Bruce Clay’s Search Forecast

October 28, 2009
 

At SMX East this month, one of the keynotes was called What’s Next in Search: the Bigwig Crystal Ball Panel. Moderator Chris Sherman asked a panel of search experts for their insights into a series of forward-looking questions. Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza add their two cents to the conversation, answering questions like: Where’s the search industry today? Does “traditional” marketing still exist? And what’s the place of social media going forward?

Then Bruce and Susan consider the rest of the questions asked of the SMX East panel, including: With Internet users expressing disapproval of behavioral ad targeting, are marekters able to take advantage of these sophisticated technologies? If Bing and Yahoo! search merge, how will having two players instead of three change the space? And, what will the search marketing industry be buzzing about in five years? Bruce and the team are interested in your answers, too. We’re hoping you’ll join the discussion and add your comments to the blog.

The hosts take the conversation back to the present by discussing a potential challenge facing Internet marketers — making sure client expectations are in line with the different goals and opportunities of PPC and SEO. Bruce Clay, Inc. account manager Dærick Gröss wrote about how marketers can appropriately set SEO and PPC expectations in his article SEO Success Means Letting Go of PPC Expectations.