What is Google OneBox?

Getting onto the Google results pages is important, right? What would you give to get your website content displayed higher than your competition? And we’re not talking about those paid advertisements that show up as differently coloured text either. Consumers are wise to those by now, and a lot of them skim by without giving them a second glance. These ads do still work, but only in properly directed cases.

OneBox, however, is a whole other ballgame that so many people still aren’t aware of.

What is OneBox?

If you perform a Google search for something, like “coke” for example, you should see a box of content on the search results page. You might see several of them, and each result will be outlined in a box. The OneBox result often contains information about online shopping, news related to a search, the definition of a word or term, the answer to a question, an image, and much more. It might also contain reviews for books, movies, or even restaurants. These OneBox results often have images with them, which catches the eye of users. Google is always adding to the list of things that people can access with OneBox, so you need to stay up-to-date.

How can your business appear in a OneBox?

One box results are determined algorithmically and Google will look at various sources on and off your website to compile information about your business. The OneBox results show up when a user triggers some specific keywords and terms. It is not possible for business owners to use AdWords to start ranking on OneBox at the moment.

The idea of OneBox is that a person should be able to get the information they need directly from Google without clicking away to another site. Now, let’s flip things away from the consumer’s point-of-view, and look at OneBox as a business. That’s what we’re all about, right? Placements are not paid for, so you don’t need to worry about breaking the bank to compete with the likes of Nike or Coca-Cola. That also means that getting your content listed in those highly desirable OneBox units is going to take some workarounds. Such is the life of an online entrepreneur these days.

How can my local business use the OneBox?

OneBox is triggered for various key phrases. Here is a good article that shows what the OneBox looks like.. This is exceptionally valuable for small businesses to show up on top of the search results for local search queries.

Business owners can essentially look for the following things:

1. Be Informative: Have information like your address, location, phone number etc. in proper structured data to make it easy for Google to pick up this information.

2. Focus on Reviews: We have seen the OneBox pop up with your reviews so that users are given high incentive to click through to your website. If you use Trusted Shops, the reviews are already in the structured format that Google can read them. As Trusted Shops is a Google Partner, our reviews are also directly used by Google in search results.

Latest OneBox Updates

As with all things online, OneBox is regularly updated. Google is sure to keep things as current as possible. Of course, Google is not totally transparent with everything they change. Many of the updates are detected by the hordes of Google experts who monitor things day and night.

Here are some of the latest changes that have been made to OneBox as of 2016, with the most recent being listed first:

Google is now half as likely to display the image box when a SERPS is displayed. This was detected with RankRanger and Moz. The change occurred in September of 2016. They were displayed between 20 and 35 percent before this change was seen. It’s not completely clear if this is some sort of error, but it seems to be a purposeful change.

While the OneBox results are gradually becoming more detailed, they are not always necessarily the most accurate results. This means that there is more room for biased answers, as the boxes are used more.

OneBox has been integrated with more sporting events, making it possible to follow without leaving the SERPS. For example, the 2016 Olympics had a host of fun and informative features that ran across a gamut of search results pages.

Online store results have been improved, allowing people to essentially do their online shopping from within the SERPS, thanks to OneBox.

Movie trailers are available on OneBox, making it easier to stay up to date about the best films to go and see.

Future Updates

Google has been pushing the expansion of their own “boxed” world for years now. It’s been such a gradual process that many people don’t realise how much their favourite search engine has already changed.

Perhaps OneBox will be the primary focus for the company, in an effort that apparently aims to bring the entire Internet to Google SERPS. It would be unwise to let your company miss out, so trying to rank in OneBox results is an essential new method for web marketers. It’s also one the consumers don’t seem to have trained themselves to ignore quite as much, as compared with other marketing tactics.