Blended search offers new opportunities for retailers, says search expert

One of the biggest recent changes in search has been the adoption of blended search results by the major engines. And retailers that know how to take advantage of the change can move up in the results returned by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Live Search, says search engine expert Danny Sullivan.

The search engines turned to the blended approach because few consumers were familiar with their specialized product search engines, such as Google’s Froogle, later renamed Google Product Search, says Sullivan, who was until late 2006 editor in chief of the Search Engine Watch search news web site and now is editor of a similar site called Search Engine Land. With blended search, a search for DVD players, for instance, on any of the top three search engines now includes results from their product-specific search systems, he says.

That benefits retailers that provide product feeds to the search engines and keep them current, Sullivan says. “It’s not helpful to you as a retailer to be putting out a product if you’re out of stock,” he says. “You want to make sure you’re updating them with the right price and stock information.”

Retailers should also keep in mind, he says, that these specialized shopping services often feature customer reviews. A follow-up e-mail encouraging customers to write reviews can raise a merchant’s visibility and lead to more sales, Sullivan says.

For retailers that have stores as well as web sites, the growing number of local search engines, such as shoplocal.com and nearbynow.com, can be effective tools for reaching consumers who want to run out to buy something right away, Sullivan says. Some provide information on whether a product is in stock. “If there is a local shopping mall and you’re wondering if they have a Nintendo DS in stock, some search engines will let you check to see if it’s in stock,” Sullivan says. He points to Krillion.com as an example.

He notes most of the local search engines are still relatively small, and some are only focused on a few major cities, so they may not be a priority for all retailers. “But if you’re a larger retailer, it might be worth going with it,” he says. “Some of them might pick up usage as you go along.”