I read a very interesting blog this morning about the next steps in Search and where it’s going in the next couple of years? Furthermore, what do marketers, especially those in SEO have to take in to account when planning for the future of search marketing campaigns? The blog by Rebecca Lieb from ClickZ goes on to list some of the predictions regarding the future of search, both in the short and long-term. And here it is:

More Universal

ComScore research shows that universal (or blended) search results are increasingly dominating SERPs. In early 2008, 17 percent of searches returned some type of blended result. By the end of last year, that figure had climbed to 31 percent of all search results, and it continues to rise. This is true across all the engines, and Microsoft’s launch of Bing confirms there’s no end in sight.

More blended results — the appearance on the page of video, book, news, local, and you-name-it results — means stiffer competition for valuable SERP real estate. All those headers, thumbnails, and images take up space on the page, allowing for fewer results to appear in the top results returned by the engines.

SEO Gets More Complicated

You’ll have to optimize pretty much everything: video, images, books, news, and more. Carefully selected keywords in Web page copy just won’t cut it as an SEO strategy for long. Metadata around images, audio and video transcripts, and carefully crafted headlines in news releases and stories are already important but will soon become vital tools in the SEO arsenal. San Diego search marketing professionals preach that SEO is getting more complicated by the day. You’ll be competing not only for that valuable real estate but also for the right users. As search algorithms become more sophisticated, blended results will take the searcher into account. They’ll be based, at least in part, by geolocation, time of day, search history, and social affinities. It won’t be just about appearing in search results but also about appearing to the right searcher, at the right place, at the right time, and with the right media.

Search Will Go Social

Increasingly, it will become harder to optimize based on keywords alone. Context and searcher intent will shape the results individual searchers are returned on their queries.

Search engines already take behavioral data and individual search history into account when returning results. Watch for them to rely on social and network affinities as well. The groups, tribes, and organizations individuals gravitate to speak volumes about the direction of their intentions.

While introducing social elements into search adds another not-to-be-sneezed-at layer of complexity on things, it will also make search even more valuable as a feedback mechanism than it already is. Reputation management and listening will become inextricably linked to search, as consumers grow their online networks and publicly share their affinities; predilections; and brand-, product-, and service-related stories. (For a deeper dive on this issue, take a look at some recent columns by Mike Grehan.)

Platform = Intent

Searchers aren’t just searching on the Big Three search engines. YouTube is now the second-largest search engine in the world, query-wise, following only Google. MySpace gets more queries than AOL or Ask.com, while eBay, craigslist, and Amazon combined (980 million) approach MSN.com (1.04 billion) in search queries, according to comScore.

Web site visitors are more sophisticated. They’re adapting their search behavior to the appropriate search platforms. It’s a development that may make SEO a little bit less complicated, assuming marketers develop the right mindset. It’s time to start thinking about all types of sites as search engines, not just as video sites or classifieds or shopping sites. If you can search it, you can optimize it. In fact, Rank-Mobile’s Cindy Krum is all about optimizing apps for sale on the iPhone app store. Heck, that’s a search engine too, if you think about it. And if you don’t think about it that way, you should start.

Smart Phones = Smarter Searching

Mobile will help blow out the search space. Google’s Sergey Brin recently noted that one third of Google queries coming from Japan are made on mobile devices. While mobile phone sales are flat, smartphone sales are through the roof these days, contributing to the trend in this part of the world. Think geolocation and apps as the drivers in mobile search, particularly service-based apps such as restaurant finders and highly specialized apps, such as MizPee (clean bathrooms), TapIt (free local water bottle refills), and the AAA discount app for members of the auto club. These are ad free but not sponsor free and have the potential to drive plenty of local, walk-in business.

The Long Term

What’s waiting on the search horizon? Educated guesses will have to take the place of crystal balls. Here are some prognostications:

* Real-time results. What about something that happened 10 minutes ago? With the possible exception of Twitter, immediate events aren’t searchable or readily crawlable. They will be. Google has as much as admitted it’s on the case.

* Multimedia as searchable and optimizable. Who’s this a picture of? What song is this clip from? A few highly technical and specialized search engines are tackling these issues now, but eventually such queries will become much easier to search for, as well as become integrated into “old-fashioned” search engines.

* Location, location, location. Geotargeted results will grow in importance, particularly with the rise of smartphones. Expect hyper-local geotargeting in the future, not dissimilar to the direction such companies as NearbyNow are going in. Imagine walking into a mall or supermarket and using your phone to find the right jeans at the lowest price or instantly learning what brand of corn flakes is on special and where they are in the store.

* All search, all the time. Finally, search will be an always-on utility, integrated into the devices you routinely use to perform everyday tasks. When you think about it, your TV or DVR program guides are search. So is your car’s GPS system and your iPod’s playlist menu. Searchability, and attendant marketing possibilities, will show up in in-store kiosks, perhaps even on your refrigerator. Even more than now, search will become the de facto way we navigate our lives.

In my opinion, the always-on utility for search will be the most quickly-adopted advancement among consumers. It will eliminate the need for things like phonebooks, TV guides (do those even exist anymore?) and even mapquest will have to evolve to adapt to the changing environment. The implications for this advanced form of SEO are exciting, and San Diego search marketing consultants can help you figure out how to tap this great resource. People are still getting used to the idea of real-time results through Twitter, when some major event occurs, we will have instant access to information about that event. Things will be so much easier to research, we will retrieve information faster, easier and more efficiently in this type of environment.

by Jonathan Marshall

Frank Reed from Search Marketing Standard wrote a great article about SMBs (small and medium businesses) and the disconnect between understanding they need to make a serious push to increase their online marketing efforts, and then paying for those efforts. When it comes to discussing payment, they hit the brakes and start and start bartering. It gets ridiculous.

We deal with these clients all the time, and you can always immediately tell the difference between the ones who understand what they are paying for, and the others. It’s a circular song and dance that comes from SMBs about how they are aware they need to take a more active approach toward their Internet marketing strategies. Many get that concept, but unfortunately just understanding that fact is not enough. The other end of that unfortunately is the part that leads to the eventual breakdown of their business. This is where their internet marketing efforts usually stop, and it stops with this statement, “but I don’t want to spend any money. What can we do for free? At this point, search marketing consultants should pack their bags and run, because this mindset leads to a horrible business relationship, and ultimately doesn’t allow them to execute appropriate search marketing services and strategies. Frank goes on to discuss this circular debate below- well said Frank.

I see this happen in Chamber of Commerce environments where everyone wants to meet you and buy you a cup of coffee so you can talk all about your knowledge of the Internet, but when it comes to the reality of “these things cost money,” you can hear crickets during the stunned silence. SMBs attend every free event that gives them the most generic advice, but when it comes to the point of paying for a real service that will produce results, they run like mice when the lights go on.

I know the economy is bad. I know money is tight. Does that mean, however, that you don’t need to still spend money to make money? Here’s some advice for all Internet marketing service providers and those looking for their services. As we rapidly approach that time of year when SMBs need to decide if they will again throw good money at their Yellow Pages presence, there needs to be some serious thought applied to this traditional advertising play. SMBs will be assaulted by aggressive sales people and then be put into the spin cycle about how they can get the best of both the online and offline world with the Yellow Pages offerings. Must … resist … the …. Yellow …. Pages … sales ….. pitch.

Everyone needs to stop, listen, and truly think. I am going to suggest something truly revolutionary. It actually may not cost the SMB anything more than is currently spent for advertising to effectively do Internet marketing! I call this process the “Budget Theory”. Maybe as an SMB you have been buying YP ads for ages and it’s just something you do. Well, this year, why not take that dead marketing spend [unless you can truly say that you are experiencing a real ROI with that YP spend, in which case it's not dead, so keep doing it] and apply it where you know you need to be — on the Internet. That’s right; say no to your Yellow Pages rep and start to apply that money to the place you really want to be.