Confused by the mumbo-jumbo of Universal Search? Here are some tips to help you with your optimization efforts.

Time was when you’d search for different things in Google through different verticals (those links at the top left of the Google home page) - web pages, images, videos, news, maps, etc. In the search giant’s infinite, uh, wisdom, that was not good. Google decided that bunching everything together in one big pile of results was what we all wanted (I don’t remember being asked if that was what I wanted, but that’s what we’re getting). I’m sure you’ve seen the results for a search that include images, news and so forth in addition to the standard HTML pages. For example, a search today for “Frank Sinatra” in Google brings up the results below with an image, news, lyrics, etc.

Naturally, the other search engines have jumped on the bandwagon as well, so optimizing for what Google refers to as Universal Search takes on a few twists of its own. Here are a few pointers.

1. Optimize press releases - Good, solid press releases about real news have been used as reliable tools in many an SEO toolkit for quite a while. Now it is even more important that the release be optimized and include at least one image, which is also optimized. This gives you optimized text as well as images that can potentially show up in the search results. See more about image optimization in S E O 101 - Image Optimization.

2. Use top Google News sites - Use sites like NewsKnife and Google News Reports to find the top news sources for Google News and try to get your news and news images into them. By studying these sites, you might get tips on what works and what doesn’t to get your news and images out there.

3. Popularize video content - The popularity of a video appears to have influence on rankings. Post your videos on large video sites as well as on your own site. Views, comments, optimized meta tags and so forth can give a rankings boost.

4. Bloggers - Cater to influential bloggers who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content. Get the picture?

5. Get your organization on board - This can be the hardest part. Convincing your co-workers of the importance of keyword-rich file names for images, videos, podcasts, etc. can be daunting. If they are used to file names like 1jigot45.jpg, it’s a must, however. Getting them to share images with links back to you through sites like Flickr and corresponding sites for videos, etc. should also be on your list of things to do.

6. Make bookmarking easy - Provide an easy way to bookmark your site, especially for Google. It has been reported that the number of bookmarks to a site can have an influence on results in Universal Search. Put a Bookmark this at Google link on your pages.

7. Enhance your maps.google.com listings - In addition to filling the listing at Local Business Center with relevant, keyword rich text content, upload photos with optimized file names.

8. Use Google Product Search - Uploading your products to this free service (aka Google Base) gives the potential of those products showing up in the Google One Box results. For instance, in the search below for “Persol 2219-S sunglasses” the products at the very top under “Product search results…” (the “One Box”) come right out of Google Base.

9. Localize - User location takes a much bigger role in Universal Search. Make sure your site is optimized for your city, town, neighborhood, state or whatever geographic location you are targeting.

10. Reputation management - Pay attention to the reputation of blogs, videos, audio, etc. that you use or connect to on your site. You don’t want bad vibes from one of them rubbing off on you. Cleaning up reputation problems is difficult as it is, but getting caught in someone else’s garbage can even more difficult to clear up. Screen carefully.

This article is intended as a companion piece to S E O 101 and will be updated periodically.

I go into more detail in my S E O 101 workshop, offered to web site owners and small businesses. Check this blog for more information or contact me to set up a custom workshop for your business group of five or more people in the Palm Springs area of Southern California. Travel is possible for large groups.

Photo of the TRS-80 Model III computer that started everything. I later upgraded this to a Model 4. Note the cassette drive on the left and the Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer on a homemade printer stand.

I wrote the article below around 1984. At the time, I had a TRS-80 Model 4 computer (upgraded from a TRS-Model III) with 48k RAM (Well, technically 64k, but only 48k was accessible to the user) and two single sided floppy drives. The modem was 300 baud and only used to connect to local bulletin board systems (For those too young to know, a bulletin board system, or BBS, was a computer that someone connected to phone lines for others to call into and download software or leave messages on). The Internet was not available to mere mortals yet.

Interesting how much things have changed in 23 years, but seem to stay the same! (By the way, if you enjoy this, see the related post Miss Your Old Micro? Write Like It’s 1983).

One of these days.

Here we are 23 years later. Yep, 8-bit systems are kaput, I don’t have to connect to anything by phone anymore, those $6 an hour fees that systems like Compuserve used to charge are history and cell phones have made the mania around CB radios seem sort of silly. And I never did reach that top level in Frogger.

But, there are now six PCs, a wireless-N router, broadband cable Internet, a VOIP phone, two cell phones and a PDA in my household and I’m now lusting over an iPhone and a 1 terabyte hard drive for my media PC.

What was I saying about learning something “one of these days?”

As an update to my post Roadrunner Support/Linksys WRT350N - Let’s Talk Turkey! I’ve posted a video review of the Linksys WRT350N Wireless Router on my video page. You can click on the image to the left to connect directly to the .wmv file or play it right on this blog on the video page.

I posted the same review at Amazon.com a few days ago, so if you’re seriously shopping for this product, you might want to take a look there, too.

I’ve added a Video page and a Photo page to the blog. As I have time, I’ll be adding video reviews, tutorials and so forth to that page. Currently I have a video version of the Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype review that I did a few months ago. More to come…

The Photos page will be pulled from my Flickr account. As I get new images or photos that I use on this blog, they’ll be posted to Flickr and viewable from this page.

Here’s a nice rundown of the benefits of S E O training reprinted from an article published at EzineArticles.com.

By Victoria Slotover

With high search engine rankings becoming increasingly important for business success online, search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of the marketing mix. However, hiring a professional S E O to run a campaign for you can be expensive. That’s where S E O training comes in.

With 90% of internet users using search engines to find websites and the majority of those people only looking at the top two results pages, having a high search engine ranking really can make the difference between business success and failure.

By optimizing your website for a particular search term you are able to attract traffic to it from people who are actively looking for your products and services.

This helps your business to generate what are effectively, qualified leads which are likely to produce sales.

The primary advantage of S E O training is that it gives you access to S E O techniques you can apply yourself for a fraction of the cost of using an S E O consultant. As such, S E O training is an effective and affordable way to achieve high search engine rankings.

S E O training helps small businesses learn basic S E O skills to enhance the visibility of their websites in the search engines. There are a number of benefits offered by S E O training. For example:

S E O training provides your company and its staff with an understanding of the issues involved with, and the techniques required for, successful S E O. This means that S E O training will allow you and your company to optimize your website internally rather than paying a consultant to do it for you.

S E O training also allows you to modify your website in accordance with company developments, whilst still maintaining its search engine ranking.

S E O training gives you the necessary information to brief your web designers effectively to ensure that their design proposals do not harm your ranking potential.

SEMS Consultancy offers S E O training courses throughout the UK.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victoria_Slotover
Ezine Article: The Benefits of S E O Training

Considering search engine optimization training in the Palm Springs or Southern California area? Take a look at the upcoming course I Built It, So Where Are They? Secrets To Search Engine Optimization .