Vertical Search - How Do You Rank?

In the world of search, Google reigns supreme – this should come as a surprise to no one. But did you know that there are thousands of other, far more useful engines out there? These search platforms are known as vertical search engines and their popularity is on the rise, especially in business circles. If you’ve never heard of vertical search, now is the time to start building your knowledge-base; listing your business in vertical engines can help boost your traffic, and lead to increased sales almost  overnight.

What is a Vertical Search Engine?

A vertical search engine focuses on a specific segment of online content. So, instead of trolling the entire Internet for results, a vertical search engine will only rifle through a very specific pool of information. This vertical content can be based topically, be media type, or genre. In short, a vertical search engine is a search tool for a particular niche.

What a Vertical Search Engine is Not

I wouldn’t be over-exaggerating if I were to say that most major search engines are focused on global domination. Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Such is the goal of a general search engine. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are focused on finding, indexing, and displaying every single source of online content. Vertical search engines, on the other hand, streamline their focus and index only pages that are relevant to the niche in which the engine is listed.

A vertical search engine attempts to solve a different, far more specific problem than a general search engine, and it goes without saying that these highly segmented platforms do a far better job at returning relevant information for niche queries. As general search engines become muddled with useless information and duplicate content, it’s safe to say that more and more people turn to these types of engines to satisfy their search needs.

Benefits of Listing Your Business on a Vertical Search Engine

If your Chatham-Kent small business is based in a niche industry, you could benefit greatly from listing your website in engines suited to your industry. Advantages include:

1) Increased visibility

Many vertical search engines are designed and managed by large publishing companies, business associations – even media conglomerations. This means, that when you list in one vertical, your Chatham-Kent company could be gaining exposure in various other online buying guides and affiliates.

2) SEO support

Vertical search engines are not only indexed within general search engines, but they also tend to rank quite high for specific search terms. So, while you’d be years optimizing your website to rank for a specific search term in Google on your own, you could start showing near the top as part of the vertical search system virtually overnight!

3) Immediate access to your customer

The biggest advantage to listing your business site in a vertical search engine is the exposure. People who use vertical search engines are looking for very specific information or a very specific product. If your website supplies the requested information your chances of converting the visitor to a customer greatly increases.

Listing your business website in vertical search engines can help boost your online activity.  What vertical search sites do you frequent? Leave a comment and let us know!