are primarily interested in localised searches for their businesses. So, these are a few tips from Google on this topic:
a. Add your business to the Google Local Business Center.
b. The business should always be listed under the correct category.
c. The business name and contact details should be visible on the entrepreneur’s website, and should be accessible to the search engines.
d. Add additional information about the business, so as to let the visitors decide, whether the business suits their needs or not.
Video Search- Enhance the video results: Google’s ‘Video Sitemaps protocols‘ lets the site owners specify a preferred thumbnail image for video, when they appear in the SERP.
Personalised Search Basics:
a. Ranking changes affect the personalization of search results.
b. Topic specific websites are recommended, as they would stand out in personalised searches. For e.g., instead of making a website about automobiles, create a dedicated site to one particular model.
c. Use Geographic Targeting and Local Business Center, to let Google identify, as to which area the website would be most relevant to.
d. Pay extra attention to detail about the content of the website. Both internal and external.
Image Search- Increase the visibility: Make sure those images that maybe considered explicit or objectionable should not be used within the website, as the Safe Search option in the Google Search Engine will filter them out. In case, the Safe Search is filtering the images that seem fit to be viewed in general, then the site owner can use the ‘Contact Form‘. Select ‘Report a problem->Inappropriate or irrelevant search result’ and let Google know your concern.
These tips and recommendations are designed specifically for webmasters who want their page ranks and other factors about their websites to rise to the top.
