It used to be that a well-designed site (or even a badly designed one!), a healthy dose of thoughtful and ethical site optimization and well-placed backlinks used to be sufficient for top placement in the SERPs (search engine result pages).  With the advent of Universal Search in mid-2007, businesses have been challenged to keep their websites performing well in the search engines.

To explain, search engine results used to be made up of comparisons of websites’ pages to each other, with those most relevant to the search term appearing in the results.  With Universal Search in place, results are now made up of ‘vertical’ search results, namely: blogs, news, video, local search/maps, images, products and books.  This blending of vertical search and web search makes for a more ‘unified’ web and offers greater relevancy and choice to those using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Universal Search focuses heavily on social media, and new SEO strategies for your industrial or commercial website must be used to keep up with the amount of multimedia content being added to the web every day.  Here are few suggestions for staying ahead of the game!

Create Opportunities for Client Participation

A blog is a great tool for businesses to reach out to their clients and site visitors.  It also allows clients to engage you in ways that weren’t possible in older business communications models.  Not all businesses need a blog, but if it’s appropriate for your marketing presence, by all means start a business blog!  Through the implementation of streaming media, podcasts, pictures and more, you can bring your visitors right into your company, giving them a deeper level of personal contact.

Incorporate Multimedia into Your Online Marketing Strategy

There’s more to your business presence on the web than your website!  Leverage the power of the web to integrate multimedia materials into your website, blog and more.

• Google image search is a powerful search tool-ensure that you use standard naming conventions for your site and blog images, use keyword-rich file names and create ALT tags that are readable but also incorporate keywords.
• Google Video and YouTube-There are many ways to reach out to potential customers with a well-produced company video!  You can film a case study or two, demonstrating a process or product that was particularly innovative.  A short film of a mechanical process can illustrate the versatility or efficiency of a machine or machining system.  And you can’t beat a clip of a client giving a testimonial or positive review to show others that you’re in touch and run a great business!When uploading your videos to YouTube or Google Video, be sure to use a readable description and title tag that include some of your important keywords.  You can also create a dedicated ‘Videos’ page on your website to showcase your videos, with optimized tags and content.

Make Sure Your Local Search Presence is Strong

• Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local and other local searches are a goldmine!  By integrating local search SEO strategies into your website, you have the ability to offer your customers accurate, real-time mobile search results. You also give your potential customers the ability to find you and call you for services without ever visiting your website.  Read more about the benefits of local and mobile search here.

Keep Content on Your Site Fresh and Appealing

• You can keep visitors on your site longer by making sure you add relevant and appealing content on a regular basis.  You can offer pricing deals, whitepapers, spec sheets, news items, special events and updated product information.  The sky’s the limit with your site and/or business blog!  The more relevant and useful content you offer, the more your visors, and the search engines will want to visit again and again!

By taking a careful inventory of your company’s digital assets, optimizing them for use on the web with search engines in mind and creating new materials and content on a regular basis, you can make the most of Universal Search and maintain your place in the top of the SERPs!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.