This article will give a brief introduction to vertical search. The article includes the factors influencing pages ranking and how to improve ranking. Firstly, The article will introduce vertical search by comparing it with the traditional horizontal search. The article will compare them in advantages and disadvantages . Secondly, this article moves to the factors that influence page ranking results. And lastly, it will offer some suggestions on improving the ranking results.
Vertical search comparing with traditional horizontal search
Vertical search describes different way of traditional horizontal search onperforming the search process In the traditional horizontal search, the search engine offers results from a broad spectrum of topics. As a result, the search results tend to be universal and blurry. People have to select the necessary information from various search results. For example, people search the internet with the keyword “spring” in the traditional way. As a result, they are more likely to get various results. For example, an introduction of one of the four seasons, an image of a spring bed and so on.
People will have to spend more time to find the results that they really need. It means a lot of time has to be wasted. However, vertical search is quite different. It is designed to only search down through one broad topic and focus on a limited data set.
By using vertical search method, people can fully enjoy the advantages of saving time and energy. Several typical vertical search solutions include image, video, news, books and blog search. By vertical search, people are able to find the results they need in the shortest time. The introduction of vertical research results has actually changed the landscape of SERPs. One obvious change is a decline of searches conducted on traditional search services, the other one is an increase of searches on topical sites. The traditional search service is a category that is dominated by Google. The introduction of vertical search results challenges of the market shares of traditional search services such as Google. In the other hand, the introduction of vertical search offers significant opportunities for SEO practitioners. SEO practitioner try to increase placement in vertical search results. it can be as important as high placement in the web search results.
In the Futue
In the future, as smartphones become more and more popular and more widely used, vertical search results will be more important as consumers can go straight to Apps such as YouTube for videos, Facebook for the latest news and Amazon.com for books. The existence of large number of apps reduces the need for searching in the web. In fact, the trend is that designs more and more apps for smartphones, which indicates an increasing importance of vertical search results.
The factors that influence page ranking results
However, the introduction of vertical search research does not mean there is no need to improve the ranking of web pages. In fact, at least in the near future, vertical search services cannot replace the traditional search process. Therefore, it is still vital to improve the search rankings of web pages. For SEO practitioners, knowing what features of web pages can impact the search rankings is of great importance. According to SEOmoz, there are both positive and negative factors that can influence search rankings. The list of the top nine positive factors that influence search rankings in 2011 as follows:
- Page Level Link Metrics
- Domain Level Link Authority Features
- Page Level Keyword Usage
- Domain Level Keyword Usage
- Page Level Social Metrics
- Domain Level Brand Metrics
- Page Level Keyword Agnostic Features
- Page Level Traffic/Query Data
- Domain Level Keyword Agnostic Features
Meanwhile, the negative features are that impact search rankings include malware, cloaking, pages, and content that advertises paid links on the site. The web features that impact search rankings will not remain the same all the time. In reality, as search engines continue to evolve, the importance of each feature will change accordingly. According the survey conducted by SEOmoz in 2013, the top nine factors that influence search rankings have changed greatly compared to that in 2011. For example, not including Page Level Traffic/Query Data as a factor that influences search rankings in the 2013 survey results. And in 2015, the situation changed again. The SEOmoz’s survey about the influence of ranking factors in Google’s Algorithm showed that top one influencing factor was Domain-level link features.
Suggestions on how to improve the ranking results
There are so many factors to influence search rankings. Small changes of the influential factors can immediate influence on search rankings. To make an immediate impact on search rankings can make some site changes.
Firstly, page level link metrics is one of the most important factors that influence search ranking. SEO practitioners can improve the ranking of a site by increasing the numbers links pointing to that site. 100 quality links pointing to the site will certainly help rank higher than 50 quality links do.
Secondly, SEO practitioners can improve the ranking results of a site by making changes to the “page level keyword usage” . It is good that the title of a web page should be concise to summarize the main content. Then, search engineers can lead more searchers to the site. Good usage of page keyword will increase the traffic of the site to a great extent.
Thirdly, the search ranking of a site can be improved by editing the URL, and using some keywords. It is better to get rid of the random site provided by the Internet. For example, the URL http://www.cheaptickets.com/ contains the keywords “cheap tickets”. When searchers use “cheap tickets” as key word to search, the site is likely to show in the results.
the End
In conclusion, this article is just a brief introduction about some of the basic concepts. The concept is about SEO and some basic methods on improving pages ranking. In fact, there are more details about concepts and more intricate about improving rankings. For more details, people can visit moz.com, which offers very detailed information on this aspect. In addition to provide a guide to SEO, it can provide services for customers to improving their rankings. Improving ranking in fact is hard to do. Therefore, if there is a need for company to improve ranking, it is better to seek advice from SEO practitioners.