Well, I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later and it appears it is sooner. Over the next several months, Google will be implementing what they call Universal Search, a new way to search vertically for products or services you are interested in.

What is the difference between our current searches and the new Universal Search? Well, first off you wont see a list of websites matching your search criteria, you will now see a combination of websites, video blogs, traditional blogs, Podcasts, images, maps, etc. Basically, your search will now return anything that is properly tagged with keywords related to your search.

The problem that I see with this method of displaying search results is that you will be subjected to things (blogs, video, Podcasts, etc.) that you dont really care about. Suppose for a second that you are looking for Website Marketing services, you go to Google and type in Website Marketing, click search and voila, up comes the first 10 listings for your search. The problem now becomes apparent, you didnt want to see home videos of some kid optimizing a website or listen to hours upon hours of Podcasts talking about optimizing websites. you definitely dont care about images that someone has put up on their site with code in attached that tells the search engines this has something to do with Website Marketing; you wanted to see websites that offer website marketing services.

You see the problem? Google feels all of this extra content is relevant and should be displayed with each search but in reality, most people that want this other information go to search engines that specifically cater to blog searching, Podcasting searching, image searches, etc.

How will this affect you and the way customers find your site, products, services, etc.? Well, they now have a lot more stuff to work their way through before they really get what they want. This means that you are going to need to take a leap ahead in your current business technologies and start implementing some of these things such as Podcasts or blogs so that the search engines find you more relevant and want to list your site over sites that dont use these methods.

The good news here is that we have some time to get these things implemented. Google has to work in phases if they want to get this up and running correctly, which gives us time to create a game plan. The other good news is that most of your competitors probably are not going to implement any of these new technologies anytime soon. That means you will jump ahead of them in search results.

If you have any questions concerning Googles new Universal Search, give us a call, we will gladly answer any questions you might have.

Trevor Walter
Freelance Marketing Group, Inc.
http://www.fmgconsultants.com