1. Local
With Google’s almost acquisition of Groupon, e-commerce and marketers alike should be on the watch for what’s in store for 2011. Groupon’s success lies in targeting niche markets for local businesses. Marketers should step up and take local SEM seriously as more geolocation based technologies emerge. The success of Foursquare this year should be an indicator of what is to come.
2. Social Ads
Like Local SEM, Social Ads allow marketers to specifically target their demographics. Social Ads provide a creative outlet for marketers, with real-time customization. Although it may not create huge returns in comparison to search engines, social ads should be considered for certain products and services.
3. Social Graph
Businesses looking to increase their social brand capital with consumers should be looking to gain as many “Like”s as they can. Facebook’s unveiling of their Open Graph protocol introduces a new dynamic for SEO experts. The integration of the open graph protocol, it will be interesting to see how “likes” will translate into SEO Page Ranking. Google recently revealed that they have begun utilizing social media signals for Google Page Rank. Whether or not “likes” or number of fans effects page rank remains to be seen.
4. Going Mobile
With the rise of mobile devices came a flood of applications in the market. The most successful applications have been those that enable brands to engage their audiences directly, meaning they’ve become more “social.” Users are also searching on devices, whether shopping for products, browsing for the latest news, or searching for local hot spots. Mobile search is a new growing frontier, especially for Google, as it continues to build with the Android. SEO and SEM for mobile should be approached with strategies developed for desktop searches. The audience may be similar, but the presentation differs. Keywords and site content must be optimized for a different search experience.
5. Attribution
Users are all over the place on the internet, multitasking across multiple sites at a time. Web searches activity translate into a demand for services. For a marketer, it is necessary to track these movements and what their implications are.
6. Display
Mediocre display ads are dead and are going to be replaced with more dynamic, individually optimized ads. With the wide range of SEO and SEM tools available, it is not longer efficient to place display ads so blatantly without strategy. We now can deliver real-time, creative messages, that will directly engage a target audience.
7. Video
Apple and Google have been invading our television sets with Apple TV and Google TV. Both companies are looking to further integrate the web and TV. Viewers will be moving from searching and viewing from their PC to their TV sets, which means marketers should consider looking into a video strategy for 2011. This general is reading less and watching more. In addition, Videos have the power to go viral, as evident from the YouTube celebrity phenomenon.
8. Search
Search is quite obvious, but it’s important to stay on top of it. As reported earlier, Bing will continue to grow and should not be brushed aside. It holds a small share, but still significant when put against a giant, such as Google. With Bing’s partnership with Yahoo!, expect some things to change in 2011. Google will also continue to refine it’s search and change the game for SEOs and SEMs.
9. Application – Virtual Personal Assistants
Look out for more personalized search applications as search engine alternatives. These types of applications will occupy specific sectors of search, whether that be shopping, vacation planning, or food. Applications, such as Siri (recently purchased by Apple, coalesce multiple services into one convenient application.Furthermore, they present search results tailored to personal preference, which makes it much more convenient when searching. Brands should look at how they can fit into these services for 2011.
Written by Daniel T
