And search marketing evolves...

I love it when information comes full circle. Excuse the geek moment but....



Here's where search marketing is moving:

1. Customized search results (think different search results on your office computer vs. home, laptop vs smartphone, all depending on past searches on said device);

2. Localized search results (mobile search is driving this...so national companies need to invest in local search);

3. Real time search results (incorporating online CONVERSATIONS...thanks Twitter) and this means REAL REAL time, not week- or month-old Google keywords;

4. Social media-integrated search results. (It's all gotta happen within FaceBook).



As always, popularity is king. If people love your site, more people will find your site. No trickery there.



So what does this mean for businesses? Mine your staff, they are golden. Encourage your on-staff experts to publish. Valuable content = higher search rankings. Don't hoarde what you know. People will pay you for the extras. If my favourite artist shares all her work online, I can still opt to buy a piece to hang on my wall. Same for business. Same for ideas.



Mitch Joel says websites should now be publishing sites. Makes sense as far as search rankings go. Seth Godin says attention is the goal, and to get it, you need to give something up. So go ahead, share it. It feels sooo goooood!