I've been reading the exchange about search engine relevance and
wondering if we are not missing a more fundamental issue. The playing
field for marketing is changing at an accelerated rate. Time was when
one could come up with a good advertising strategy, do some ads, buy
the space and collect the money. Search engine marketing has become
somewhat predictable as well. One can buy ppc or have the site
optimized and push their way into the top 20 listings. But that is
changing very quickly. As more and more advertisers do SEO and more
sites enter the arena and drive up the ppc prices, the opportunities
for reaching searchers becomes intensely competitive. This is not like
TV programming where you just cram in more commercials in the
programming or build more billboards or put more ads in the magazine.
Searchers simply will not go beyond thirty or forty listings before
they move on to another keyword. Marketing on the Internet is a
totally different animal.
Perhaps we should be thinking and discussing about what is going to
happen in the future. Instead of just reacting to what the search
engines have done, maybe we should be more proactive and be thinking
about what the proliferation of sites and a more competitive online
advertising field is going to mean in the future. As a marketer I need
to be able to anticipate this changing environment. I don't want to be
the one trying to fit square pegs into round holes a couple of years
from now.
So what's going to stay the same and what's going to change? How do we
meet this challenge of market proliferation on the Internet? How can
we anticipate what the search engines will do one, two, five years from
now to keep profitable? Any ideas out there? What other questions
should we be asking?
Michael Ormsby
Received on Fri May 14 2004 - 07:26:54 CDT
