Search Optimization Declining, Focus on Social Networks
Trends July 25th, 2007While the search volume for ‘search engine optimization’ has been declining since 2005 the volume for ‘search engine marketing’ has been relatively steady. I can only surmise from this data that people everywhere are becoming savvier about optimizing their websites for optimal search engine performance but that they are still in constant need of search marketing ideas, strategies, and effective campaigning. Conversely, the news volume of ‘search engine optimization’ and ‘search engine marketing’ has risen since the middle of 2003. So this seems to be telling us that the overall publication of SEO and SEM topics has continually increased yet the individual search volume has decreased. Is this telling us that searchers are becoming less interested in search engine optimization because they’re becoming savvier or since the amount of news about this topic is so prevalent that with the advent of starter pages and the proliferation of SEO/SEM sites, those interested go straight to their favorite sources for this information instead of searching for it? It’s probably a bit of both.
If the search volume for ‘search engine optimization’ is in decline then from my standpoint I’ll need to focus/blog less on topics pertaining to site optimization and more on search marketing strategies. I personally find myself leaning towards this more in my work these days anyway. If we now add social networking to the volume search we can see where overall interest is. We know that social networking is the now de facto vertical of our industry. Coupling search marketing efforts with social networking is where it’s at. We don’t really need graphs and charts to tell us as we all have our collective ears to the industry rail.
The question is…how do we leverage these trends for our clients when they sometimes can in no way really gain much traction from participation in social networks? How is an equipment leasing company going to participate it social networking? What about a septic cleaning service or someone who sells air conditioners online? Unfortunately these industries don’t really seem to have any social networking inclinations.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
All good points. I, too, wonder how I can get my customers “socially networked” if at all possible. There are some business networks, Ryze, for one, but there aren’t that many. Besides, most of my clients just don’t want to be bothered. I guess I’ll be doing that work for them.