What is Vertical Search?

Vertical search is a solution for the frustated niche searcher who is trying to use Google or Yahoo to find specialized information. Through more highly refined databases and indexing done on a more specific topic, internet searchers are better able to narrow their search results to very relevant sites. In business marketing a list of keywords with very specific meanings in one industry will give very irrelevant results in the major search engines. But in vertical search engines such as LookSmart.com the user will find fewer and much more relevant results. The buyer in vertical search engines is most often the marketer who is looking to gain the attention of the searcher who is ready to buy. Vertical search users have been found to be much closer to making a purchase decision than the average search user, allowing marketers great opportunity to be noticed.

Vertical Strategies in Local Search

....Increased verticalization has in fact gained steam over the past year with the introduction and development of many successful vertical destinations such as Zillow and Trulia in Real estate and Oodle and LiveDeal in classifieds. This “verticalization” of Local Search was a pervasive theme at the Kelsey Group’s ILM:06 show last month.

Some of the advantages of a vertical search strategy include a refined corpus of data which increases the likelihood of relevant results within a category that a user is presumably interested in (going by their presence on the site in the first place). This increased relevance can lead to higher click through rates and higher intent to buy.

So vertical search can be valuable, but it also doesn’t come without its own set of challenges. Use cases are different across vertical categories so different rules and interfaces should be applied for optimal experiences. This challenge is particularly relevant to the local products of search giants mentioned above. These local search offerings are all grounded in a map interface, however a map isn’t as relevant in some categories as others......

Read more at Search Engine Watch.com