Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Search engines are dying

Bob Schmidt (schmidt_at_magicnet.net)
Tue, 11 Nov 1997 23:39:11 -0500

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Richard Hoy writes,

>So what do you guys think?

Well, I think you have come to the same conclusion that most Internet
marketers have already come to, namely, that to be master of your own fate,
you must be prepared to pay for promotion.

However, that said, a modest expenditure and a modest amount of work
registering and re-registering with the search engines (doesn't necessarily
imply spamming BTW) will produce results that are effective at generating
traffic and will do so cost effectively. So I really don't see that s.e.
are dead as far as the marketer is concerned.

In addition, the search engines continue to be powerful and flexible venues
for banner ads, offering both broad reach and custom targeting matched by
few other Internet sites.

>So lets look at what we have here:
>
>1.) An inverse relationship between the level of site promotion and the
>percent of traffic from search engines.

How though, could it possibly be otherwise? IOW, suppose you spent a lot of
money on banners only to find out that "free" registrations with s.e.
produced most of your traffic? That would be extremely disheartening, to
say the least! Indeed, if that were the case, I would concur that s.e. are
dead. Thankfully, it is not.

>2.) Tools that are so dynamic they change their content every few seconds.
>(In Altavista's case, a new page of info every 4.3 seconds.)

Hmm. Sounds like compelling content to me. Don't we want our s.e. to be
fresh and up to date?

>3.) Tools containing a significant percentage of the deceptive information.
>(In Altavista's case, 50%.)

No communications medium, not even the Internet, is free of noise. That
comes with the territory. Users have learned to tolerate it, marketer will
have to, too.

>4.) Tools requiring you to have a Ph.D. in boolean logic to even hope to
>use them effectively.

No argument from me on this one. But, it is possible that the slightly
confused searcher is more likely to notice a banner ad?

>How can such an unstable system survive? Moreover, how can you ever hope to
>be on top of it for long?

This is known as a queue jumping strategy. Anyone who has ever had a P*
account is familiar with this one where everyone tries to get their message
to rise to the top of the topic list on P*'s bulletin boards over the howls
of protest from P*'s bulletin board babysitters. I'm afraid that strategy
was a goner long ago for any major keyword category on search engines. That
does not mean your site won't be noticed by enough people, however.

>So in closing, I submit that search engines are dying. In fact, I would say
>they are dead already and just don't know it yet -

Don't count them out yet. There are still tens of millions a day who use them.

Bob Schmidt
www.provider.com
Author of The Geek's Guide to Internet Business Success
The Definitive Business Blueprint for Internet Designers, Developers,
Programmers, Marketers, Consultants and Service Providers
http://provider.com/geeksguide/
ISBN 0-442-02557-2

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