While 2006 was a great year for us and for search in general, 2007 is looking to be an even bigger, more exciting time to be in the search industry. Here are three big themes that I am looking for the new year:
Greater Depth in Web Analytics
Web Analytics tools (like anything in technology) are so much more than what they were in the past, in terms of functionality and capability. As technology matures, website owners can take advantage of these tools at very low costs and even for free! By understanding the goals of a website and implementing the applicable code required (an easier task than often believed), web managers learn more than their daily traffic numbers and pages per visits.
Web Analytics allows us to track and measure objectives such as the cost/conversion for almost all of our leads, the original point of entry of a recurring visitor that ultimately buys or fills out a contact form, and the overall effectiveness of each page's unique message. It also gives us the ability to understand the visitor traffic pattern - from start to finish, identify and improve page content that has high exit rates, and ultimately provide a better experience for the visitor. Here are two tools we are using today that are well within the traditional budget for operating expenses:
Understanding the Competitive Landscape
If you don't have a good handle on what your competition is doing, you'll lose in the end. This is true in traditional business as well as in doing business online. More emphasis needs to be placed on comparing and contrasting the competitor's websites as it relates to yours, including:
- Key functionality
- Presence online - strategic partnerships, advertising strategies
- The navigational elements and overall user experience
In addition, having the insight into how they drive traffic to their website is more important than ever. Competitive referral analysis offers the opportunity for better quality link building and potentially new sources for qualified traffic. Analysis of the terminology being used in the paid advertising space and in organic search traffic generation can uncover new opportunities in search optimization and help identify strategies for improving existing keyword referral numbers.
Contribution as a Way to Drive Traffic, Links and Revenue
The rise of social communities and collaborative networks was at an all-time high in 2006, highlighted by Google's $1.6 billion dollar purchase of video sharing website, YouTube. The search industry has taken notice and you can see this in the search results you receive on a daily basis. It's almost inconceivable to not find a Wikipedia result in the top 20 results for any given research-based search term and more and more blog results, MySpace accounts and social networking sites appear in everyday results.
The opportunity lies in website owners sharing their own knowledge of their specific industries with a public that is devouring the information and need for content and doing it in the right ways. There is more to be gained in well thought out blog posts, user-group discussions and social community profiles in the forms of industry expertise, targeted traffic generation and better, qualified link building.
In Conclusion
The search industry is adapting into a much more proactive, strategic service for website owners. The three topics above are only a portion of opportunity that lies ahead in 2007, to us and in general, but it is important to note that almost any measure of success in our industry will be determined by the adoption of solid web reporting tools that measure our success for the client, or your success in the development of your web strategy. 2007 will certainly be a challenging and exciting year of further developments and innovation which will also lead to highly anticipated success stories and growth in the world of search engine marketing.
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