About David Wright
In our quest for good “search” guys, we discovered they’re hard to find. Ironic, we know. Fortunately for us, David is a veteran in the relatively new discipline of paid and natural search and knows all the tricks to “getting found.” Which, we want to emphasize, bodes very well for our clients. His résumé starts off, interestingly enough, with a lengthy stint as a college teacher, both here and in Italy. When he tired of trying to capture the attention of unruly co-eds, David moved on to capturing the attention of unruly consumers through various online marketing roles. Before Click Here, his most recent position was as senior manager for search/media buyer for a leading online dating site, where his search engine optimization efforts resulted in monthly click-throughs increasing tenfold and Google Page Rank improving from 0 to 6 (out of 10). David has worn other hats over the years, as well, and is quite adept at writing, editing, graphic design, website development, quality control, vendor relations, and systems administration, among others. So he brings to the table a well-rounded perspective that’s critical to creating and effectively executing successful media and search campaigns. In his spare time, which David insists he does have, he enjoys losing himself in hiking, cycling (including completing Texas’ Hotter ’n Hell century ride), working out, reading, cooking, woodworking, and art.
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2009 brought search engine marketing (SEM) the heavily promoted Bing from Microsoft, along with Google scrambling to enhance search results with real-time social media, expanding universal search and personalizing search results. On Google’s paid search side, new developments include product listing ads, product extensions, site link ads, comparison ads and the extension of universal search to paid search. Welcome to Google’s “Caffeine,” slated to be fully rolled out in early 2010.
Even with the long shadow of the economic crisis, SEM will be a bright spot of opportunity for savvy online marketers willing to be quick studies, early adopters and experimenters. Nevertheless, some are saying this will be the death of natural search engine optimization (SEO) and become a boon for Google’s pay per click (PPC) marketing. Needless to say, where Google goes, other search engines will follow.
Google continues to rule with 65.7 percent of U.S. searches in December 2009, 1 percent more of the market share than in November. Even with all of its hype, Bing grew slightly at 0.4 percent and Yahoo! has declined 0.2 percent from November. Ask has hovered at the 3-4 percent range for quite some time, and AOL has slipped below 3 percent market share.
With the above in mind, the Click Here SEM team anticipates the following trends will drive opportunity in 2010.
Search Engine Optimization
The rumored death of SEO is greatly exaggerated! Recent Google changes to personalize search and show real-time social media results will revitalize search engine optimization. Traditional SEO tactics are still necessary, but the changes made by Google will cause a reconsideration of what is affordably in a client’s best interest. There is no doubt that relevant content will remain the king of high-ranking search results, but how some results are indexed and served is changing.
Probably no other change will cause more confusion for non-paid search engine marketing than will the “personalization” of Google search results. Personalizing search means that Google will be looking at personal search habits to serve more relevant results. For example, search for “fox” and if Google has seen the habit of going to news websites, the likely search results will not be for the carnivorous mammal. Google’s other major change is to show real-time social media results in a live-scrolling “Latest results for …” panel. If there are concerns about brand reputation, about which there might be social “buzz,” marketers should consider monitoring or interacting in real time with public opinion.
One could argue that 2009 was the year of the social network where millions of people signed up for Facebook and Twitter accounts. According to eMarketer, Twitter’s audience tripled in 2009 (from 6 million to 18 million users) and is expected to grow at a 15 percent clip in 2010 to over 26 million users. Never before has there been such a way for users to express themselves. Google and MSN have already embraced user tweets in their search results, and this trend will continue to improve the user experience and search result relevancy. Search results could begin incorporating tweets and status updates from existing Twitter lists and Facebook friends. However, with the new multitude of opinions comes the formidable challenge of deciding what truly matters. Expect the social aspect of search to take on an even more prominent role in the coming year.
To evolve in light of recent and forthcoming changes and to successfully optimize websites for search engines, websites must become “authorities” in their spaces by practicing traditional SEO tactics, frequently refreshing content, adding keyword-tagged images, posting videos across the Internet, distributing press releases online, participating in social media and having unique content that encourages revisits. All of this will need to be fed to the search engine indexing mechanisms.
Sponsored Search
Click Here expects 2010 to hold a number of exciting changes for PPC search marketing. From increased customization and new ad formats, to an increased role for social media, PPC search will be more relevant, customized and current.
The best thing about PPC search is how it enables users to find exactly the things for which they’re looking. Recently, we’ve seen a convergence of users learning how to use search engines more effectively and search engines learning how to best serve their audience. Through the years, these moves brought us iGoogle, Twitter’s search functionality and a host of other features allowing users to further personalize their search experience. These adaptations will be a major driver for a number of exciting changes in 2010.
One change will be the rollout of new ad formats by Google. These new ad formats feature product comparisons and images, video, additional site links, and maps and addresses – all inside the sponsored search unit. Multiple product images shown on the AdWords Blog:
Marketers can now more effectively showcase their products and services to an audience that is increasingly savvy about the links they choose to visit. When used correctly, these new tools will enable marketers to increase the quality of the traffic they attract.
Lastly, there are a number of different search themes that, while not new, will continue to develop in 2010. Vertical search engines, mobile search, local search and video search will continue to be refined and improved. An excellent example of this development comes with Hulu’s release of video search through the use of existing closed captioning, allowing users to search for specific words or mentions within a video. Google is also venturing into this space by soliciting users to donate existing voicemails from Google Voice. While most feel this technology will be used for voicemail transcription, we feel voice transcription will make its way into the video space to enhance Google’s search capabilities. Another area of growth lies in local search. It’s been shown that 80+ percent of users who search for a business locally will contact that business offline. Expect businesses and engines to continue to build out this space as they leverage its value in helping users find the local businesses they seek.
Summary
2010 will be an exciting year both for the search engines and the end users who can expect to benefit from improved functionality, usability and relevance. Marketers will have more tools available to reach their target audience that include richer ad units, enhanced content search options and ways to tap into the vast and growing social networks. Also, as Internet-enabled cell phone users become more ubiquitous, a lot of searches will be starting there and websites need to be ready. If a business is sensitive to social commentary, it needs to get involved with social media. If a business sells tangible products, it needs to take advantage of Google’s product extensions.
Search engines remain the most used Internet medium, second only to email, including spam. As the Internet becomes less of a static information medium and more interactive and social, search engines will expand to index this broad spectrum of engagement, thus crowding the results pages. Search-savvy marketers will be recasting their messages in a variety of media to be found in both natural and paid search.
View all 10 trends here: Ten Digital Trends for 2010… and Beyond.
Hungry, but don’t know where to go? Do you feel like eating a hamburger, pizza, steak, or sushi? Have you ever tried to remember the location of a really great restaurant you enjoyed, but just couldn’t summon that part of the memory?
On April 20th Google announced that it was changing their Local Business Center to be Google Places. As a Google Maps enhancement for local business, Google Places was launched last September and now has over 50 million places indexed from all over the world. Four million businesses claimed their Place Page on Google through the Local Business Center. This effectively meant there were two places for listing local businesses and this move by Google streamlined and greatly enhanced an essential element to local business success, which is to say being found at the moment of someone’s desire.
Now, you’ll never want for finding the destination of your desires.
Google says that 20% of all its searches or 1.28 billion searches (U.S., March 2010) are location related. Google’s folding of the Local Business Center into Google Places means that users will be able to find what they seek with enhanced map listings, street-level pictures, including storefront pictures, reviews from a variety of sources, nearby businesses, essential business information like hours of operation and pricing, and mini-pop-up information bubbles on the map. Also, the business user can update information, almost in real time. You can simply get to the Google Places page of a business by clicking on the “more info” button on the listing in a Google Map search.
A basic listing is free and includes a dashboard to post and update address, phone number, hours of operation, a place to upload videos, include a coupon or promotion and even show a QR code so users can go to a Place Page though a smart phone application if the code is published somewhere, like a newspaper ad.
A further enhancement is the store window decal with QR code, available to feature the business as a one of Google’s “Favorite Places.” Reading the QR code on a local business store front will take the user to the Google places page where promotions and coupons (remember potentially being updated in near real time) could be featured.
In beta right now and in a limited number of U.S. cities is a feature that adds Google Tags as an icon directly on the map and next to a maps results listing. There is a $25 flat monthly fee for this enhancement. This will allow a business to post custom messages immediately available to people looking at the map.
What’s even better for the local business is that Google has a reporting tool that lets a local business see from where business visitors are coming on the Internet via search keywords and within the physical area of the business’ location, if a user asks for directions within Google Maps.
This is huge because, dare I say, local businesses, and I’m thinking here about mostly “mom and pop” shops, essentially don’t need to have a website to have an Internet presence and they can get statistics about people searching online via keywords and actually tracking from where in an area people are coming to their place of business. Again, this is huge because the success of retail has lot to do with “location, location, location.” Before this, a business needed to have a website and deploy Google Analytics or another tracking system to get some of this really valuable marketing information. Google Analytics and no other analytics tool have ever reported from where walk-in business visitors come via a search using Google Map directions.
Ultimately, this may be the final death knell of paper-based business phone directories, no matter what color they are, as more and more people turn to the Internet and the Internet on their cell phones to find what they want, especially in terms of seeking a local business. On the bright side will be the really small, family-owned local businesses that will finally find, on a more or less level playing field, their place on the Internet.
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