With universal search, search engines are attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated various vertical search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results.

Google made the move to “universal search” in an effort to improve user experience. This is an integration of vertical search engines into the search results fusing a broad scope of information that’s relevant to the user’s initial query. Regular search — when you go to Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask or any general-purpose search engine — is “horizontal” in that you are searching across an extended variety of material. Information from sports sites, news sites, medical sites, shopping sites — the entire horizontal spectrum of topics is represented.

Universal search queries many vertical search services and then blends the results with the regular “horizontal results”, but only if the relevancy of the results is a better match for the users’ original query. Simply put this means that you may see videos, blogs, or books along with websites when you search. Additionally, based on your search history and user data, two people can be searching for the same thing, yet both see different results. Universal search is quickly moving to make the overall search experience much more personal, and therefore more relevant to the end user.

How does this impact your website?

Very simply, the best answer is still the best answer. This means that your web content must be concise and relevant to the user query to perform well in universal search results. It’s becoming more important than ever to have engagement objects and “take-aways” included as website content. If you consider the list of vertical categories used in universal search, the areas for improvement becomes clearer:

1. Blog Search
2. Book Search
3. Catalogs
4. Code Search
5. Directory
6. Finance
7. Images
8. Local/Maps
9. News
10. Patent Search
11. Product Search
12. Scholar
13. Video
14. Web Search

After reviewing this list, find out if your website includes optimized blogs, MP3’s, PDFs, videos, images, or any other type of take away objects. Universal search also means that engagement metrics have become even more important when you are monitoring your website’s performance. Seme of these key metrics include time on site, pages per visitor, and the bounce rate.

Google introduced a “geographic box” at the top of its search results and found that its users value this component. The engine now displays ten local search results at the top of the listings for relevant queries, provided they have a geographic modifier attached. For example, if you type “Chicago accounting” in Google, you will see ten results bordering a map that shows the location of ten accounting firms in Chicago.

Take note; you will not see local search results for all queries that contain a local modifier. Google somehow “knows” when a geographic modifier truly means that you only offer services in a specific area. Yeah, those guys are pretty good.

Some benefits of using local keyword phrases to improve search engine ranking are as follows:

1. Higher search-engine rankings: Competition will be weaker for the local keyword phrase you have identified.
2. Higher conversion rates: Since you are using the actual local keyword phrase your visitors are looking for, the website traffic you get is highly targeted.
3. Make more money: Your earnings potential is higher when you pull in local search engine traffic because people who come to you are more serious about your product, service or information. Many customers prefer to deal with people that are local, even if the business is national, or even global.

It’s a red-hot consideration for your online marketing strategy right now to include your regional presence, so contemplate the impact of local search engine optimization for your business.