Search Marketing World 2008: Chris Sherman Keynote

By Li Evans

Chris Sherman - Executive Editor of Search Engine Land
Google Rules!  (everyone laughs as Chris leaves... but comes back)

• Goolge does have a significant market share, but Yahoo and Baidu have significant shares.
• NHN has 3% share - company out of South Korea (one of the most wired countries in the world)
• Rumors of the demise of search marketing are greatly exaggerated
• North American spending on search marketing saw 30% growth last year
• Search  marketing spend is project to grow 25.2 billion in 2011
• likely even steeper growth rates elsewhere in the world

Search 1.0, 2.o (link analysis & popularity), 3.0 universal and blended, 4.0 social search

What's new? 
    Google Universal Search results,
    Yahoo Search Monkey (code named after the FF Grease monkey plugin) enhanced results,
    Microsoft "Imagine Live",
    Ask 3D (sadly probably RIP in the near future)

Opportunity or Treat?

• Google results can now include we, image, video, book, news or local results
• Result?  Some organic top ten we listings get pushed "below the fold"

Embrace Change:
Its like 1997 all over again
All of the new result types can be search optimized but few are taking advantage yet
opportunities abound to capture multiple page-one results positions

What About Social Media?

• Its a fad.  Remember Geocities, Angelfire, et al, 13 years ago?
• Social media is great for links, but doesn't monetize
• Go for it -for short term gain, but don't waste your time for long term campaign effectiveness

Search World is Flattening

• Microhoo! will happen just a matter of time
• Ask effectively disemboweled itself
• This means a duopoly for western searchers & search marketers
• So.. unless you're truly local, now is a great time to start thinking globally

Why Go Global?

• 760 Million searchers are worldwide are now making 61b searches per month
• 75% outside North America

Key Players

• Google totally dominates North America and most of the UK & EU
• Yahoo is dominant in Asia except for -
  •     China (Baidu 61%),
  •     South Korea (Naver 74%),
  •     Russia (RIndex 57%)

(source comscore)

Going Global - PPC, SEO or Both?

• Even before you begin you should consider where a paid search or natural search campaign in more likely to be effective in a given market
• Larger  markets - Probably OK to do either, both if yu have the resources
• Smaller markets - consider each individually

Targeting Your Markets

• Carefully weigh probability of rankign with both country size & internet reach
• Do you have sales and logistics resources in a market
• Able to handle shipping, different currencies, duties & taxes?
• What about support?  do your support people speak the target market language?

Mobile is (finally) emerging

• After years of promises, mobile search is set to explode (more cell phones that can access the internet than computers)
• Rich opportunity for pin point targeting with mobile advertising
• Finally enough critical mass that is an attractive opportunity for advertisers
• Mobile searchers usually don't want information.  Instead they want - Multiple content types instant gratification, actionable results and entertainment

4 big verticals in mobile

• consumer packaged goods
• fast food
• entertainment
• travel

Summary

• future looks bright for search
• even though we're going to have a duopoly between the major players, other options aqren really attractive right now...
• especially in going global or mobile or both