Google’s universal search returns results that include web pages, video, news postings, images and even maps. With all of these varied results you may be wondering how to take full advantage of universal search. Never fear, Google itself has posted tips on how to do this. Here are the highlights.

If you have a site that has news content you should submit it for inclusion in Google News. Once Google includes your site you can submit a News Sitemap to let them know about your most recent articles. This feature only works for English sites currently though. You can also submit any past news content for inclusion in the News Archive Search.

Additionally, if your site has images you can opt in to enhanced image search in your webmaster tools. This will let Google gather metadata about your images that can help them decide if your images should be returned as a search result.

Also, you can use your location to your advantage. Provide your geographical information to Google’s local business center and they will return your business when it’s relevant to a local search.

Finally, if you have any video content host it on any video hosting service such as Google Video or YouTube. If your video is relevant to the search then Google will show it in the results. Better yet, that video can be played directly from the search results page.

All of these tactics will help you place higher in Google’s new universal search. But, continue doing whatever was working for you before to make sure that you still turn up for regular results, too.

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