Top Three Search Marketing Trends to Watch in 2006
marketingsherpa.com "Top Three Search Marketing Trends to Watch in 2006If search marketing is a significant portion of your budget (or you suspect it may be soon) this new MarketingSherpa Executive Summary is a quick and useful read.
Features two new data charts (including year-over-year changes in SEO versus PPC spending) plus a real-life example of optimized press releases in action:
Trend #1. Search Engines as TV Networks Jockeying for Audience
Trend #2. SEO Still a Tiny Portion of Total Search Marketing Spend
The one, undeniable truth of search marketing is that across all major engines organic results
(those that show up in natural "free" listings) are better noticed, read, and clicked on than the
paid listings. The search world has known this for more than five years.
Plus, organic clicks generally convert as well or even better than paid clicks. According to 3,217
marketers surveyed by MarketingSherpa in August 2005, this year's average organic clicks
converted at 4.2% compared to 3.6% for paid clicks. (A conversion can be any defined,
measurable action you want visitors to take.)
....we are appalled at the continuing disconnect between paid search spending
and SEO investment.
The disregard of SEO in popular marketing is so thorough that a study released May 2005
revealed only 13 of the Fortune 100 had "effective SEO." Plus, in our continuing interviews with
marketers, we've discovered many misusing the term "Search Engine Marketing" (SEM). Instead
of serving as an umbrella term for all types of search engine marketing (SEO, PPC, and paid
inclusion) most marketers we speak with use it to mean PPC-only.
Why don't more marketers invest in SEO? This year we asked them directly. The biggest reason
chosen: 28% said "Don't understand SEO, overall complexity."
It's true; buying a paid search ad seems on the surface to be far easier than optimizing a site for
search engine crawlers. Makes sense; the engines' profits rely on this. However, as PPC costs
continue to rise due to increased competition, successful PPC is quickly becoming as arcane an
art and science as SEO is considered to be. Search marketing in either form is not easy. But, it sure can be profitable.
Trend #3. Search Marketing — A New Application for Press Releases
As marketers and PR pros skilled in SEO have discovered in the past year, although releases may
not be response devices for reporters, they make great response devices for the search-using
public. For example, marketers for Southwest Airlines used four press releases deliberately
written with search engine optimization and consumer response in mind, to sell $1.5 million in
tickets in 90 days. Every ticket sale was directly traceable to links in the releases.
SEO firms, PR firms and marketers themselves have begun to seize on this low-cost tactic in
droves. Affiliate marketers, who were among the first to aggressively use SEO in general, are
also testing optimized press releases. Here's an example of an affiliate's $80 release that won
high ranks in both Yahoo News and Google News for the term 'Holiday Gift Idea' during
December 2004 when competing ecommerce site marketers were spending millions on PPC
campaigns to the same audience
To recap: top search engines dominance, underspending on SEO, and search engine optimized
PR releases are the three top trends we've identified in search marketing for 2006. Of course,
there are other trends you should be aware of: business-to-business search marketing trends,
keyword buying and price resistance, and the growth of local search marketing, just to name a
few. All of these areas and more are covered in Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2005-2006.
posted by Jen @ 8:31 AM
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