Marketing Profs

Organic search engine optimization, until recently, had been a fairly straightforward endeavor. The goal was to optimize the content on a Web site so that it would show up in the organic results on one or more of the major search engines—results that were composed of nothing but other Web sites.

However, in the middle of May 2007, Google began rolling out its "Universal Search," something it had been working on behind the scenes for several years.

This new search option may have long-term repercussions for every search engine optimization company if it is something that is preferred by the public and becomes the standard.

What is Universal Search?

Someone using Google's Universal Search will find that a query brings back results that encompass not only Web pages but also videos, blogs, images, news articles, and other media available online.

While Google already had in place options for searching each of these areas separately, many searchers did not notice those options or did not know how to use them—a phenomenon that became known as "invisible tabs."

With Universal Search, there's no need to select a separate menu item—the search will return results that encompass many different types of media. For example, a search for "breakdancing" might bring up not only Web pages about breakdancing but also blog posts about it, videos showing technique, and news articles about it.

However, Universal Search hasn't fully been rolled out. Currently, certain terms will give Universal results, while other searches will remain the same as before.

This is a classic Google move: Roll something out gradually, see how it plays in the public eye, and then decide what to do from there. Basically, then, Universal Search as it now exists is very likely to change, depending on user feedback.

And if the limited queries that now return Universal Search results do not garner positive responses, it's likely that Google will revert to its previous, predominately Web-page results. It obviously doesn't want to lose market share, and it learned a valuable lesson not long ago when it released a new algorithm that was poorly received and was subsequently dialed back.

What are the Benefits of Universal Search?

Universal Search brings several benefits to searchers. A searcher no longer has to specify the media he or she is looking for—one keyphrase search will cover everything. And the results from a search will be more comprehensive in many instances, giving a well-rounded picture to the searcher that may include better information than would previously have been found in a search of just one type of media.