A Marketer’s Quick Guide to Universal Search and Vertical Search
by Suzy Sandberg | 
October 13, 2009 9:25 am
Universal search and vertical search appeal to different types of searchers and searches. But does either appeal to marketers?
We continue to receive a good number of questions about universal search (how can we retain our ranking?) and vertical search engines (should we be using them?) For guidance, below is some topline marketing perspective on the relative strengths and opportunities for each.
Vertical Search
With search having become a mainstream necessity for consumers and a lucrative media channel for the search engines, vertical search engines will proliferate over the next few years. Examples include TheFind (consumer goods), Kayak (travel) and MyRide.com (automotive). As far as marketers’ acceptance and use of these as a media channel goes, it will depend on several factors.
Most vertical search engines already receive syndicated traffic from the big three (Google, Yahoo! and Bing), so the fact that an advertiser is not doing a direct media buy with a major search engine doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t show up there. Naturally, advertisers in niche categories may gravitate to vertical engines with relevant content. Larger advertisers looking for scale, however, may ultimately do better if they optimize campaigns on the major search engines rather than dedicate the same amount of resource to launch and manage campaigns on vertical engines.
Vertical Search Engine TheFind.com
Next, if the vertical search engines do not have APIs in place (and many do not), advertisers may have to overlook them. Those accustomed to automated bid management will mostly likely not want to go back to manually optimizing. Also, there are many second and third tier search engines right now that large advertisers routinely choose not to participate in because click fraud is prevalent, and related issues are more difficult to resolve than with Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
Lastly, how aware consumers are of these vertical choices is another consideration. Even well known entities with vertical search may have difficulty getting consumers to navigate to them. All this said, if a vertical search engine is particularly targeted and/or if the advertiser has a limited budget, the vertical search engines may be a great alternative since CPCs will be lower, there will be less competition, and the audience will be very appropriate to the offer
Universal Search
Universal search, as opposed to vertical search, blends the vertical search results together within the one set of search results that are delivered from a query. Search results now routinely provide a mix of video, news, content sites, social networking, photos and more. It has proven appealing to the masses since everyone has a unique preference for the “what and how” of search query results. From a user perspective, it provides choice.
From an SEO perspective, universal search has been a bit of a game changer and continues to evolve. Social networks are now achieving top rankings on search engines which means they are bumping down website listings despite the fact that the websites may be perfectly optimized for search. Even the hierarchy of which social networks rank highest keeps changing. Content recency is also an increasingly important qualifying factor in determining rank.
To the user, universal search provides a more well-rounded choice of content. To the marketer who finds that their top rankings are slipping in favor of other types of content, a solid paid search strategy will ensure visibility.
Suzy Sandberg is President of PM Digital.
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