{"id":29929,"date":"2024-11-12T12:40:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T12:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/wiki\/universal-search\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T09:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T09:23:19","slug":"Universal_Search","status":"publish","type":"wiki","link":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Universal_Search","title":{"rendered":"Universal Search"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"What_is_Universal_Search.3F\">What is Universal Search?<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"thumb tright\">\n<div class=\"thumbinner\" style=\"width:452px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/6\/65\/Universal-Search.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"universal search\" src=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/6\/65\/Universal-Search.png\/450px-Universal-Search.png\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" class=\"thumbimage\" srcset=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/6\/65\/Universal-Search.png\/675px-Universal-Search.png 1.5x, \/en\/wiki\/images\/6\/65\/Universal-Search.png 2x\" \/><\/a>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"thumbcaption\"><b>Figure:<\/b> Universal Search &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\" title=\"Creative Commons License BY-SA 4.0\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In SEO, universal search refers to search engines implementing search results from their different indexes into the main search results page. This can result in <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/SERP\" title=\"SERP\">SERPS<\/a> including images, videos, maps, or results from any of their other search engines. Since many search engine companies have different search engines for maps, images, videos, news, and various others, combining them into one can provide better results to users. Universal search, also called blended search or enhanced search, is a way for search engines to improve their SERPs, by providing users with more variation as well as more relevant search results.\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Universal Search\" src=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/5\/53\/Universal-search-example.png\/650px-Universal-search-example.png\" title=\"Screenshot showing an example of universal search\" width=\"650\" height=\"509\" class=\"thumbborder\" srcset=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/5\/53\/Universal-search-example.png 1.5x, \/en\/wiki\/images\/5\/53\/Universal-search-example.png 2x\" \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>An example of universal search results on <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/duckduckgo.com\/?q=seobility&amp;t=h_&amp;ia=web\">DuckDuckGo<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"The_history_of_universal_search\">The history of universal search<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Back in May 2007, Google announced <sup id=\"cite_ref-1\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"#cite_note-1\">&#91;1&#93;<\/a><\/sup> they would be introducing universal search. Universal search helped improve many of the issues that came with search engines at the time, by serving more relevant search results and showing a wider range of different types of search results in SERPs. From then on, universal search has changed immensely, with more <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Google_OneBox\" title=\"Google OneBox\">Onebox<\/a> results being introduced over time.\n<\/p>\n<p>Today, most Google searches result in one or more Onebox results, showing you various search results from other Google search engines, like Google Images and Google News. Other search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and many others have all adopted universal search as well, although to a lesser extent.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"What_elements_make_up_universal_search\">What elements make up universal search<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There are various elements that can be featured in universal search results. These are:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> News<\/li>\n<li> Images<\/li>\n<li> Videos<\/li>\n<li> Maps<\/li>\n<li> Products\/shopping results<\/li>\n<li> Flights<\/li>\n<li> Books<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"How_universal_search_influences_SEO\">How universal search influences SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Universal search had a big impact on SEO, both from a user perspective and a ranking perspective. For starters, adding new elements to the SERPs took clicks away from the normal search results. This is a problem we continue to see today, with more rich results being introduced on search engines. This causes many people to consume content directly on the search results page, instead of reading the content on the content owner\u2019s website. These new results also move certain search listings by showing Onebox results above or beneath them. This can become especially troublesome when trying to rank for terms with many alternative search results since it leaves less space for normal search results.\n<\/p>\n<p>Universal search also came with some marketing opportunities, however, since it allowed images, videos, and other forms of content to rank in the main SERPs. This led to a greater focus on image and <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Video_SEO\" title=\"Video SEO\">video SEO<\/a>, among others. As the trend to more diversity and better satisfying search intent grows, rich results like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/rich-snippets\/\" target=\"_blank\">rich snippets<\/a> continue to bring more threats and opportunities to SEOs and webmasters.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"References\">References<\/span><\/h2>\n<ol class=\"references\">\n<li id=\"cite_note-1\"><span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\"><a href=\"#cite_ref-1\">\u2191<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"reference-text\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/googleblog.blogspot.com\/2007\/05\/universal-search-best-answer-is-still.html\">Universal search: The best answer is still the best answer<\/a> Googleblog. Retrieved 18 January 2021.<\/span>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Related_links\">Related links<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/search-engines\/universal-search\/\">https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/search-engines\/universal-search\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2007\/05\/taking-advantage-of-universal-search\">https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2007\/05\/taking-advantage-of-universal-search<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Similar_articles\">Similar articles<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Meta_Search_Engine\" title=\"Meta Search Engine\">Meta Search Engine<\/a><\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Google_OneBox\" title=\"Google OneBox\">Google OneBox<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n    {\n      \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\/\",\n      \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n      \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/6\/65\/Universal-Search.png\",\n      \"license\": \"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\",\n      \"acquireLicensePage\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\"\n    }\n    <\/script>\n<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"Article\",\n  \"author\": {\n    \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n    \"name\": \"Seobility\",\n    \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/\"\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Universal Search? Figure: Universal Search &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: CC BY-SA 4.0 In SEO, universal search refers to search engines implementing search results from their different indexes into the main search results page. This can result in SERPS including images, videos, maps, or results from any of their other search engines. Since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29929","wiki","type-wiki","status-publish","hentry","wiki_categories-search-engine-optimization"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Universal Search \u2013 Definition &amp;amp; Explanation - Seobility Wiki<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In SEO, universal search refers to search engines implementing search results from their different indexes into the main search results page. 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