What are vertical search results on Google? Vertical search results are a deep dive — a vertical plunge into a single topic. A vertical search engine, like Google News or Google Books, offers only niche (or vertical) search results.
Precise search results, like those shown in Google News and Google Images, can decrease competition and simplify the process of finding specific information on a topic or industry. This is a vertical search result.
Your company can use vertical search results to your benefit, getting more targeted customers to see your products and services. This article explores the best search engine optimization strategies for vertical search results.
What is a Google vertical search result?
Picture vertical search results as a deep dive — a vertical plunge into a single topic. A vertical search engine, like Google News or Google Books, offers only niche (or vertical) search results.
For example, if you search for ‘Wild’ on Google Books, all the results narrow in on the book itself, like where to buy it and reviews.
The opposite type of search is horizontal, which gives you an ocean’s worth of results. A standard Google search is a horizontal search. If you search for ‘Wild’ there, you would see results about the movie adaptation, the author, The Minnesota Wild (the hockey team), and more.
Google Images, Videos, Flights, and Shopping are other examples of Google’s vertical search engines. Google crawls the web to find these vertical search results.
- Expedia for travel
- Amazon for products
- Redfin for homes
- LinkedIn for professional connections
Many of these external vertical search engines need users to manually input information, like a product or home listing.
Vertical search results on the go
A sample of vertical search results can help you understand how they can work for your business. Say your company sells outdoor gear for women. You would choose several vertical search engines to focus on, like Amazon, YouTube, and Pinterest.
On your Amazon page, you want to make sure each of your products is optimized to appear first in the search results. Fo YouTube, you could include videos of women camping, biking, and kayaking. On Pinterest, you could post things like visual guides for essential skiing or camping gear.
What vertical search results can give you
Making sure your company is listed and optimized on the correct vertical search engines increases sales. The narrower focus of the search means customers know exactly what they want and, thus, are closer to a sale. Yours could be the winning item.
It’s best to use SEO best practices only on search engines that will give you a return. There are many of these search engines — you can conduct a Google search for search engines in your business to find ones you may not know of. Each of these engines has its own SEO strategy.
What type of content is used for vertical search results?
Typically, vertical search results are used when a searcher is looking for information rather than a specific website or company. Someone might be looking for the best outdoor gear for women rather than searching for Patagonia’s new items.
These searches are not necessarily aiming to buy anything and are more research-based or to learn something new. But that doesn’t mean they can’t lead to a sale.
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