Probably the most well-known Integrated Vertical Search is Google’s “Universal Search” – although all of the major search engines have now adopted similar search formats. This is the practice of incorporating different types of results in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), such as news releases, images, videos, etc., depending on the query. This was a game-changer for SEO when it was first introduced – it became necessary to create and optimize many different types of content because they all show up on SERPs. The term for this comprehensive approach is referred to as Digital Asset Optimization (DAO).
This is both a challenge and a great opportunity. The challenge is because the organic spots aren’t what they used to be – there used to be ten organic spots on the first page to compete for – and only five above the fold, (which refers to the vertical limitations of a user’s screen and the amount of content one can view without scrolling). Now there might be local search results, news releases, images and video included in the results – many of those above the fold. What’s the new number one spot? Is it the first local result, news release, or organic listing?
There’s also great opportunity in universal search for those that learn how to play the game. You can own more real estate on the first page of results if you can get your site in the local, news, video and image results as well as the organic results.
If these activities are causing your listings to show up on sites and pages that aren’t search engine results - can you really call it search engine marketing? What most of these advertising methods have in common are that they are all ‘keyword driven.’
There are also a few more similarities. All of these marketing methods are measurable to an extent never seen in any other media. Every click can be measured – where and when it came – and followed through to the conversion, the sale and the lifetime customer value. This feedback loop creates optimization opportunities that can create huge incremental improvements in your SEM campaigns.
All of these marketing methods are measurable to an extent never seen in any other media.
SEM is a broad and growing field and is one of the most targeted methods of getting the right visitors to your site at the peak moment of their interest – when they’re searching for a solution to a problem you can solve.
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