Web Analytics World Blogging Contest - entry by Rob Sullivan of Get In Position
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Search marketing is dying and everyone who is a search marketer knows it.

OK let me rephrase that, search ENGINE marketing is dying. Google is making it too hard for most new and even a few established websites to get noticed. Let's face it, after spending thousands of dollars on a website, does a site owner really have the budget to hire an SEM firm to help them get decent Google placement, or the patience to wait the months it takes?

The answer in many cases is no.

But that's not to say that the future of search marketing in general is dead. In fact it is far from that. If you broaden your perspective to include other sources of online traffic and not focus solely on Google (because let's face it, when you do anything for Google it trickles down to Yahoo, MSN and the others) then you can get equivalent and in some cases more qualified traffic.

Now, I'm not talking the short term Digg effect, I'm talking about a more comprehensive online marketing package that does include the search engines, but also other online services. I look at the online market space making a similar transition as the television market space did a couple decades back.

How TV is like the Internet

For the longest time TV was dominated by 3 networks – ABC, CBS and NBC. I remember my whole family getting together on Saturday night for the Saturday Night Movie. We'd also get together for other shows as well, but my point is this: If it wasn't on one of the 3 networks then it wasn't on.

But in the late 70's and 80's we saw a shift in TV – more and more specialty networks started to show up. Today there are thousands of specialty networks. And every time I hear of another new one I think to myself “well that isn't going to fly” but you know what? In most cases it does. I mean, who would have thought that a 24 hour casino channel would fly? Not only that but people actually pay a monthly subscription to receive those channels.

I see the same sort of thing happening online. In fact it has already begun to happen, but many people aren't seeing it. The online market is fracturing. Only a little right now, but that fracture will continue to grow.

Sites like MySpace, Digg, and Flickr are already established. Up and comers like Edgeio, vSocial and Facebook are challenging the dominance of not only the search engines but the other larger sites. As time goes on even more sites will rise to the challenge as well.

So what does that mean for search marketers?

Well here's the nice thing. Most, if not all, of these sites have an ever improving search built into them. Whether you are searching for old high school alumni on Facebook, or to buy a car in San Francisco on Edgeio, search is involved.

In fact, users are so tied to that little box next to the "submit" button that browsing a site rarely happens now. So the goal then becomes, how to get your site “found” on these new search enabled websites?

Well that's going to depend on the site itself. For example, you can't advertise your website on MySpace or Facebook, but you could set up a profile which you can use to promote your product or service (albeit sneakily as that's against the terms of service).

And you can enhance your "findability" by offering Internet savvy users other ways to find your site via services like del.ico.us and Stumbleupon. Or you could create rich media which can be shared on sites like Google Video, Youtube, vSocial and Revver. Of course there's always image sharing with Flickr and others, or Podcasting using Hipcast and the like.

But why use these when Google gets the most traffic?

Well, this is the first question you may ask. After all, even if you combined all the services mentioned above you'd probably find they get less than 10% of total online traffic. But there are a couple things to consider.

First is this: If the total online traffic in a given day is in the billions of users, 10% is pretty significant.

Another factor to consider is that people in our generation, let's say people in their late 20's and older, look at the Internet differently.

For example, my nephew is in his early 20's. He uses a search engine about half the time, but instead prefers to get ideas, product referrals and other information from his “virtual” friends online. He's your typical MySpace/Facebook user. He has a higher degree of trust of the information coming from the friend in the UK that he's never met over a search result found on Google.

My son is a pre-teen and his use of the web is again much different than mine or my nephews. A search engine is the LAST place he looks for his information. He listens to his online buddies as well, but he also visits different sites. Granted he's a little young for MySpace, but I can already see that his online uses will be much different than mine are now when he becomes a consumer in the next few years.

So while engines like Google look at personalization to help make current results more relevant they are also no doubt looking at the next generation or two of online users and seeing this same thing – that as my nephew graduates and becomes a productive spending member of society, the fracture that is affecting the online marketplace will widen even more.

And as my son gets older and his use of search engines becomes 10% of his online experience versus the current 80-90% of most users, Google and other engines will have to adapt to survive.

The web coming to us instead of us going to it

Another factor to consider: The web is becoming more embedded in our daily lives. Information is coming at us quicker and quicker, and from more and more sources. We're even beginning to see that information come to us when we don't even ask for it. This trend is only going to get worse (or better depending on your perspective). Which means that people will have to search less because their devices will "know" what they want sometimes before they do.

But again this is an opportunity for search marketers. It takes that embedded search box found on most sites one step further and, rather than waiting for the user to request a search, search becomes more proactive. It seeks out the information the user may want (or the information the search has deemed important) and shuttles it to his iPod/Phone/PDA/Blackberry.

The future of Search?

Search engine marketing is dying. It's only a matter of time, but search marketing and its possibilities are endless. Our only concern is shifting our viewpoint so that we can see the future and exploit it, rather than wait for it to pass us by.

Labels: Blogging