With the changes in the economy, everyone is spending less. From the average consumer up to the Fortune 500 Company, we all are experiencing limited spending powers. As a natural reaction, when faced with any of life’s limitations we tend to expand our imagination and brainstorm new ways of getting things done. We immerse ourselves in the “think mode” of how can I do more with less? This is even true for Search Marketing.

Owing to its fine ability to be measured as well as the high return on investment, SEM has become one of the most resilient areas of marketing. But now, even we, as Search Marketers, are accepting the reality that the budget cuts are affecting us too. We can no longer be so uber-focused on Paid Search as the “end-all-be-all” of online marketing. We are beginning to spread our wings and consider search from a more holistic perspective. This epiphany has shown the light on SEO.

The value of SEO has, for the most part, been undermined because of the time it takes to see the fruits of your labor and the labor itself. SEO as a standalone strategy works well for any brand whose idea of online success is coupled with the commitment to longevity. But SEO, as part of an overall strategy with paid, defines success with increased traffic, brand strength, brand authority and most importantly, cost efficiencies. Now that companies are cutting back on their overall budgets, thus having less to spend in paid search, they are considering SEO as their golden ticket to remain competitive in the online space.

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Last week, both Yahoo and Google introduced changes to the U.S. search results experience. Yahoo brought Glue to the States; the original version was introduced in India. Google brought forward GoogleWiki, which is about as close as Google has ever come to allowing users to taint the perfection that is the Google algorithm system. As one might expect, the Google release drew the lion’s share of commentary, much of it for the wrong reasons around privacy. But combined, these two offerings signal three major shifts in the search landscape.

Search as a Personal Experience
At a recent event of industry insiders, Young-Bean Song shared data from the Atlas Institute that 70% of all clicks were split between brand queries and navigational queries (those where someone knows the company and uses an engine to get to the URL). That means only 30% of all paid search traffic is going to the upper funnel and assisting those who are seeking guidance or direction. This data shows that search has become a safety blanket and people use it as their starting point to the web experience.

If this is true, then on a basic level GoogleWiki makes some sense in that it allows users to move things around and shape the 10 blue links as they see fit. Yahoo Glue is a fixed experience, but its predecessor in India allowed users to drag and drop the content on page to suit their own visual preferences. This is important not because of what any user sees on the front side, but what the engines learn on the back side. Today the algorithm is all about relevancy as defined by a computer directed by engineers. Both of these developments signal a major shift because they start to expose consumers to a new reality where they are more actively involved.

Play this forward a bit and think about these learnings combined with the approach of Microsoft’s Farecast (farecast.live.com). The site enables you to update in real-time the travel information based on advanced criteria specific to your needs. Nothing terribly unique versus Expedia or Orbitz, but GoogleWiki starts a comfort shift with consumers on the search results page. Once you are comfortable changing the results, you become more comfortable changing other aspects of results. Millions of people walk into department stores and when asked if they need help respond, “I’m just browsing.” If a search engine let you check a box and then displayed messaging and results from companies that valued a different type of communication with browsers, would you, the consumer, be more open to it? Would the advertisers be willing to pay more for a more appropriate conversation starter?

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I’ve decided not to open my monthly investment statements. To be honest, I just don’t want to know how much of a hit our retirement and kids’ college savings accounts have taken over the last month. But even without the concrete dollar figures, it seems hard to escape the global economic pity party. Despite any real change to our income or expenses, my household is tightening its belt. We’re paying far more attention to our spending. Even with declining gas prices, we’ve talked ourselves out of holiday trips to see family across the country. Of course, corporations have fallen into this mindset as well. There’s no shortage of business news reporting layoffs, hiring freezes and budget cuts.

But as any coupon-cutting mom knows, it’s not always about spending less. It’s about getting more for your money. Savvy shoppers know where the bargains are and are methodical about planning any shopping campaign. I think companies should take a cue from these shopping champs and ask “how can we spend smarter?”

Search is known as a highly effective marketing channel, but far too many companies are leaving opportunities on the table. Just like your mom would tell you to squeeze all the toothpaste out of the tube, marketers should be asking whether they have squeezed all the value out of their campaigns. Here are three areas where marketers can spend smarter:

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Friday, November 5th, 2008, Search Engine Land posted an article discussing what many of us in the SEO space already know; that Fortune 500 companies are not well represented in the organic space.  They reported findings from a study done by Conductor, a New York based search/analytics agency.  What was determined is astonishing…again, no surprise to most of us who live and breathe SEO, but astonishing nonetheless.  Conductor found that:

• 72% of Fortune 500 companies have very low to non-existent visibility for their most advertised keywords
• 20% of Fortune 500 companies have low to mid presence
• 8% of Fortune 500 companies studied showed mid to strong presence for their most advertised keywords

Why is SEO the red headed step-child of Search?

In my experience here at Outrider, I’ve found that the greatest challenge presented to SEO’ers is getting clients to own and commit to achieving success in the organic space.  As an agency, we tout the idea and proven value of approaching search holistically and using the historical data from paid to influence organic and vice a versa, but how often do search strategists and advertisers really reap the benefits?  Clients at large see the added value and necessity of attaining a visible presence in both the paid and organic space, but because of the cross-functional demands of SEO implementation, i.e. Marketing, Corporate Communications, IT, Legal,. advertisers’ commitment and participation falters.

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I am at a cocktail party and Sally asks the inevitable question, “What do you do?”   I cringe because most likely, she will say the two words that I hate most when it comes to descriptions about what I do.  So I say to my imbibing interviewer, I am a Director of Search Engine Marketing.  Sally offers back, “Oh yeah, I know, Search Engine Marketing is made up of two areas, PPC and SEO, isn’t it?”  So my usual dilemma presents itself yet again: Do I launch into an educational rant explaining what I feel are the proper names for the two components of SEM, or drop it?  Slurry Sally seems interested, so I launch.

“Sally, I think you have the gist of what I do in that there are two main areas, but they are called Paid & Organic SEM.  Please let me explain.  On the Paid side of things, we are talking about ‘Paid Search Engine Marketing’ or marketing to the ‘Paid’ or ‘Sponsored’ listings.   When you do a search from, say your laptop or mobile device, using Google, Yahoo, MSN, or even Facebook, the paid or sponsored listings are usually located at the top and to the right of the Organic listings.  A marketer can expect to market to roughly 20-30% of the search engine results when they employ Paid SEM.  When you said PPC, or pay per click, this is a type of ad that is utilized in Paid Search Engine Marketing.  Paid Inclusion is another.”

Sally’s eyes haven’t glazed over yet, so I continue.

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