As the New Year turns, it’s normal to look ahead. So here is my list of what’s coming up in the world of natural search for 2010. In lieu of predictions, however, I’d like to offer up something a bit more actionable: a rundown of key areas that will require online marketers’ focus and attention to maximize natural search success in the coming year.
1. Mobile Matters – I have actually been beating the mobile drum since I worked on mobile search in 1997, but this year, mobile really matters. (Google and Apple have spent almost $1 billion in the last quarter to buy mobile ad networks…that should tell you something!) The growth of mobile is torrid and with the rise of the smartphone and ubiquitous 3G, mobile search is working. In 2010, you will see an appreciable amount of traffic from mobile browsers. Are you thinking of how you can present yourself to the mobile user? If you aren’t now, you should be.
2. Images Matter – Visual search is hot. There have been dozens and dozens of early stage visual search engines that have been no better than demo-ware. But Google Image search has exploded, and we see that our clients are driving traffic through images searches. (If you are looking for a red dress, doesn’t it make sense to look for the red dress in pictures?) And with the advent of Google Goggles, image search will continue to explode. Are you optimizing your images to be relevant and available for image search?
3. Not Being a Dog Matters – Do you remember this incredible cartoon which touted the invisibility of who you are online? Well, the world has changed dramatically since then, and your reputation as a marketer is now well known on the internet. In 2009, I suggested that reputation was about to become an important part of the online world, and 2010 that will become even more valuable. How you behave as a marketer, how you share information with customers, and how you engage with customers will have an impact on your search visibility in 2010.
4. Social Media Matters Even More – I am a bit of a broken record these days. With customers and prospects and colleagues, I am constantly singing the praises of social media. Social media is important from a marketing, customer experience and search perspective. And with its integration into search engines, it has become a hot search opportunity. But in 2010, these results will be more than novelty updates; they will become a core part of the way that we discover new content.
5. Speed Matters: Speed is crucial to search visibility. And by speed I mean speed in the old fashioned way. How long does it take your page to load? How responsive is your site? In 2010, this will matter. Google loves speed and they love a quality user experience. The sites that have the fastest response times will enjoy better visibility in 2010.
6. Content Matters – With the rise in social media outbursts and the fact that there are hundreds of pages published globally every second, search engines have become very selective about what they index. Duplicate content filters are set to high! Marketers must create quality content in order to be found and indexed. Simplistic variation won’t cut it (for instance, if you sell one shirt in 35 colors and each of them has its own page, expect that 34 of them will be filtered out.). In order to capture a spot in the search indexes, you need to have unique content. This is hard. It means more work for the marketer, but in 2010, content remains king.
7. Code Matters – Back when I started on the Internet in 1997, website code was pretty big. Lots of complex commands to achieve simple things. HTML has come a long way, and code has become less verbose (and HTML 5 looks terrific as a standard, BTW). But I see web pages everyday that have lots of bloated code. Believe it or not, search engines read your code. Too much code and your content gets lost. Less code on the page means that your content has a higher percentage of the search engine’s attention. And that is a good thing. In 2010, code matters.
8. Personalization Matters – In 2009, Google started personalizing everyone’s search results (regardless of whether you have a Google account or not). What this means is that you are likely to see more results from sites that you’ve already been to or links similar to the kinds of links that you’ve clicked on before. In 2010, this will increase. And for marketers that already get a lot of traffic, this is a good thing. You will still have great visibility to your existing searchers and to new searchers. This may make it harder in the future to steal a searcher who has been loyal to another marketer in the past. Fun stuff to be sure, but search personalization will be a BIG theme in 2010.
9. Customer Experience Matters: Already, bounce rate lives inside of the Google algorithm as a ranking factor (the higher your bounce rate, the lower you will rank for a term). I can see that bounce rate could be coupled with conversion rates to become a customer experience index. This index (lower bounce rate + higher conversion = better customer experience) could be one of those hidden factors in rankings…one that is hard to see, but makes a difference. My advice for 2010? Conversion optimization.
10. Bing Matters: Google owns a huge share of the search market. That is terrific. But in 2010, look for Bing to really matter. Are they going to capture the majority of the market? No way. BUT, Bing matters because it will have a 20%+ marketshare in 2010, which means that you will need to understand Bing and its users. In 2010, 2 out of every 10 visitors will come from Bing. You’ll want to treat them well.
And Finally, You Matter: When I talk to marketers, they feel like the world has turned against them a bit. The economy was after them throughout 2008 and 2009. 2010 looks better, but nowhere near easy. Google is throwing all kinds of changes at marketers, Bing is kicking up some dust, everyone tells you that you need to turn yourself into a social media mobile web 2.0 juggernaut or you will fall off the face of the earth. In 2010, we believe that you matter. The marketer is the lynchpin in this online ecosystem. Without the marketer, search engines have no way to make money. You matter. In 2010, look for opportunities in search and advertising to make you more efficient, to increase your return on investments, to help you acquire new customers. With the right focus, I predict that 2010 will be good for you.
Tim Kilroy is Vice President of Natural Search at PM Digital.