22 August 2006 | Author: S. Monteath

The search engine marketing crystal ball

In the ever evolving world of Search Engine Marketing it is difficult to keep up to speed with what is happening in the present, let alone to predict what is going to happen in the future. By the time a trend is identified everyone else has jumped on the bandwagon and you are just one amongst the masses trying to catch up. But not any more! Savvy Search Engine Marketer Scott Buresh has got his crystal ball out and predicted the trends we can expect to see in the industry in the coming months. Here's what you should be looking for:

• Greater accountability from Search Engine Marketing Agencies

Vendors are getting better at doing their homework when selecting Search Engine Marketing Agencies. The techniques employed in achieving listings are coming under increasing scrutiny with the less scrupulous practitioners being dropped in favour of the "white hat" approach.

• The big guns will rule paid search

Larger companies with even larger budgets will continue to invest in Paid Search and costs will continue to rise (Average PPC costs have increased 37% from Q1 2005 to Q1 2006, Doubleclick, Performics 50 Search Trend Report). ROI is being dropped in favour of branding projects resulting in smaller advertisers being squeezed out of the market.

• Increased interest in organic search

As the small companies are squeezed out of PPC so they turn to Organic SEO in order to achieve results. Couple this with the following facts:

• 66% of consumers "distrust" paid search ads, eMarketer
• Only 23% of commercial clicks are on paid search ads, 2005 Marketing Sherpa Study

and an upturn in interest in Organic Search can be expected. At the same time Google are reinforcing this trend with their recent announcement that they will take into consideration page relevance when deciding in which order paid search adverts will appear. This statement means that, to be effective, paid search campaigns will need at least some basic organic SEO.

• Continued reluctance to adopt Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Despite the obvious advantages of the coupling of traditional advertising agencies with search engine marketing agencies, the metric with which the two mediums are measured will continue to ensure there will be reluctance from traditional agencies to adopt this approach. Good search engine marketing works on the basis of removing spend from non-performing areas to create cot efficiencies. Traditional Agencies are measured against % of advertising spend meaning that the idea of recommending reducing spend on any area will be baulked resulting in the majority of Traditional Agencies rejecting Search Engine Marketing Services.

• Organic SEO focus remains firmly on Google

Google will maintain its place as the Search Engine to optimize for as it currently accounts for 50% of searches in the US, (according to iProspect). Increased importance should be put on learning from the studies Google conducts of its users and applying this to Organic SEO campaigns.

In short, things are going to continue to change at a rapid rate in the Search Engine Marketing industry. Increased PPC costs caused by the larger companies with huge budgets will result in the small to medium companies moving their focus over to organic SEO to achieve results. These results are going to be under closer scrutiny with the vendors far more aware of what they should be looking for from an SEM agency both in terms of techniques and results.

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