While the new search options in Google are not new, the increased visibility that the options now have makes it ever more critical for you to consider all of the optimization channels that you need to be strategizing within your search engine marketing objectives.
If your entire marketing strategy is aligned around increasing your website’s organic search engine rankings then you’re missing the boat.
Not only is Local Search (e.g. Google Places) a key component of localized and personalized search results, but social media, images/videos, blogs and many other potential visitor channels have now been put right in front of the visitor’s face to choose from.
The question is – Are you showing up for your most important keywords across these channels or just on your own website?
If you’re only showing up in the basic listings and not any of the other channels, you need a marketing program that will get you those other listings. Your competitors are there and you’re going to lose money soon, if you haven’t seen a drop already.
Sample of the new Google results interface – the options are colorful & highly visible in the left-hand column of the results, allowing the visitor much more flexibility and ease-of-use in choosing their results channel:
New Google Search Results Interface
Here is a screenshot of the previous interface which has only a “+ Show Options” link above the results that the user has to open in order to choose the channel of results that best matches what they were looking for:
Old Google Search Results Interface
Google has released a quick demo of the new search results interface – view below:
Ok, so there is a new Google search results interface… what do you do?
- Continue to optimize and market your primary website, because natural/organic search results are still going to be the dominate/default results for most users.
- Setup a blog and post regularly using the keywords and subjects that are critical to your business.
- Setup social media profiles and ensure you are participating on a regular basis.
- Setup and confirm your Google Local/Google Places listings.
- Optimize your images and videos to the fullest extent you can.
- Submit press releases & company news so it shows up in Google News.
- If you sell products, get them listed in Google Products (formerly Google Base).
If you need a marketing agency or SEM firm to assist you in these areas, contact us to find out how we can help you get the visibility in Google’s search results you want.