I just happened to do some random searches today only to find that when you do a search for a part number, of specific search on a product, they are showing an image next to the three results that appear on the first page of SERP’s. Obviously this is a further step towards Google’s Universal search, or “Blended Search” as some call it. I think this will certainly create more clickthroughs on Google products. Remember tests have shown that an image is more likely to get a click. Take a sneak peek below:  (Picture coming soon, it dissipeared on me???)

Video search as I commented before in our blog, will provide driving growth that marketers will need to consider. Today I noticed interesting changes in Google’s search engine results. The sponsored ads to the right are in a full yellow box, and right below them appears YouTube videos, and news articles, just like they said they would at SMX, in fact Tim wrote about this here. They are also appearing in the top 10 results in the organic listings, so basiclly, the video gets two recognitions!

I won’t go on about ‘Stats’ showing why you need to put video in your website, but let me reason with you a bit as to why you had better get on the stick.

Think about this, when you are sitting on your couch, like Tim does all day, watching your favorite athlete (Me) are you interested in commercials? No! you are in “lean back” and “Chill” mode aren’t you? That’s because you are in “sports watching mode”.

Conversely, when you are on the internet, you are likely in “search” mode, you are looking for a service, product, or educational feedback, thus you are in ‘Lean forward’ mode, and are more inclined to view videos, or video commercials right! Yes, just agree with me, you are in the search process.

Well, I don’t think I need to convince you anymore about why you need to put video in your site, but now let me give you some practical tips, a step by step guide as to how to optimize your video for the web. You see, you simply don’t want to throw a video on YouTube thinking you are a video king, and it will be seen by thousands of eyes, you must treat this like you would a web page. So in my next post, you will find 20 steps you should follow to get your videos ranked in the search engines.

Repeated over and over at SMX is that Blended Results are the hot new trend (trend isn’t the right word, more like Tsunami) with serious staying power and looks like it will be changing, enhancing universal search dramatically (from vertical search to user intent results) for the better.  Among some of the relationship ‘faucets’ that are going to personalize traditional search results, are  must for IM’s to dial into advantage of Blended Results now are:

• Use of Video (images - with well thought out captions/keywords, news, blogging, etc.).  At SMX, they shared these astounding statistics - “3 out of 5 in the U.S. consume online videos every month.  Video category reaches monthly 111 million users generating 6 billion page views!”
• Notice this quote from the USAToday February 27, 2008, section 8B, on “Veoh” (www.veoh.com );

     The average Internet browser today [in mid-2008] watches about 5 minutes of Internet video per day.  That’s projected to jump to 45 minutes a day by 2011.

To be successful, these are recommendations to separate yourself from the casual YouTube video postings.

1. Use high-resolution video. [remember: limit video to under 1 minute.  If have more to say, create other video's.  Also, add some custom Java applet button to the end your 1 minute video to "click for more information", as a suggestion]
2. High quality audio or professional voice over. (if the customer can’t easily hear clearly, they won’t understand, and won’t be motivated to act)
3. Add your URL or logo as a watermark for branding the media’s source
4. Don’t conclude the presentation without a clear, motivating, call to action for the consumer. [This is critical for those of us that are doing a lot of Local Search services for clients, this will create tremendous viral marketing buzz as the clients are talking about how 'cool' their ads are and how they have helped increase their business.]

Blended results are obviously here to stay and we need to begin using these avenues to enrich the search results for our clients.  Yahoo’s new OSP that Ty commented on being released this week publicly for the first time is evidence of that. Here is another image that will help explain that this search result is actually a “mini website” and obviously will get preferential attention:

More to come on this subject, for sure.  SMX did make it crystal clear that this is just taking off (especially heavy use of video), and based on users sophistication will move forward as Blended Results really reorganize and truly revolutionize, SE page results.

To be helpful, check out some of these other video providers / portals:

• www.tubemogul.com
• www.videojug.com