We can’t believe it’s already 2009! We are ready to tackle the year. We all make resolutions this time of year, or at least we all have hopes for the year ahead. In terms of SEO, we want to give you the search engine forecast for 2009 and help you make some resolutions to stay ahead of the game.  In looking at the search trends, universal search has been growing and we anticipate universal search to become a key consideration in SEO. We suggest a resolution for you: optimize for universal search and links back will follow.

What is universal search? If that’s your first question, don’t worry, it’s a relatively new term. Universal search is Google’s method of combining results from it’s various ‘vertical’ search engines. Vertical refers to each class of categories Google searches within such as blogs, photos and video. Universal search may include all of these categories in one search engine results page (SERP)
1. Web Search
2. Book Search
3. Images
4. Local/Maps
5. News
6. Video
7. Blog Search
8. Product Search

You’ve likely seen universal search hundreds of times in your own searches, without realizing it. Whenever you search for a term and products and a photo and then a web page are listed, that’s an example of universal search. The blending of multiple mediums from which you can choose is what Google brings to its searchers, and Yahoo! and other engines have followed suit.

Because economically, 2009 has many businesses worried and cutting budgets, resolving to optimize for universal search can actually help reduce costs. The more you incorporate a variety of content on your site like blogs, news releases, photos and videos, the more likely your site will be included in universal search. The second and extremely powerful benefit to adding alternate content forms to your site, is the link building possibility. If your industrial website is one of a handful providers in your industry, you may be one of the first to post an YouTube video. That video would then be a very valuable resource in your industry’s community and would earn many links to it. Likewise, if you post a blog about a current, hot industrial topic, it may strike a nerve that week and you may earn countless links or RSS subscriptions. So beyond good site content, podcasts, press releases and webcasts can provide tremendous traffic and increase in search engine rankings.

So optimizing for universal search has two distinct benefits – to have more material viable for return in the search engines, and to have more ability to earn links back. That synergy could save you money you’d need for a custom link building program that you may have outsourced. The bottom line with good SEO is content is king. But we should resolve this 2009 to push the boundaries of traditional ‘content’. Add videos, podcasts, blogs and diagrams – anything to help your consumer understand your brand and product. The quality of content you send out will be reflected in the links back and the search engine rankings.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 9:53 am and is filed under Content & Copywriting, General, Link Building. 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.