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Search Engine Marketing - The Past, The Present and The Future
Those days were spammers' Heaven: it was rather easy to get your
site ranked high. You could just use your keywords lots of times
on the page, in the META tags, HTML comments etc. and hide it
from the human visitors by making the text tiny or completely
invisible with the help of HTML tricks. The search engines
didn't have any sophisticated technique to recognize this kind
of spam, and such sites usually got high rankings very easily.
Today, you still can find some samples of this primitive
optimization (however you will have to give it a hard try,
because nowadays most of such Web projects have been banned by
the search engines for excessive keyword usage).
The only exception was Yahoo which has always been indexed by
humans who could in most cases identify and ban spamming pages.
Gradually, search engines started recognizing spam and applying
corresponding penalties to Web pages using spam methods.
However, search engine optimizers were always one step behind
the search engines in finding new ways of cheating the indexing
algorithms. Hence each search engine is committed to delivering
only relevant results to its visitors, the engines needed to
take control away from the spammers and auto-submitters. Many
began to try different ways of indexing.
The Rise of Google
If someone is asked today about the first search engine to
remember, the answer will be Google in 100% cases. Google has
started its way to be the King of search engines in 2000 and in
2002 its right for this title has been firmly established, with
around 70% of searches done on the Internet. While other search
engines were focusing on transforming to universal portals,
Google kept a simple and - which has become its distinctive
feature - fast interface that solely targeted delivering
relevant search results. Google also developed advanced features
such as indexing and searching PDF (portable document format)
and SWF (shockwave flash) files. Additionally, Google's
sophisticated techniques to use the "off-the-page" factors made
it extremely spam-resistant. Google's dominance has become
steady in 2000 with Yahoo having switched from Inktomi to Google
as secondary search result provider. Now, Yahoo uses the
combination of Overture's and own search software and index
repository, thus being fully independent on Google, however,
without any slightest impact on the dominance of the latter.
Global Consolidation
By 2001, the results of all major engines were produced from a
number of mixed / hybrid sources. Yahoo search results combined
Yahoo-directory listings, Overture (PPC) results, and Google
results. MSN provided results from Overture (PPC), LookSmart ,
and Inktomi.
The years 2002 and 2003 brought major reshuffles among search
engines: in this period, Google purchased Blogger.com, Yahoo
bought Inktomi, and AltaVista and AllTheWeb became a part of
Overture. Also, there were many shifts caused by emerging search
engine partnerships. Further in this course we will give you a
complete and actual chart of relationships between the
contemporary search engines.
Search Engine Marketing Today
If you thought nowadays search engine marketing can still be
done by acquiring (and using) an auto-submission software, drop
this idea since now on. Search engine marketing requires an
integrated approach to improving site content, quality and
popularity. For a Web site to reach its top potential, it must
incorporate target audience analysis, competitive analysis, cost
per click optimization, and - last but not least - copywriting
and copyediting. And, because things keep changing, search
engine marketers need to devote a good deal of time staying on
top of the SEO industry and its trends.
Today very few (and mostly inexperienced) optimizers / marketers
would use spam methods to achieve high ranking. In many cases,
spamming and the so-called "black-hat" SEO is recognized by
automatic spiders, for these become more and more intelligent.
Even though we describe major spamming methods in the end of
this course, we do it only in the sake of your awareness. We do
NOT recommend using them, as there's no guarantee at all they
can help, whereas it's very possible that your Web visibility
can be seriously damaged as a result.
The Future of Search Engine Marketing
Search engines have already developed into sophisticated
systems, and no doubt they will continue to enhance their
technical aspect, with improved capabilities to index pages that
are located deeply within the site (many links away from the
initial page). Also, their abilities to handle dynamically
generated pages (e.g. shopping carts) can be expected to grow.
Among other perspective trends are advanced non-HTML content
indexing (such as PDF and graphics), improved ability to rapidly
integrate new content such as news using XML feeds or other
technology, organization of search results into logical
categories (sometimes referred to as clustering), and other
advanced features. For insights into the future of search, you
could visit Google Labs ( http://labs.google.com). This is the
beta area where Google showcases some of its upcoming
technologies.
However, the traditional "highest-bidder" approach makes SEM
feel more and more like traditional print advertising. The
Integrated Approach to SEM anticipates that in future, best
marketing efforts will aim to leverage the three components:
paid advertising and analytics, all-sided site and content
optimization and qualitative off-the-page factors enhancement.
That is why we prefer to call the functions provided by Web CEO
"Search Engine Marketing" rather than "Search Engine
Optimization". When all is said and done, it is the traffic you
get and the way this traffic converts that matters - not even
your site rank on a search engine. You can rank worse than your
competitor, yet the percentage of your visitors that turn into
buyers will be so high that you actually outperform your
competitor several times.
About the Author
Carmen is the VP Client Relations of Ms. SEO Inc., a Calgary
based Search Engine Marketing
& Internet Marketing Company. Ms. Seo Inc. works with their
sister company Ms. Hype Inc., a Calgary Website Design Company, and their
parent company Cre8 Hype Solutions Inc., a Calgary based Internet Marketing Company, to
offer their clients a powerful online presence.
About the author:
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