Lack of room on first page of results for some search terms

[JS_Harris]

There are a couple of search terms that I'd like to rank well for but Google's search result layout makes it impossible.

When I search for either of these terms I'm presented with news results, sponsored results, map results, shopping results and one site that is permanently in position #1 because it is a manufacture of this search term product.

At 1024 screen resolution, the most widely used according to analytics stats, the 2nd place result has it's description cut off and the 3rd place result is below the fold.

Since most searches result in someone clicking through on one of the top few links on the serps these particular search terms become irrelevant to any website wanting natural search traffic.

Is this the way all search terms are going to end up? Just 6 months ago the first 5 results were all clearly visible above the fold. I'm not impressed with the choices for all these "extras" chosen by Google either.

[daveVk]

Play there game maybe, figure what it takes to get into news results, map results or shopping results.

[AnkitMaheshwari]

For one of the keywords "Widget" there are two major brands one registered as "Widget" and other Registered as "Widget Blue". My site also competes on this keyword and I have absolutely no hopes to be on page #1 as the top two positions are for "Widget" site and then a a Youtube video, then comes two results for "Widget Blue" site followed by Wikipedia and a sub-domain for "Widget" which is a really popular product too. In between there are news results almost every alternate day as the two are really big brands.....

Is there a way I can beat wiki as that is my only hope...

[aristotle]

Sometimes I wonder if the Google reserves the first six positions for two Wikipedia articles, two Youtube videos, and two results from Amazon or some other huge commercial site. In many cases they also add image results, news results, and/or sponsered results. Makes it rather difficult for an ordinary site to get near the top of the first page.

[tedster]

Some organic search marketers saw this challenge coming almost the instant that "Universal Search" was launched. One way to deal with it is create your own videos, make some news, get into local (if you have physical locations) and so on.

Because this is today's playing field, and it will probably be this way for quite a while, we need to change the way we think about search marketing, especially for certain key query terms.

[hutcheson]

>Sometimes I wonder if the Google reserves the first six positions for two Wikipedia articles, two Youtube videos, and two results from Amazon or some other huge commercial site.

Apparently not. I expect to find that wikipedia article on the first page, but sometimes it isn't there....which bugs _me_, especially when it's replaced by shopping sites I never heard of -- I mean, REALLY, would YOU give YOUR credit card to some website with no verifiable identity, just because it showed up in Google results?

That's even assuming you were shopping at the time, which I'm usually not. Because if I'm shopping I'll be shopping through some trusted name brand (amazon) or trusted intermediary -- (abebooks or ebay) or someone who I first met in real life at their office within a few miles of my home.