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The Importance of Search in Internet Marketing
By Claudia Bruemmer (c) 2007

For long-time search marketers it will come as no surprise that
search has become a media darling. Pay-per-click advertising is
the most popular online marketing strategy, and organic search
engine optimization provides top click-through and conversion
performance.

Search is more popular than display ads and email marketing
because of its excellent performance and ROI. Internet marketers
should take note of the development in the search marketplace in
order to better focus their advertising budgets.

Search is Evolving

As the Web grows exponentially, search engine databases suffer
from information overload. As a result, technology and consumer
search behavior adapts and changes. One of the early attempts to
make search easier was the use of metadata in search. The search
engine, Clusty (http://clusty.com/) came out in 2004 to "deliver
groups or clusters of similar results rather that millions of
search results in one long list." The clusters were supposed to
help users see search results by topic so they could more easily
find what they were looking for.

Another of the early changes to search was the development of
multiple databases within general search. Whether you go to
Google or Yahoo, you'll see category choices such as Web,
video, images, local, news, etc. These are all different
databases that can help you target specific queries. Google
aptly named this concept its OneBox solution; you could access
many different databases from one box.

Along with the development of multiple databases on niche
products or subjects came the vertical search engines. These
verticals are particularly useful for B2B companies. The latest
trend in the evolution of the market is social search engines,
which give consumers the ability to interact with search
queries, putting the human touch in search results. Social
search engines seek to connect people through personalization
and human understanding, using community knowledge to increase
relevance.

Consumers Are Key Drivers

Social search highlights an important point to remember:
consumer behavior has become a key factor in driving the search
economy. Consumers are performing more searches as the Web
becomes legendary for finding information quickly and
effortlessly. It used to be that search was second to email in
Web activities, but in 2006, Marketing Sherpa reported that
search surpassed email, becoming the most popular online
activity. comScore reported that the number of searches in the
U.S. grew by 28 percent, year-over-year in August 2006.

While search behavior is changing, the proliferation of Web 2.0
platforms and applications such as social networking, RSS and
blogging are impacting search, making it even more complex. The
information universe is becoming too vast and complex to catalog
by keywords alone. This has resulted in the development of
expanded search opportunities into local search, vertical search
and social search. Many times, consumers are slow to adopt new
search resources. Local and vertical search took several years
to gain a foothold. Social search is still in the early stages
of development.

Local Search

Local search is a key growth area. Borrell Associates estimates
that local paid search spending reached $1 billion in 2006
and will reach $1.7 billion in 2007. It will continue to rise,
reaching $4 billion by 2010, when it will account for 47 percent
of local online advertising.

The U.S. Government estimates the number of small businesses at
24 million, all of whom are in a great position to leverage the
power of local search. While many small businesses still don't
have Web sites, the promise of local search is there for the
asking. These businesses spend $90 billion annually on local
advertising, mostly in traditional media. This reflects the
potential for online advertising growth as businesses shift
money from traditional to online advertising because of its
effectiveness and ROI.

Nielsen/NetRatings shows that Google is catching up with Yahoo
on local searches. Verizon SuperPages and SBC's YellowPages are
also big players. As users continue to use the local search
option on major engines, local search continues to gain in
popularity and advertising revenue. Now is a great time for a
small business to get into search engine marketing on a local
level. The field is relatively open and not nearly as
competitive as the general search engine results.

Vertical Search

Another good option for niche businesses is optimization focused
on vertical search engines. Vertical search engines, along with
the new social search engines, are beginning to lure consumer
and B2B searchers away from the general search engines as the
desire for more targeted answers and the ability to pose more
focused queries increases. This is an indication that general
search leaves many questions unanswered, resulting in lower
productivity.

Vertical search engines can provide the targeting that general
search engines lack. This is why they are becoming increasingly
popular. The market leaders in search, Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL,
all are focusing efforts in the vertical space in order to
respond to the needs of users. Social search is also on the rise
with social search engines like Collarity (http://www.collarity.com/)
and Rollyo (http://www.rollyo.com/) allowing users to limit
irrelevant results and benefit from the collective intelligence
of previous searches.

Social Search

The interesting thing about social search engines is that they
change search algorithms to include the human factor rather than
depend solely on computer data. They not only include
consumer-generated content, they can also include human intent.
Collarity delivers search results with consumer-driven answers
to queries and allows searchers to select various aspects of a
search query. Rollyo allows users to create their own search
engine roll, serving information from a preselected list of
sites and/or from other users' rolls. The social dimension of
the Web and search engines is a fast growing phenomenon, and the
major search engines are also experimenting with social search.
We've had Yahoo Answers and Google Base in beta for a while,
and Microsoft is reportedly negotiating with Eurekster for
social search technology.

As search technology moves forward, new search models will
continue to be launched. As the mobile Web and mobile search
continue to expand, search queries will drive commerce around
the world anytime anywhere, across platforms. This can only
enhance the role of search in Internet marketing.
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Claudia A. Bruemmer is a former Managing Editor of ClickZ
(1998-2001), where she achieved the editorial success resulting
in its first sale to Internet.com. Currently a freelance
Internet writer, her clients include Bruce Clay, Inc.
(http://www.bruceclay.com/), Search Engine Watch
(http://searchenginewatch.com/), TopTenWholesale
(http://www.toptenwholesale.com/) and more. She can be reached
at cbruemmer@bruceclay.com and has a website under construction
at claudiabruemmer.com.
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