Do You Know Which Blended Search Opportunities Exist For Your Business?

For several years now, Google has been presenting more than the standard 10 blue links in its search results. What does a search results page even look like with only 10 blue links? I had to get creative to find a good example, since they are becoming rare, so I chose three words from standard “lorem ipsum” dummy text as my search query. Here’s what the old 10 blue links search results look like when I searched for the Latin words quo magna etiam.

These days, videos, images, news, and other non-traditional items are likely to show up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for any given search query, and Google continually experiments with these results. This mashup, commonly called “blended search”, combines results from web search and Google’s other properties such as Google News, Youtube, Google Products, and Image Search, as well as results from external sources such as review sites. This gives you the opportunity to work your way into the first page of results through these alternative avenues.

Because blended search results often yield higher click through rates, getting listed this way has benefits beyond the listing itself. Not only can you potentially squeeze your listing onto the first page of Google results, but you can command more attention than other plain listings might – even if those listings rank higher than yours.

Let’s take a quick look at what a typical blended search result might contain. For this example, I searched for Taylor Swift.

This search result is inundated with blended results, and includes news, videos, and images. If you look carefully, however, you’ll notice that the images and videos come from Ms. Swift herself, so it might be difficult, if not impossible for an unofficial site to sneak a video or image into that mix. The news portion, however, is a blend of external sources, so that’s an avenue that might see some success for an entertainment-focused business.

Now let’s take a look at a search result that has blended results which might be easier to break into with your own videos and images. For this search, I chose the phrase leaky faucet. If your business involves solving plumbing problems, you might want to work your way into this result set. Obviously, this phrase is rather broad, and it would be tough to compete for the top 10 spots, but a compelling video or popular image on your site might land your site a coveted place here. It worked for a few people as you’ll see in the example below.

Google’s blended results are evolving over time, and keeping up with the changes can be frustrating for the typical small business owner. However, the various opportunities to get listed on the first page of search results often makes this a challenge worth taking, for you and your marketing consultants.

Not every business should try to take advantage of every possible blended search opportunity, as some won’t be relevant or worth the time required to implement. It’s important that the decision be made based on a knowledge of which opportunities exist, however, so at the very least, it’s beneficial to keep abreast of any new blended search opportunities that arise.

With that in mind, it’s best to start with a recap of what blended search opportunities are available at the moment. Some of these opportunities represent new types of listings that go beyond the standard text listing, such as videos and images. Others represent opportunities to highlight and draw extra attention to existing listings, such as star ratings and event dates and locations.

Videos

- Videos are a great way to sneak into the search results. Tip: Optimize by making use of a video sitemap, using microformat markup within your HTML, and writing descriptive titles and descriptions for the videos.

News

- Google has some qualification requirements for listing sites in its news searches, so if you can’t get your site listed in news directly, then sneak in through the use of secondary trusted news sources. This might involve submitting press releases, or finding ways to get featured as a story in local or national news sites.

Images

- Although image search is often maligned for being unfriendly to the conversion process, it can be very useful if you place calls to action near the image on the page. Tip: Bigger is usually better for getting images listed, and you should always optimize the file name and use alt attributes in an appropriate manner.

Maps / Local / Places

- Many small businesses are looking to find new customers within a local region, so getting additional exposure via Google Places can be a huge plus. Let’s take a look at how this can work to your advantage. For this search, I used the phrase Louisiana tub restoration.

Notice how many extra opportunities the first business listing has for drawing attention to itself. The rest of the listings pale in comparison. Tip: Claim your places page, have your phone and address displayed prominently on every page of your site, and use the same address and phone number consistently across the web. In addition, be sure to get lots of local citations in all the important geo-focused web directories.

Shopping

- To get into the shopping search results, you need to actively use the Google Base product feed option, and make sure to use and optimize as many of the product fields within the feed as possible. Let’s take a look at a typical product-focused search looks like with shopping results blended in. For this example, I chose the phrase bmx bikes. Notice how the shopping results stand out, even though they are fairly far down the page.

Rich Snippets

- Rich Snippets are listing enhancements such as:

• product rating and reviews
• recipe information including photos, prep time, cook time, reviews and calories
• event dates and locations
• and various other snippets of information about a listing

While rich snippets won’t necessarily allow you to sneak into the listings themselves, if you have a listing already present in the search results, rich snippets can make your listing more noticeable. Let’s first look at how a rich snippet greatly enhances an event listing.

Now, let’s see how a product listing can be enhance via rich snippets.

Finally, here’s a look at how a simple recipe can look with the inclusion of rich snippets.

By now, it should be obvious that there are many good reasons for a business to weigh the various blended search options that might allow it to either slip into the search results via alternate means, or to greatly enhance its current search listings, making them more noticeable and therefore generating higher clickthroughs.

If you don’t have the time keep up with blended search opportunities, don’t understand how to implement them, or just need help deciding which might be beneficial for you to pursue, Da Li Social can help you make those decisions. We are happy to show you how you can utilize these additional opportunities in your integrated search marketing plan. Just get in touch!