May 6th, 2010 by Nick

A search engine optimization strategy would be incomplete if it did not take vertical search results into account. These are the niche results which search engines often add to general search listings to form what is known as ‘Blended Search’. Images, videos, news, blogs, local search results and maps may all appear in their own sections within the main results, depending on a particular search query. Alternatively, each type of niche search can be carried out separately, and if a site’s customers are likely to search this way, it can be vital that the website shows up in the corresponding search results.

If a website’s target audience is likely to use one of the vertical search options, it is wise to consider search engine optimisation with the aim of being included in those results. If potential visitors are most likely to be interested in the pictures on a website, for example, all of the images should be optimised for inclusion in the niche image search results.

Search robots cannot yet recognise images as humans do, although research is underway to try and make this possible one day. Instead, images are interpreted according to the text associated with them, and the words present on the page around them. The ‘alt’ attribute in HTML, which is used to describe an image, should always be used and made as helpful as possible. The name of an image file should suggest what that picture represents, and, on the web page, relevant text should be found near the image to assist search robots attempting to interpret its meaning. Videos may also be optimised, both for SEO and for video search in particular, using broadly similar techniques. As much descriptive text as possible should be present in headings, file names and on the page nearby.

The vertical search for news depends on information being very up-to-the-minute. Optimising a website for news search involves being able to deliver stories regularly and ensuring that they are always fresh and interesting.

Blogs have their own vertical search within Google, although it actually searches RSS feeds. Sensible strategies for optimisation include the obvious one of ensuring that it is extremely simple for users to subscribe to the feed. It is also worth considering including the full text of each post in the feed so that visitors can read without being forced to click through to the website. This presupposes that the text is not too long.

Local search listings can be critical for local businesses as, probably more than for any other kind of vertical search, the results tend to overshadow the rest of the page. First there is the large map showing the location of each business, and the corresponding list of companies may also be quite long. This means that even the listing right at the top of the main search results ends up a long way down the page.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we have the experience and expertise to help your website succeed by optimising it for vertical search results.

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