How do you achieve better traffic? Search me
Search engines are a must-stop destination for Web users, and successful companies are making sure they’re popping up high on search results to wave people through to their site, as Simon van Wyk writes.
You’d think that the longer people spend on the Internet, the more likely they would be to know where they’re going.
In fact, the opposite is true. Despite the fact that more than 74% of Internet users have more than three years’ experience on the Net (according to the Pew Internet project), search engines are becoming more popular, not less.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, 114.5 million people in the US used an online search engine in January - 39% of the US population and nearly 2/3 of the US Internet population. Google enjoyed the largest unique audience with 59.3 million home and work users visiting the search engine, while Yahoo! received a 30.38% share of active users.
Google is in a very strong position, both in its primary market of the US and international markets such as Australia. As search engine expert Nat Elliott writes, “Searchers want to use Google, sites want to be listed on Google, and competitors want to be Google.”
However, Google’s competitors are not just lying down and giving up. Yahoo! has severed its technology-sharing arrangement with Google and has just released a new version of its search engine that should see its share climb closer to Google’s over the coming months.
Playing the system
Most companies now recognise the importance of getting your link high on the list when someone types in a relevant search term. Unfortunately, many have boosted their site position by manipulating the system.
For example, Google gives higher rankings to sites that have lots of other sites linking to them, going by the theory that the more other sites link to a page, the more useful it is. However, unscrupulous marketers started creating pages that contain nothing but scores of links to a different page - the one they want to appear higher in the rankings. This is called “spoofing”.
Even worse, some marketers are using “spam bots”, little automated programs that sniff out web sites that have “guest books”, pages where anyone can upload their comments about a site, and insert ads and links back to their sites. This can be incredibly inappropriate, as UK marketing consultant Mike Grehan reported recently in ClickZ. He had published a memorial Web page for a colleague who had recently died, and discovered scores of ads for ring tones, etc. being published in the guest book dotted among heartfelt personal memories about his friend.
Level playing field
Fortunately, this practice is dying out (pardon the pun). As Shari Thurow writes on the ClickZ website, “Search engines don’t want a single company to dominate “natural” search results. If a single company dominates, Google will eventually penalize or ban the sites, affiliates and all.
“In the past few months, Google removed many sites with affiliates, doorway pages, and mirror pages. In other words, it removed a large number of sites with redundant content. Less is more as far as search engine results pages are concerned.”
Aside from the unfairness of manipulating search engines, there are plenty of legitimate ways to maximise search engine positioning - and these methods are set to come into their own in 2004.
One of the simplest ways to improve search engine positioning is paying for a special advertising position. Paid search ad spending grew 123% in 2003, according to a recent eMarketer report.
The report claims that online search’s exceptional targeting capability will result in advertising paid search revenues of more than US$2.5 billion in 2004 and nearly US$3 billion in 2005. At that point, eMarketer predicts, nearly 35% of the total online ad spend will go to search.
2004: year of the local assault
Dave Morgan writes in Clickz: “Search marketing will go on steroids in 2004. It will become local, personal, persistent, integrated… and far more powerful.”
He says the search engines have local newspaper, radio, TV and Yellow Page advertising revenue in their site. In the US, Google has already incorporated post code search and directory listings into its system, and Morgan says, “It’s just a matter of time before all the search engines offer higher-value services (i.e., more personally relevant search results) to users who provide basic personal information, such as postal code, age, gender, and interests.”
Leveraging historical search data will become much more widely used in the future. By storing information on users’ past searches, including how recent and how often they search, will enable search engines to provide visitors with more relevant and valuable results.
Another interesting development to watch is Google’s AdSense program, launched in 2003, which integrates search with other content and applications. AdSense is designed to increase advertisers’ reach by placing their Google text ads on relevant content pages across the Web. Participating sites get a share of the revenue generated when users click on the ads.
Where will it end? Craig Silverstein of Google said recently that, “The future of search will involve genetically engineered search pets that will understand human emotions - not just facts, but how people work.”
For example, Silverstein said, “Your significant other looks sad. You say, ‘What’s wrong, honey?’ Honey says, ‘Nothing.’ Now you know two things. First: there is an answer, and second: ‘Nothing’ isn’t it. Search pets would hopefully know you and your family and help with the answer.”
Sound far-fetched? So did the concept of the World Wide Web little more than 10 years ago.