Have you started optimizing your specialized digital content for the search results?

Search engine marketing firm iProspect and research and consulting firm JupiterResearch surveyed 2,400 online consumers about their habits in relation to blended or “universal search”. “Since users have historically ignored the vertical offerings of the major search engines, a marketer might conclude that users aren’t interested in that type of content, and as a result, not invest in producing or optimizing digital assets,” said Robert Murray, President, iProspect. “But that would be a mistake — the findings of this study make that quite clear. Marketers have a great opportunity to claim more search shelf space by optimizing their news, image, and video assets.”

Key finding from the iProspect study include:

• 36% of search engines user click “news” results within blended search results, while only 17% click a “news” result after conducting a news-specific search
• 31% of search engine users click “image” results within blended search results, while 26% click an “image” result after conducting an image-specific search
• 17% of search engine users click “video” results within blended search results, while only 10% click a “video” result after conducting a video-specific search
• While images are the most clicked type of result after a vertical-specific search, news items are the most clicked type of result within blended search results