Saturday, January 16, 2010
Internet Marketing in the 2010s -- The Death of SEO
The SEO that we've all "grown up" with is dying. The days when you could check your ranking and know that everyone who searches for that keyword will see your site in the exact same position is long gone.
The search engines have long taken the location from which a search initiates into consideration. They boost listings that are geographically closer in cases where they believe that the searcher would prefer listings nearer to where he or she is.
The days are coming, though, where the results for someone a block away from you may have no resemblance to the results you get for the same search. Personalized search will make it much harder to state with any certainty what your rank is.
The search engines infer more and more about individual searcher intent from the way they see the searcher respond to their search results. They tweak future results to try to better anticipate each searcher's intent.
Sites on which a searcher stays longer before returning to their search results get a boost in rankings for that searcher in future searches. Sites from which a searcher immediately abandons gets downgraded for future searches. Sites that consistently keep their visitors engaged get a ranking boost for searchers who have given no prior preferences.
What does this mean for you? Increasingly in this new decade, it will be essential for you to engage your audience, increase stickiness, and increase conversions. The more useful your site proves to be for searchers, the greater your chances of ranking well in more people's individualized search results.
Does all this mean that the many major seo companies will die? Those who don't adapt will. The smart ones, though, will shift their focus from merely making simple onsite tweaks and gathering incoming links. The smart ones will add services that help clients engage and serve their visitors better.
Make sure you understand how to retain and convert your visitors better. This is fast becoming crucial in boosting your search engine rankings. And, even if it played no part in your rankings, it is still key to your bottom line.
Jeff
The SEO that we've all "grown up" with is dying. The days when you could check your ranking and know that everyone who searches for that keyword will see your site in the exact same position is long gone.
The search engines have long taken the location from which a search initiates into consideration. They boost listings that are geographically closer in cases where they believe that the searcher would prefer listings nearer to where he or she is.
The days are coming, though, where the results for someone a block away from you may have no resemblance to the results you get for the same search. Personalized search will make it much harder to state with any certainty what your rank is.
The search engines infer more and more about individual searcher intent from the way they see the searcher respond to their search results. They tweak future results to try to better anticipate each searcher's intent.
Sites on which a searcher stays longer before returning to their search results get a boost in rankings for that searcher in future searches. Sites from which a searcher immediately abandons gets downgraded for future searches. Sites that consistently keep their visitors engaged get a ranking boost for searchers who have given no prior preferences.
What does this mean for you? Increasingly in this new decade, it will be essential for you to engage your audience, increase stickiness, and increase conversions. The more useful your site proves to be for searchers, the greater your chances of ranking well in more people's individualized search results.
Does all this mean that the many major seo companies will die? Those who don't adapt will. The smart ones, though, will shift their focus from merely making simple onsite tweaks and gathering incoming links. The smart ones will add services that help clients engage and serve their visitors better.
Make sure you understand how to retain and convert your visitors better. This is fast becoming crucial in boosting your search engine rankings. And, even if it played no part in your rankings, it is still key to your bottom line.
Jeff
ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb
BlinkDel.icio.usDiggFurlGoogleSimpySpurlY! MyWebLabels: marketing, predictions, search engine optimization
Comments:
Post a Comment
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
