 |
Synonymous with Google as a household name, is the rise of
search in today’s online marketing mix and this keeps SEO
strategists constantly on their toes to stay ahead of the game.
In July this year the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) reported
that online advertising figures for Canada had risen 38% in
2007 from the previous year. This shows the increasing
importance that marketers are placing on the web. Pertinently,
the greatest growth in online spend was search.Earlier this summer Microsoft described its focus on search
technology as ‘mission critical’ to reporters at Associated
Press. Following a failed bid to buy Yahoo Inc, the software
giant turned to Social Media data mining and persuaded
Facebook to incorporate Microsoft’s Live Search engine into
their site. Meanwhile other search engines are focusing on
vertical fractures – like Ask.com’s 3D search (where relevant
multimedia results are displayed in a panel without users
leaving the page) or sites like Zillow which specialize in real
estate, Avvo who deal with everything legal and Technorati –
experts in the blogosphere. While the big guns battle it out for
dominance and the lesser-knowns progress laterally, we can
expect to see some dramatic changes on the search scene in
the coming months. |
All this points to increasing weight and value being placed on the role of the Search Engine Marketer. And with the
conversion rates between organic and paid results continuing to favor the organic listings, the pressure is on to
anticipate and work with updates from the search engines.At 6S Marketing in Vancouver, staff strive to keep up to date with the emerging trends in organic search engine
optimization. Here are six key areas in which SEO strategists focus. A six-point guide to SEO at 6S:
Personalized Search
While personalized search is an established functionality, Google and the other search engines are competitively
innovating to create results, browsers and toolbars (like Google Chrome and Microsoft’s Live Search bar) that
are tailored to the individual. Yahoo! recently released “Search Monkey”, a plug-in that pulls information from a
website and from a site owner data feed to create personalized search results that include videos, addresses
and other relevant details that Yahoo! feels may be important to the user. For SEO strategists this causes
difficulties in standardizing results. But on the positive side, niche industry websites now climb in their own
specialized area of search rankings, resulting in a new era of micro-search success.
Geo Location
Google has long been logging users’ IP addresses and serving results based on where the searcher is in the
world. However, since they started to include the ‘Local Business center’ listing in results pages, geo-location is
now vital when establishing search tactics. As Google ranks sites in their local listings differently to their organic
SERPS, SEO specialists must strike a balance between clients gaining rank in either local or organic results. For
instance clients in the hotel and leisure industry have found it increasingly important to appear in local listings for
users looking for accommodation in their area. Other companies with a more global appeal (like Nike or Nintendo)
have less need to specialize. Establishing how important geo targeting is to a client and tailoring search tactics to
accommodate it has become standard SEO practice. |
Video Search
When Google acquired YouTube it was not a financiallymotivated
move. The Ad revenue that YouTube could provide
was far less valuable than the content it made available to
Google. A recent Google Labs experiment, “GAudi”
demonstrates how seriously Google is taking the ability to
index video content. GAudi uses speech technology to find
spoken words inside videos and lets the user jump to that
portion of the video – providing amazing potential for indexing
rich media content on the web. For now, the video search
optimization solution is viral; creating a customized video player
widget for your website or blog audience and encouraging them
to share.
Mobile Search
Mobile search is on the up. According to comScore Metrics, the number of mobile search queries in June 2008
was double those of the previous year. Since Yahoo! analyst Russell Beattie declared: ‘it’s really not a matter of
IF the mobile phone will become the dominant internet platform any more but WHEN” – SEOs and developers
have been hard at work optimizing their sites for mobile search. And with a screen of two or three inches wide,
designing for the medium is more challenging and calls for an elegant user experience. While traditional SEO still
applies in mobile, there are now techniques to be considered for your mobile site to gain exposure on the search
engines. SEO’s need to ensure the site is compliant and coded in XHTML as well as submitting a mobile sitemap
to Google and Yahoo who both now accept these formats. |
|
|
Link Quality
These days, more and more emphasis is being placed on the quality of link building. In 2003 when Google
bought Applied Semantics it was obvious which direction they’d take their linking strategy. The ability to collate
and index a page based on its overall content has become a central part of the Google inbound linking strategy.
As search engine algorithms evolve to include more semantic linking technology, it’s more critical than ever to
gain quality, authoritative and trustworthy links rather than the former sheer quantity. As Ivan Strouchliak noted
on seochat.com, “Users abandoned former search leaders AltaVista, Excite, AllTheWeb, Hotbot and others
because they could not maintain spam free indexes and return useful websites”.Expect to see growth continue
in the area of semantic linking as the need for quality over quantity increases.
Search Functions on Social Networking Sites
TechCrunch recently reported that Google is in final negotiations to buy Digg for about $200 million. Aside
from terminating Microsoft’s ad deal with Digg the ramifications of the purchase could pose further reaching
questions about the direction Google intends to take its own search algorithm. Even Google, the best so far
at search advertising, has acknowledged difficulties making money on social networking sites. However the
pursuit of Digg could be seen more as an interest in the platform’s search algorithm than the revenue it
could add to Google. Are we potentially looking at Google experimenting with social bookmarking as a way
of ranking pages and sites? It’s too early to tell where they’ll take the technology but it’s certainly one to
watch in the future.
About The Author:
John Blown is the Managing Director of 6S Marketing Inc., Canada’s largest Search Marketing Agency. As a
veteran of the Search Marketing industry, John has been providing Internet marketing consulting for over
10 years to hundreds of clients across the globe. John is consistently called upon to provide expert
commentary and articles within the Internet marketing discipline. To contact John directly email -
john@6smarketing.com.
 Download PDF Version
|
Emerging Trends in SEO – http://www.6smarketing.com/emerging-trends-in-seo/