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Optimizing for Mixed Media Search Results |
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As Google's search engine competitors often bring up, searchers want more than just "ten blue links" these days. Of course it has been quite a while now since search results from any of the big three were only ten blue links for most searches. We are well into the era of blended search.
Google calls this "Universal" search, but the concept is generally the same among Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Results incorporate different forms of online media. Every day, we see image results, news results, video results, local results, blog results, and more sprinkled throughout search results for any given query. That's just how it is now.
The nature of blended search requires that webmasters not only optimize their sites for search in general, but for separate and individual search engines. As SEO Dave Naylor pointed out at SES Chicago, blended or universal search results can reduce traffic for "traditional" sites. These results usually catch the user's eye, and may draw them away from organic listings (this is one of the reasons why local search optimization is getting more difficult).
That said, there are tremendous advantages to blended search results, obviously for the user, but even for the webmaster and/or business.
According to Larry Cornett, VP of Consumer Products at Yahoo, who spoke on this subject at the conference, the value of blended, mixed media search results comes from:
- a more comprehensive search experience
- guiding searchers to the right results
- a broader range of SEO opportunities
- taking control of your brand
- increasing qualified clicks
Just break it down by the areas you have a shot at ranking in. Can you get indexed in news search? Image search? Blog search? Forgive me for quoting Too $hort, but "Get in where you fit in." Can you do video and make it helpful and relevant to users? Do it and optimize for video. The more categories of media that the search engines are incorporating into results (that you can justify getting involved with), the more cracks you have at additional results page real estate.
Read these articles for more on this kind of thinking and specific tips on carrying it out:
- How Do Google's New Search Options Affect SEO?
- Google News SEO Tips - Ranking in News Search
- Get More Traffic from Bing's Image Search
- Rank in Image Searches and Get Valuable, Untapped Traffic
- Tips For Ranking Higher On and With YouTube
- Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To
- Tons of Tips for Ranking in 5 Other Google Engines (looks at YouTube, Image Search, Google News, Maps/Local, and Blog Search)
Have additional tips or advice? Share here.
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Link Building for Bing Rankings: Dos and Don'ts |
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It's easy for businesses to get caught up in Google's expectations for their sites, when trying to market through search. That's certainly a wise thing to do, considering Google dominates the search market by a huge margin. Still, there are other search engines that people are using, and it is also wise to make sure your site is performing to the best of its ability in those too.
I'm obviously talking about Yahoo and Bing, but Yahoo's share is declining, while Bing's is gaining. Furthermore, if the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo goes through, Bing search will be talking over Yahoo anyway.
Do you take Bing into account when optimizing your site? Comment here.
We don't hear as much about what Bing wants out of a site for rankings, but Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center has shared some dos and don'ts of link-building for Bing. Not surprisingly, a lot of his advice for honoring Bing's policy, does not differ too much from advice that Google would give you. It is, however, still always nice to see how they feel, just to clear up any possible confusion.
Like Google, Bing places great emphasis on quality links to determine its rankings. "Just don't make the mistake of believing it will result in instant gratification. Successful link building efforts require a long-term commitment, not an overnight or turnkey solution," says DeJarnette. "You need to continually invest in link building efforts with creativity and time."
What Not To Do
DeJarnette shared a list of things that you should avoid in your link building efforts, if it is a good Bing ranking that you are after. Here is what Bing says will get your site reviewed more closely by staff:
1. The number of inbound links suddenly increases by orders of magnitude in a short period of time
2. Many inbound links coming from irrelevant blog comments and/or from unrelated sites
3. Using hidden links in your pages
4. Receiving inbound links from paid link farms, link exchanges, or known "bad neighborhoods" on the Web
5. Linking out to known web spam sites
"When probable manipulation is detected, a spam rank factor is applied to a site, depending upon the type and severity of the infraction," says DeJarnette. "If the spam rating is high, a site can be penalized with a lowered rank. If the violations are egregious, a site can be temporarily or even permanently purged from the index."
What To Do
DeJarnette also shared some tips for getting more quality links. Following are Bing's tips for effective link building (paraphrased):
1. Develop your site as a business brand and brand it consistently
2. Find relevant industry experts, product reviewers, bloggers, and media folk, and make sure they're aware of your site/content
3. Publish concise, informative press releases online
4. Publish expert articles to online article directories
5. Participate in relevant conversations on blogs/forums, referring back to your site's content when applicable
6. Use social networks to connect to industry influencers (make sure you have links to your site in your profiles)
7. Create an email newsletter with notifications of new content
8. Launch a blog/forum on your site
9. Participate in relevant industry associations and especially in their online forums
10. Strive to become a trusted expert voice for your industry, while promoting your site
Most of the stuff DeJarnette shared is nothing any savvy search marketer is not already aware of. That said, there are clearly plenty of online (and offline for that matter) businesses out there that don't have savvy search marketers on the payroll. It can be quite helpful when a search engine itself lays out what to do and what not to do to help webmasters get better rankings.
Related Articles:
> What Bing, Twitter, and Facebook Mean for SEO
> Don't Lose Yahoo Traffic By Not Optimizing for Bing
> How Does Bing Rank Tweets?
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Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010 |
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Over the course of 2009, a consistent theme that Google has been involved with is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the web, and how the company wants to do everything it can to make the web a faster place. Has it occurred to you that how fast your page loads may have a direct effect on how your site ranks in Google?
Don't worry, it hasn't had an impact...yet. In an interview with WebProNews, Google's Matt Cutts told us that speed may soon be a ranking factor.
"Historically, we haven't had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast," says Cutts. "It should be a good experience, and so it's sort of fair to say that if you're a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don't want that as much."
>> Site speed ranking comments starts at the 02:35 point in the video...
"I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about 'how do I have my site be fast,' how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?'" he says.
I would say that based on Matt's comments it is probably fair to assume that Google will indeed begin taking page speed into consideration as a ranking factor, although he doesn't come right out and say that they definitely will. That said, making your site faster is going to benefit your users and possibly your sales anyway, so you might as well start optimizing it for speed anyway. Then if Google really does start using this as a ranking factor, you will have a head start on boosting your rankings.
Google has generally been pretty good at providing webmasters with tools they can use to help optimize their sites and potentially boost rankings and conversions. Google recently announced a Site Speed site, which provides webmasters with even more resources specifically aimed at speeding up their pages. Some of these, such as Page Speed and Closure tools come from Google itself. But there are a number of tools Google points you to from other developers as well.
If you're serious about wanting your site to perform better in search engines, and you haven't given much thought to load times and such, it's time to readjust your way of thinking. Caffeine increases the speed at which Google can index content. Wouldn't it make sense if your site helped the process along?
Have you given much thought to site speed? Is your site up to snuff? Discuss here.
Related Articles:
> Google Wants the Web to Function Like a Magazine
> Google Provides Tool for Speeding Up Web Pages
> Google Lets Businesses Speed Up Videos
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Google Rolls Out Breadcrumb Display in SERPs |
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Update: Google announced today that it will now be rolling out the use of breadcrumbs in seach results on a global basis. They will only be used in place of some URLs - mainly the ones that don't give the added context of a link the way that the breadcrumbs do. Google says:
Some web addresses help you understand the structure of the site and how the specific page fits into the site hierarchy. For example, consider a search for the biography of Vint Cerf (Google's Internet Evangelist). The URL for one result, "www.google.com/corporate/execs.html," shows that the page is located in a page about "execs," under "corporate," which is on the "google.com" site. This can provide valuable context when deciding whether to click on the result.
Often, however, URLs are too long, too short, or too obscure to add useful information.
That's where the breadcrumbs come in. Google says the feature should be available globally within the next few days.
Original Article: Google appears to be testing breadcrumbs in some search results, at least in some areas. If you are unfamiliar with the term breadcrumbs, it refers to the hierarchical display commonly used in site navigation. For example: Home Page>Product Page>Product A Page.
Do you utilize breadcrumbs on your site? Comment here.
Several bloggers have noticed Google displaying these types of breadcrumbs in various places in seemingly random results to some queries. For example, Rob Hammond provides the following screen shot:
Leo Fogarty provides another, which shows the breadcrumbs displayed in a different position within the search result:
Google's use of breadcrumbs appears to only be a test, and a limited one at that. Google has talked repeatedly about sites having good site architecture in the past. This allows Google to more easily and quickly crawl sites.
Bing acknowledges this too. Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center recently said, "You can have great content and a plethora of high quality inbound links from authority sites, but if your site’s structure is flawed or broken, then it will still not achieve the optimal page rank you desire from search engines."
Here are some tips from both Google and Bing regarding site architecture issues. In addition, Google recently provided this related information on getting your site crawled faster.
If Google begins incorporating the breadcrumbs display as in the above tests, on a mainstream level, that will be all the more reason to clean your site architecture up, at least in the navigation area. Site architecture certainly goes beyond this, but it is a key part of usability anyway.
Have you seen breadcrumbs show up in Google results? What do you think about the idea? Share your thoughts.
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Search Engine Optimization