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Universal Search: The Good and the Bad

One of the most heated debates concerning search engine optimization (SEO) these days is about the upsides and downsides to Universal Search, the latest revolutionary step forward in SEO, with Google being the first major search engine offering this feature to its users. Other search engines have now joined Google and created similar versions of Universal Search for their users as well. Universal Search collects information from a mixture of various medias in producing the results for a search. This means that a user will be offered a myriad of media options from video, news podcasts, RSS feeds, and more in conjunction with the typical website links and sponsored results we are familiar with seeing on a search results page.

Webmasters and Google search users have experienced the forward marching of Google into previously uncharted cyberspace marketing territory before with the implementation of pay-per-click advertising, search results from books, and local results included in an average search, that has long been the reason that a simple search is anything but average. The difference now with Universal Search is that the myriad of media sources included in search results are given page rankings using the same ranking criteria across the board.

The purpose behind Universal Search is to create a wide sweeping search for and presentation of results to search users. Since valuable information is contained within a variety of media sources it seems only reasonable and consumer friendly to offer the most information possible to those seeking information through searches. Universal Search opens the floodgates so to speak for even more participation and competition among the players vying for the attention and business patronage of internet consumers. This of course offers the online consumer better options and wider selections to choose from, but it also means that webmasters will have to work even harder to get the attention and patronage of internet consumers.

Some of the more heated debates going on about the good and bad points to Universal Search comes back to its intended purpose of providing the widest search results possible by collecting from a myriad of media sources. Some are worried that all of this information presented in a search results page may be information overload for too many search users. A searcher may feel as if they are drowning in a sea of results and may not have the motivation to wade through extensive result lists. There are kinks in the Universal Search that need to be worked out. One kink in the online market chain for Google users is that Universal Search cannot be shut down if this widespread searching and results does not appeal to you. Bloggers especially dislike this kink in the features. However it is certain that this and other kinks will be worked out in quick fashion by Google, as they are determined to remain at the top of the search engines.

Increased competitors and stiffer competing will mean more work for the webmaster. The search engine optimization of websites will take on even greater significance than it already holds for the ranking of websites in the search engines at the moment. Much of the SEO that webmasters and SEO firms have been concentrating on have been in the areas of website content, keyword usage and density, meta tagging, linking, and the structures of webpages. These are basic strengths to SEO that are not likely to change so do not go erasing all of the hard work you have already put into the SEO of your website. Just beware that as Universal Search grows in the media it uses to collect results for searches, so too will the requirements for successful website search engine optimization grow. If we have learned anything from the SEO strategies that we have been using, it is that the more successful ones have been those that were developed to meet the new challenges posed by an ever evolving technology that is the internet.