Blended search is a feature Google implemented back in 2007. It takes news, images and video and other media and mixes it with your regular search… but only if Google feels it’s more applicable.
Yahoo and Microsoft have both followed in Google footsteps and have implemented blended search features.
This is good for you since it’s another opportunity to get ranked high. You may not get a certain website ranked high but maybe an image or video will do well.
The Other Stuff Google Will Blend In
Google takes in several different forms of content that it blends in with your search.
They’ll blend in:
- Product feeds
- News feeds
- Images
- Videos
- Geo search info (displayed on Google Maps)
Products
Google and the other big search engines now take products feeds.
A product feed is basically a spread sheet that you can give to the search engines for indexing.
Google allows you to submit your feed for free at:
- www.google.com/base
Price Grabber and Microsoft require you to pay to upload your feeds and they can be found here:
- www.bing.com/productupload/
- www.pricegrabber.ca
In order to have your feed show up, you’ll need to make it highly relevant, so use quality keywords.
Include images in the feed.
Update your feed regularly.
If you’re allowed… include custom fields to add more relevant information.
News
Press releases can be extremely effective if used right.
When writing a press release, be sure to make it informative and objective, don’t make a sales letter!
Include images and make it SEO friendly (Good use of keywords and headlines).
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Bing all take news feeds from news sites and will sometimes blend them with the searches.
Submit press releases with PRWeb or an equivalent quality newswire.
Images
Images don’t have has much competition as websites in search engines and so optimizing your images for SEO can be extremely powerful.
Search engines can’t see images but they can see the file name, tags, and context in which it’s being used. Make sure it’s all there.
If you’re going to use an image on your website, make sure it’s yours or its copyright free, you don’t want to be sued.
Use images that are easy to see as a thumbnail, you’ll get more hits from the search engines this way.
Place keyword rich captions on all your images.
The best formats for images are as .JPGs. They’re the most common file format for images.
Name the file of the image appropriately using keywords.
Add a description tag to all of your images.
Video
Video optimizing is much like image optimizing. Google can’t see video so it relies on the tags, context and such.
Name the file with good keywords and make it relevant.
It’s recommended that you not only host the file on your own website but you also share it on services like YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing sites.
If you place the video on other sharing sites, be sure to place a link back to your site in the description section.
Include your video in your RSS feed.
Geo Search
If you have a location for your business, it’s important to include that information on your website and to optimize for that area.
Google and the other search engines reference other websites for your address; this is how they determine your address.
Submit your business to the following sites:
- www.yelp.com
- www.superpages.com
- www.yellowpages.com
- www.citysearch.com
You’ll also want reviews and ratings on those sites since it’s been proven to help.
Include your physical address on every page of your site (preferably in the footer).
Include your location in your Meta tags.