Video on rise in web searching

19Jul07

Simon Canning | July 16, 2007, The Australian

ADVERTISERS hoping to come out at the top of search engine results may be forced to include video clips in their websites or risk being ignored.

With search engines such as Google and Yahoo being optimised to capture video content as well as keywords, Robbie Hills, managing director of WPP Group company 24/7 Realmedia, said advertisers using online search as a conduit to customers would have to consider making video a key part of their websites.

The warning comes as Google increases the influence of its Universal Search model, unveiled three months ago.

"Websites will now be competing against results from Google Images, Google Videos, Google Maps, Google Books and Google News, depending on the search term," Mr Hills said.

"Having a video thumbnail appear within a search result will undoubtedly increase the click-through rate for the listing, as pictures tend to draw the user’s attention.

"This could mean the top-ranked search result without a thumbnail could lose traffic to a second-placed search result with a thumbnail."

Mr Hills said that over time video would take more focus from search engines as more people accessed videos on broadband connections.

Video search results could be crucial if people were looking for particular products or brand names, he said.

"On YouTube.com there are already several clever users who post videos reviewing products and drive traffic to their websites by providing links through video clips," Mr Hills said.

Mr Hills said that the introduction of search covering video images as well as text had been slow. But to keep up with how consumers were expected to use offerings such as Universal Search, website owners needed to be begin preparing for it.

"The Google Universal results will be subtle to begin with, but as time goes on these results should begin to populate search results on a more regular basis," he said.

"It is still really early days, but at the same time we are going to see it more and more as it gains acceptance from users, so what we are recommending is that if you want to be competitive in your category you need to absolutely consider what you need to do on this front.

"It’s all about making sure your return on investment is going in the right direction."

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