We love sushi. Delicious, delectable, delightful…I could go on all day. But we are faced with a new challenge in the search world: search sushi. During Google’s Spring Searchology event, Google unleashed a bunch of new search options, allowing users to filter searches by media (video, forum, review, etc) and by time (all time, recently, past week, etc.) So this opens up all kinds of opportunities for search dominance. By leveraging time-sensitive content with tradition al well-linked content, you can really position yourself to cover all of the bases for search.
But as Marissa Mayer was introducing the 2009 version of Google’s Universal Search, she mentioned that it was like a “Bento Box” of search results.
A Bento Box is a Japanese lunch tradition, where delicious sushi and a few other unimportant items are presented in a cool box. So I am thinking about this presentation as search sushi. Search sushi is a mix of traditional natural search results, video search results, image search results, local search results, map search results, paid search results, sometimes blog search results, sometimes product search results, sometimes book search results, and now forum and review search results and more. For the marketer, suddenly the world is a LOT more complicated. There are now over a dozen kinds of search results that can be presented to the searcher at one time. So how does the marketer handle this? How do you leverage the bento box for your benefit?
It really requires a mind shift. Search is no longer just about natural search results. It is about context, intent and multiple options. So, Google (and all other search engines) has discovered that their most effective approach is to segment all of their indexed items, present them, and let the user apply human intelligence to find the right medium to get the result. Google has changed the “last mile” of search. Rather than presenting an authoritative marker that they have delivered the exact right answer to your query, they give you options to choose the result that is right for you. This is great stuff.
But how do marketers take advantage of this opportunity, given that it is hard enough to get a good search position in Google? Here are 5 tips:
- Get Writing: The new temporal searches inside of Google mean that new content has its own showcase. Get blogging, get press releasing, get writing. New content is just as relevant (maybe even more so) than old, well-indexed content. Get exposure by being fresh!
- Get Video: Video is hot stuff. According to comScore, YouTube represents 25% of Google queries (that makes YouTube about as big as Yahoo, MSN and Ask, combined). And videos are hot searches — great, deep opportunities to engage with your customers. So get product previews on video, start a video blog, do whatever and get it on video.
- Get Blogging: Blog search results are hot. Blogs typically get indexed more often than a traditional retailer web site because there is fresher content there, and a quality blog that talks about your products, your brands and your company (and its terrific customers) is a great way to get a piece of sushi in the bento box
- Get Social: Now that forums and reviews are an essential part of the Google search cadre, and temporal versions of search are searching things in real time (or near real time), it is critical for marketers to be Tweeting, Facebooking and have a truly benevolent presence in consumer forums. Be there to answer questions, give advice and drop a few links now and then. All of those things get indexed and will be available as part of the sushi smorgasbord of search.
- Get Local: Locality is a huge part of context. If you have an office or a store, you need to get local. Many prefer to buy and interact locally. Get all of your locations listed and you can have the incredible benefit of getting a premiere spot in the bento box.
It’s almost lunchtime. I am going to use Google to find a great sushi place nearby!