How Universal Search Works
Find out why Universal Search results from Google are so important and where Universal Search is headed. And what it all means to you.
Let's start by answering the obvious question.
What is Universal Search?
Although there are some definitions of universal search online, I prefer to hear it directly from the horse's mouth when dealing with things like these.
Although Google doesn't have a clear definition of universal search that I am aware of, they did provide the following definition in their Search Appliance documentation.
Universal search allows you to search all content within an organization using a single search box. Even though content sources may be located in different places, such as on a corporate network or on a desktop computer, they all appear in one integrated set of search results ."
I can rewrite this for SEO:
“Universal search is the ability to look through all content sources from a single place. One comprehensive set of results.”
Which other content sources are we referring to? Let's say it this way:
Additional sources are available that provide additional information (hotels and sports scores, calculators etc.). There are also sources that contain user-generated data.
These include reviews, related searches, traffic patterns, previous queries, and device preferences.
Why Universal Search?
Many years ago, there were only 10 blue links.
It was a wild time of discovery, uncovering all the sites that didn't fit your criteria or in your preferred format.
Then came Universal Search.
It was first announced in May 2007 by Marissa Mayer, to give it context. It was rolled out just two months after the expansion on personalization of results.
They were not only connected by their announcement by the same person, but also by sharing a common goal. They were connected because they both continued to push Google's mission statement.
"Our mission is to organize the world's data and make it universally accessible and useful."
Consider the 10 blue links and what you got from them. They offered an abundance of information that was not available at any other time, but also a concerning depth of uncertainty.
You clicked on a link to make sure you understood the content. We wrote descriptions and titles that would hopefully describe what we had to say.
Although searching was painful, it was an experience that was worth it.
Enter Universal Search
Universal Search was born. The guesswork was instantly reduced.
Take a look at this video.
It illustrates how universal search looked at that time.
How does it present itself?
In my article “How Search Engines Display Search Results”, we saw many examples of Universal Search.
Unlike before, we were more concerned with the layout and the origins of each section. Now we will be discussing the why and how.
Universal Search is a collection of sections that are different from the 10 blue links at the root level. These sections are organically generated, though they may not always be.
This means that the organic search side would determine whether a content block exists. However, what's in that content block might or may not include ads.
Let's now compare the results with and without Universal Search according to today's SERP standards.
This is a Universal Search results page.
Without Universal Search, the results page looks like this:
It answers the central question in this section: "How does Universal Search manifest itself?"
This image is also a great answer to the question "Why?"
Think of all the motivations that might drive me to answer the question, “what was the revolutionary war”.
You might be:
Writing an essay for a college class.
A person who is unfamiliar with the historical event.
You may be looking for information about the war or your query might be part of a deeper dive into wars between nations or wars generally.
A person who likes to read articles.
A person who enjoys watching videos.
You are just writing an unrelated SEO article.
There are so many possibilities.
Which link would you click if you looked version without Universal Search?
What if you want video results?
Universal Search makes this process easier.
That's the important point.
The Universal Search structure speeds up decision-making across multiple intents while still leaving the blue links available (though they may not always be 10) for those searching for pages related to the subject.
Even if the article you are looking for is already in existence, Universal Search results can help you filter out irrelevant results. This allows SEO professionals and website owners to concentrate their articles on ranking in traditional search results as well as other formats and sections.
How does Google choose the sections?
Let me start this section by saying very clearly: this is my best guess.
Google's systems can be extremely complex, as we all know. It is possible that they have more systems than my brain is ever capable of internalizing.
These two sections are my best stab at how Google makes this decision.
Users
Before you respond to the question about user signals, you’re probably thinking, “Google doesn’t use user metrics to modify search results!”
They don’t, but they do use the data on their end. They just don’t use it to rank pages.
As it relates to Universal Search, you can take this to mean that Google will test different blocks for different types of queries in order to determine user interaction with them.
It is possible that Bing does something similar.
They choose the locations and limitations of databases and result types, and they have established starting points (think templates for specific query types). Then machine learning can run slight variations or test layouts on pages generated by unknown queries or queries that may lead to new associations.
A spike in a query that is tied to a sudden increase in news stories related to the query might trigger the news carousel to be inserted into search results.
This would only happen if past similar instances have produced positive engagement signals and the user engagement indicates it.
Query data
It is almost a given that search engines will use their own query data for determining which sections to include in the SERPs.
If a query like [pizza] has suggested queries like:
Given that the majority of such searchers are looking to find restaurants, it is natural that the first organic result in a Universal Search structure would not be a link that's blue but:
It is important to remember that a search engine's goal is to give users a single place where they can find everything they need.
Sometimes, this can put them in direct competition with each other in some way.
But I doubt that they mind losing traffic to another one of their properties.
Let's say YouTube is an example.
Google's systems can not only understand which YouTube videos are the most popular, but also what YouTube users are watching, such as when they eject, skip, or closeout.
This can be used to not only understand which videos will resonate on Google.com, but also to better understand what supplementary content people are looking for when they search for general queries.
Although I might be looking for [revolutionary war], that doesn't necessarily mean I don't have an interest in the Siege of Yorktown.
Therefore, I believe that the impact of these data sources doesn't just impact the layouts shown in Universal Search.
It also suggests that these databases can be used to link topics and information together, which could impact core search rankings.
Takeaway
What does all this mean for you?
One outcome is that you can leverage the machine learning capabilities of search engines to aid in search engine marketing strategies.
Universal Search shows us what sections you see in the search results. This tells us a lot about which types and formats users are looking for.
It is also important to note that technology and devices are constantly changing. Universal Search may be in for a major transformation.
This could be due to voice searching, but it may also have to do more with Google's push to offer a full solution than just disparate options.
A few filters could allow refinement to produce only one result. Many filters could also be applied automatically based on user preferences.
Although I doubt we'll see a single result within the next two to three years, I believe we'll be able to for some queries and when the device is suited to it.
Why would I not see this single result if I searched "weather"?
This is my vision of the future for Universal Search.