With the increase in alternative forms of chat media will search engine advertising and optimisation of internet sites become old fashioned?
Recent developments in the way we communicate through the web have been less about habitual broadcast media and more about interactive, two way contact. As this type of communication develops it will undoubtedly affect the way search engines operate and by default the process of Online Marketing.
Conventional media “broadcasts” a message to the planned audience, whether it is in the form of a newspaper or an commercial (physical or digital) which exposes the reader, listener or watcher to a concept. The communication is one way and the proposed audience is advised of something, in essence “talked at”.
Accepted methods of Online Marketing carried out by the marketing fraternity and more recently the relatively new genre of Search Engine Optimisation companies (SEO Company) are aimed at the way that Google (largely) accesses web pages. This is a kind of broadcast media not too dissimilar to a newspaper albeit with digital trickery to make the incidence more appealing.
Is this all about to change? Are the accepted Search Engine Placement services about to become less important? Assuming the internet continues to expand along the same lines as it has for the last 10 years, we can expect to see the use of the web becoming more rooted in our day to day real time lives. It will grow to be more of a delivery platform as opposed to an information provider, a concierge as opposed to a librarian. If we are accessing the net in real time that bond will become two way and transactional, broadcast methods will offer a one-dimentional experience and become a thing of the past.
Once a buyer can engage with the seller of the product or service through two way communication just reading a website will be less than fulfilling. At this point customary Search Engine Placement services become obsolete and Online Marketing becomes about making connections not identifying content.
The astute Search Engine Optimization Company will be looking at how that communication can take place in an atmosphere that is so packed with information. In an ideal world, a buyer is exposed to a seller (or a number of sellers) in an environment where he can actually interrogate and compare their goods, ask for detail and maybe even tailor the product or service to his needs before he makes the conclusion to buy.
Instead of offering website optimisation for a fixed broadcast, online marketing may be about promoting connections and may take place on Twitter, chatrooms, forums even within games where product placement is already starting to occur.
