Search Insider Summit - Dominate the Universal SERPs

Do we need to change our entire campaigns to capitalize on universal search? Find out what you can do to better dominate the universal SERPs and grab searchers’ attention.

• Chris Heuer, Partner, Red Door Interactive
• Bridget Shea, Director of Account Services, Is Google Backing off from universal search? (15 Oct search insider column, Mark Simon). Very thought provoking
  1. Are users confused by natural search?
  2. Does universal search make Google money?
  3. What about Google’s tabs image/video/etc?
  4. Does it erode relevancy?

  He’s going to rebut those arguments.

  Understand Google’s culture: It was created as a research project; heavily anchored in math. Large amounts of free, relevant info. Successful search & advertising DNA created off the back of organic listings. It’s not about paid search; all about user experience.

  Google’s marketing and PR people do a very good job of distracting analysts and journalists from Google’s core activities (it’s all analytical, mathematical—not emmotional)
  universal paid results. Very much dynamic and in flux.
  
  Paul: it’s embryonic at this point. Not a foregone conclusion about its direction.
  
  Chris: I don’t see a future where you’d see 10 video results. It comes down to individual preferences and learning styles. Some people are number-driven, some story-driven. 5-1 difference in video v. audio downloads. Yeah, they’re going to other tabs and just listening to it play. It’s a matter of individual preference—may set in profiles.
  
  Paul: You hit the nail on the head there. Gord interviewed Marissa Mayer a while ago: people are tired of network television telling them the news. People want the news the way they want the news and they’ll get it from Goolge. Google provides it to you in a vast, universal way. That’s the direction.
  
  Lee: difference between choosing your content and random access content.

  Paul, you showed a shot where there was a right-rail video pd search. Was that live?
  
  Paul: That was live and it was gone the next day—one ad, two “videos” results, two “products” results (very like Ask 3D).

  Video is easier—like to be entertained. It’s a lot less of recall and retainment. The advent of more advertainment is going to make it harder to get ROI than it is today. The world may be bigger, but I think it would be harder to dive good ROI through video
  
  Paul: Marketers have their centric POV in getting ROI, but that’s not consumers/searchers POV and goal.
  
  Chris: people don’t want to be advertised to. It’s an interruption. Social graph—how do we monetize it? I’m there to be social, not to transact. Same with YouTube. People don’t want marketers in a lot of their conversations because they’re trying to get them to do things they don’t want to do. But helping them do what they want to do? That’ll work.
  
  Followup: but why should I, then, work on my entertaining video when it doesn’t help?
  
  Bridget: It’s not just entertainment. It should have a strong CTA, it needs to be clear what you want the do after they view it.
  
  Lee: it’s the content that gives them value but also has a CTA
  
  Chris: this shift is NOT about selling, it’s about helping people buy. When they’re ready, they need to be able to find it

  Search is a textual medium—Ask 3D commercial. I’m just wondering if this is what the searcher wants, I would submit that if someone’s going to a search engine, if they want an image or video (which they often indicate in query). If it’s not indicated in the query, I don’t think it’s what they’re looking for. There are some improvements that universal does great, but are we getting away from the simple elegance that search provided?
  
  Lee: I have to believe that search engines are looking at click stream data—for this type of query, what type or result they go to, and factoring that data in future SERPs.
  
  Bridget: Huge shift on local with maps onebox for local search. It comes down to preferences and local.
  
  Paul: remember the common denominator. Google is anchored in math. As humans, we can’t do Google’s calculations. It’s gonna be very complex, how they arrive at this.
  
  Followup: from the users’ perspective, what do they want? Are they looking for a rich media experience every time?
  
  Paul: that’s what they’re trying to find out. Google has 30 data centers costing $2b/yr, 400k servers—they’re into it.
  
  Chris: people often don’t know what they’re searching for. They think they can search and just find it. See what they want in SERPs. Helping to direct them more specifically to the things they’re looking for. [requiring less query refinement]

  From the advertisers’ standpoint, and working with our clients, it’s around what are people doing when they’re at your site. Are they watching your test drive video? Put it in Google video and drive traffic there. A lot of this going around keyword up there. Not every result gives a universal result. It’s back on you—what are people doing on your site?
  
  Chris: Marketing has popularly become associated with selling. The original idea of marketing is matching the value of a product/service with the audience, the people who will drive the most value from it. If we get back to that, it will changes things drastically.

  Would you say our low-hanging fruit should be not only including images in Flickr and video on YouTube, but creating a universal LP—include images, video, etc. If you have a product, you want to show everything on that same page—blog, review, text, video, image.
  
  Bridget: you’re gonna want to test that. When you have two product offerings, we do a lot of landing page testing where we give them a very clear decision. You might offer both paths. We don’t know if it’s termite or pest control. If we let them choose. If it’s a broader term that’s a brand term, again it’s going to follow the same principles. More likely: take whether broad or specific query to match to pages like you’re doing now.
  
  Paul: example—Amazon. Long long product pages, everything on there. Do well in organic and paid.
  
  Chris: social media allows you serve a/b markets. Helps you create serendipity—long tail keyword. Those 20 people at the end of the spectrum that call it something else. More content is better!

  Yesterday we heard 80% of clicks are on organic. One more tool bar on Ask, no organic results ATF (well, images and video are probably organic results)
  
  Lee: Clicks on search results are on organic side. For folks who aren’t doing SEO, it’s moot. But if you are, and landscape is changing on types of content represented, what’s getting clicks—it’s an opportunity for you

  Gord: We understand images much faster than text. It’s a much longer cycle to understand & process text. Spend a little less time with the spreadsheets, spend a little more time looking at what makes your customer tick.
  
  

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