Have you ever noticed the mega-sized displays at the entrances of grocery stores around the time of certain American holidays such as the Fourth of July or the Super Bowl?
As you come into the store, there will be a mountain of soda pop, potato chips, dips, salsas, beer, big screen TVs and maybe even a barbeque grill and some charcoal. There may be come product commercials playing on a big screen, and even some recipes for party foods.
In a way, that is what Google is attempting to deliver to us in its search engine results. Google, Bing and the other search engines are looking to find ways to create a better experience for you.
A few years ago, the search engine results were just ten blue links. Today, they are responding to your search for “Portland Brew Pubs” by returning results that include local maps, news, videos, pictures, social mentions, and (oh yeah) blue-link website results.
These results have a lot of different names – universal search, blended search or mixed search.
What they attempt to do is attempt to deliver the most relevant information to the consumer making the search. Google reports that 70 percent of buyers will search online before making a purchase. It calls this the Zero Moment of Truth – a play on Proctor & Gamble’s First Moment of Truth (that experience we had walking into the grocery store, and basically the concept of product placement on those store shelves).
Basically, consumers want to see more content in assorted formats so that they can make smarter decisions whether to purchase your product or service. For example, FindLaw reported that when choosing a lawyer online, consumers visit an average of 4.8 websites before making a decision. That dropped to 1.8 when a site offered video.
What does this mean to you, the small business owner? You should be thinking about digging into the gold mine of rich media assets you likely have and getting them onto the web. This includes pictures of your products, but also pictures of you and your business location. It means sharing press releases and other news; it means regular blogging; and it means establishing a presence on social media platforms and having a conversation with your audience on those platforms.
It especially means developing a video strategy for your business (Alert: shameless 7G self-promotion).
“Images and video are two of the best ways to get into the main search results page,” said Marshall Simmonds, founder of Define Media Group in Boise, during an interview with SEMpdx as part of the recent SearchFest.
Simmonds was a speaker at SearchFest 2012, where he shared the above graphic that shows how of all the rich media formats (pictures, news, social mentions, etc.) video dominates in what the industry calls one boxes in the search results.
“Video, however, is the huge opportunity and back door into Universal Results as it continues to dominate the OneBox insertions,” he said. “SearchMetrics reports 70 percent of their tracked organic queries showing video.” (See the above graphic)
It makes sense, when you think about it, why Google is delivering so much video in search results and it’s not just because Google owns YouTube. A majority of the public are visual learners and about a third are auditory learners, so video is a great vehicle for people learn best about your product or service.
Here is what you get from having a richer Internet footprint:
- Better search results and improved page rank
- More traffic to your website
- That increased traffic is from people specifically looking for you and your targeted keywords and rich media
- Better insight into your target market and what it is searching for
- And increased links to your website (also helping improve ranking)
Some questions to answer when reviewing and prioritizing your rich media assets:
- How is your competition using rich media?
- What are the gaps or consumer questions left unanswered?
- Who is your target market?
- What are they looking for?
- What are the keywords they are using in their searches?
- Where are they in their buying cycle when on the web?
You also need to have a strategy for loading your rich media assets to your website. Some points to remember:
- Include clear descriptions of the media in its file name and title, and the ALT text for images
- Maintain a one rich media asset per page rule and include web copy (text) and page architecture that supports that asset
- Update your video and sitemaps
This is a whole heck of a lot of information I am throwing at you and I could go on and on writing, but I have to get back to work.
Please call or email me if you have any questions about what is or isn’t rich media, about what assets you and your business may have, and whether using video may work for you.
I want to help you succeed.