Online Marketing Summit - Search Past and Present.

It’s day 3 at the Online Marketing Summit here in Sunny San Diego and SES has joined the mix to put on the mornings keynote session. Here is a quick overview of this session.

A look back 10 years ago.

• • Google was hardly in the picture and was partnered with Yahoo!

 

• • Very few web programming technologies were being used to make rich web experiences.

 

• • No YouTube, Video and limited social capabilities.

 

Kevin Ryan:

• • 10 years ago SEMs had few tools to conduct and analyze our campaigns. Log files and rudimentary development tools like Dreamweaver 1.0, and Frontpage.

 

• • Very few bid management tools were available until GoTo.com which was painstakingly difficult to manage.

 

• • It was not until 2002- 03 when budgets started to be dedicated to PPC and the name of the marketing game changed.

 

• • 2004 – Microsoft was thinking about buying Google but decided against it.

 

We have clearly come a long way since 2000

Search today. How are the leaders, where are things going?

If you look at “core search” statistics then Google is #1, Yahoo 2, Bing 3 and FB is 5 in terms of total searches. However, if you changed the terminology from Core search to Expanded searches then, Google remains in first position with YouTube now taking second then Yahoo and Bing finishing 4th. The picture of who is important and why starts to change dramatically.

In Dec 2009 there were 10 billion searches at Google , however there were 13 billion YouTube videos viewed! Video is an element that makes social sites a more attractive destination. Sharing videos within Facebook is extremely popular. Nearly 80% of all people online are using a social networking website. Americans watch 6 hours of TV each day, but only 6 minutes on average of Video online so there is plenty of room for growth in this area.

Marketing professionals are missing the video trend just as they missed Google’s rise to the top. Video viewing is bigger than search yet video content production is placed about 4th on the priority list for most marketing campaigns. Video, YouTube and the use of Video on social websites should be part of your immediate plans.

Visitors are viewing mostly videos that have entertainment value, however the second most popular videos are “how to” videos. Trailing behind are demonstration videos and news. Local TV news is very threatened about online YouTube style news will steal their monopoly on local news coverage.

76% of Spanish speaking online users consider themselves as bi lingual Espanola/English
Google is the most visited destination by US Hispanics.
You may want to explore that there could be a Hispanic market for your product/service

Is SEO over? No, perhaps we just have to discard the term SEO as its role has changed. I
There are still many companies and categories that need to be optimized in traditional SEO ways.

Mobile: Look more at the relationships of the mobile players, makers, providers and so on as this will probably affect your plans more than the types of advertising available.

Mobile devices should be talking to each other, but privacy and regulatory issues are going to be a large problem. Will Government regulation stop the marketer’s goal of true 1 -1 marketing relationships with our customers?

Kevin Ryan – search is a public utility and will be ultimately controlled and regulated by our Government in time. Pay attention to what is happening in Washington as it these folks that will in his view change our game and lifestyle in the future.

Summary: Search is growing fast and is spanning over multiple types of media; video, audio, images and text. Social sites, search suggest are influencing how search is conducted. The devices through which search is conducted is ever changing, phones, laptops, netbooks and desktops and each may represent a different mood and intent of the searcher. SEO and PPC are not competing with each other but can and should be supporting each other. Regulatory issues may come to surprise many marketing companies so be aware of what is going on in Washington. Search is going strong, long live search!