SEO Blog

One of the interesting things about being away from a steady Internet connection is the lack of up-to-the-minute information about the search and Internet marketing industry. It took a couple of days to adjust but after a couple of days, the information shortage presented a unique opportunity to simply think about the future of Internet marketing without the daily distraction of an overloaded RSS feed. While I am far short of coming to any great conclusions, I have managed to imagine how the Internet might operate in the coming years. Here’s a short run-down of my thoughts.

1/ I expect the Internet to be the dominant carrier of information in the very near future. Everything that can be digitalized will be from music delivery to movies to common television shows. As time moves forward, there will be a need to find a standardized licensing convention for commercial content. I believe this will present enormous opportunities for online marketers as everyone’s eyeballs will be directed away from the radio and television dials to the Internet.

That thought leads to the question:

2/ If assumption #1 is correct, what types of advertising will dominate web pages and web sites dedicated to delivering this content?  I think search and Internet marketers need to learn a lot more about display advertising, the banners and boxes delivered by Yahoo!’s RightMedia and Google’s DoubleClick. Entertainment websites are perfect for the more mainstream style of advertising offered through the display networks.
This thinking does not preclude traditional search marketing through organic and PPC SERPs. Helping webmasters make their content visible via search engines is going to be more important than ever.
3/ The role of content creators will expand as time goes on. Just as the advent of cable television networks twenty years ago spurred the growth of small, independent studios, a move to deliver more entertainment via the web will push the need for web-ready content creation. The days where writers and visual artists starved (as a general rule) are thankfully ending.

4/ News gathering will be performed by anyone interested enough to gather news. Because the Internet is a far more efficient and inexpensive medium, advertisers are turning away from traditional newspapers and televised news programming. This trend has reduced the number of paid, professional journalists but has increased the number of amateur “citizen journalists”.  As time moves forward, expect the level of professionalism to increase until the public choses which forms of journalism they wish to continue following.

5/ Search marketing will become more important as Internet users look beyond traditional SERPs for information. Think about the search applications in networks such as Facebook or the search applications at sites like CBC.ca or CNN.com.

6/ (I really like this thought). Online gaming will present opportunities for advertising. That is a given. I also think that as online gaming communities such as World of Warcraft expand, our social sense of borders, those invisible lines that separate people, will be put aside. I suspect online communities will help push the ideal of peace on Earth as people find more commonalities than things making them different.

Such are the thoughts when thinking about the Internet from a place far away from an Internet connection.  More thoughts in a few days and then… SES San Jose!