Vertical search allows users to browse a specific topic, product, or content type. For example, they may be using tabs “news”, “images”, “product” on Google, or using traveling websites to find accommodation, tickets, or places. One of the most popular examples of vertical searches is internal searches on the website, like those on YouTube, Amazon, Pinterest, or Unsplash.
Every vertical search engine has its own criteria for ranking the results. For example:
- Google Images base their results on alt text and the relevancy of the website the picture comes from
- YouTube takes into consideration keywords in title, description, and tags. Subtitles, video sitemap, and performance (views, comments, likes) are important as well
- eCommerce websites like eBay or Amazon care about tags, reviews, views, and overall engagement
It takes too much effort to optimize for every vertical search engine and actually does not have any sense. Therefore, optimize for engines that your target audience may be using and display your kind of content format.
