2009 has been a year of activity and change for search engine marketing. The industry and its methods have changed dramatically since their original conception – and with the number of deals, arrangements and partnerships announced between search and technology firms this year, 2010 is likely to see even more change.
Last week, the ins and outs of the last year in search engine marketing were discussed at length at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago.
SES Chicago was attended by people throughout the online SEO and SEM community, and featured speeches by notables such as Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do, Brian Bolland of Facebook, and bloggers and commentators such as Anna Maria Virzi, executive editor of ClickZ.com.
The discussion that took place may provide a clue into the hot topics of search engine marketing. Beyond the continuing debate between the effectiveness of PPC or search engine optimisation, delegates were focused upon new developments in search technology and online brand management.
Unsurprisingly one of the most discussed topics was that of real time search; one of the most discussed topics of 2009 in search engine marketing, and certain to be an area of fierce interest in 2010. Whilst Google has the head start with its dynamic feed of updates, new content and tweets already incorporated into its universal search results, its competitors may not be far behind.
The incorporation of mixed media search results and ad formats into Google and Bing was another significant topic at SEO. Whilst new ad formats offer new opportunities for PPC advertising, Google’s universal search is likely to change SEO tactics significantly over time. Organic search results are complicated by the inclusion of image search, news search, blog search, local search and other results.
Other new technology inspired further discussion; social media networks. Tying together the separate discussions of online brand management and how marketing can secure more conversions was the ongoing debate over social media. In 2009, the Google search index began crawling RSS feeds from blogs. Now, real time search provides a separate feed for twitter updates. In 2010, deals with Facebook and other social platforms are likely to bear fruit for all of the major search engine companies.
Throughout coverage of SES Chicago, one point seemed clear – that smaller businesses can stand to gain from social media. Whilst search engine marketing can build visibility, active social media can complement any SEO or PPC campaign by building customer relationships and securing conversions.
One final topic that was often discussed in coverage was search engine marketing outside of Google. Whilst Google remains the most popular search tool for users around the world, Microsoft’s Bing has seen increasing market share in the US, and despite an underwhelming launch in the UK it is now fully operational in two major online markets. 2010 seems certain to see more development on this topic; at the very least, Bing and Yahoo! will become heavily interlinked as their 2009 deal is followed through.
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