Posted in Internet Marketing Strategy	May 23, 2007

Google's new search system dramatically increases the competition for page rankings.

By Adam T. Sutton, Managing Editor, Mequoda Group, LLC

Just when your SEO strategy was polished and humming along, Google releases a press release.

Google announced last week that it is starting "Universal Search", a more comprehensive form of search that could push your page rankings down if you're not diligent.

Searches in Google's default "Web" section will soon include results from Google's news, books, video and maps databases mixed with the webpage results.

Incorporating more databases expands the competition for page rank. News and video results will be pushing some websites' rank down, causing lower organic traffic and frustrating some SEO marketers.

For example, searching for "President Bush Speech" returns both video and news results in the top 10 rankings, knocking at least two websites off the first page. On a side note, the video can be watched immediately on the results page by clicking the "+" button next to its thumbnail—very cool.

The "universal search results may be subtle" at first, but "over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as (Google) advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience," according to the press release.

A great article from Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land describes in depth what is coming from Google and provides advice to worried SEO marketers.

One great piece of advice: "Think beyond webpage databases, and you'll be prepared for the future."

Now that video, books and news will be in Google's regular search results, your SEO campaigns should extend into those platforms to remain relevant. That means using proper meta-tags, SEOing press releases and maybe even SEOing your books.

Google has over 65 percent of the search engine market share, making Search Engine Optimization almost synonymous with Google Optimization. In other words: this news should not be ignored.

SEO is very important to your online publishing success, but it becomes irrelevant if your website is not designed properly. Attend our Generating Website Revenue Executive Webinar to learn how to design the right website to fit your online publishing goals.

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