SEM the Cornerstone of Online Marketing

We’re back from the valley of the jolly IT giants. Last week a number of Metamenders attended the largest and most influential annual search conference, Search Engine Strategies San Jose. The four day (+1 day for training) had over 70 unique topic tracks and was attended by over 7000 people. For any search marketing agency, a conference of this size is important to attend and, for individual search marketers, the learning experience is a kin to a fourth-year university course.

Because the search marketing industry is built on communication, ideas or community memes tend to work their way into speakers’ notes and general discussion. Every conference thus has its unofficial theme. The only difference this year is the level to which search marketing has become entrenched in the overall advertising mix. The vibe at the conference felt more triumphant, more grounded and very much more important. This year’s unofficial theme was SEM as THE cornerstone of online marketing efforts.

The practice of search engine marketing has changed substantially over the decade the industry has existed. With a larger number of venues to perform services in and a wider range of services to offer, search engine marketing agencies have grown to become virtual gatekeepers to the greatest benefits of the Web. We are thus experiencing an interesting and important shift in the business of being search marketers.

Search marketing has moved far beyond the traditional search engines. With search as an application added to pretty much everything online, search marketing agencies are able to ply their trade in a remarkable number of areas, each of which adds to the number of services search marketing agencies can offer. The rise of social media and the effect social media has on general search results and consumer perceptions is one example. That search marketers tend to know the Web as well or better than most everyone else leads practitioners to drink from several different wells, each of which gets deeper than the previous ones. For instance, the industry’s knowledge of Internet search has led a number of agencies, including this one, to help individuals and corporations protect their brands and reputations on the Web through increasingly sophisticated Reputation Management services.

As the Internet has grown to encompass video, file sharing and gaming, Internet marketing and search marketing have expanded to meet the needs of advertisers eager to present their products or services in unexplored venues. When those advertisers seek assistance, they are tending towards search marketing agencies first. In previous years SEM was an afterthought.

Search engine marketing has become the cornerstone of the most professional marketing efforts, both online and offline. Watch for many search marketing firms to undergo tremendous re-organization over the next twelve months. As readers of this blog and clients of Metamend already know, this company has undergone a radical transformation from search engine optimization shop to full-service Internet and search marketing agency. The process has taken over a year to accomplish and, though we are ALMOST there, more change will be necessary over the next twelve months. That change, incidentally, is normal in such a dynamic industry. What is different is the intent.

Search marketing agencies are no longer reacting to the overall advertising industry. We are now leading it. That was the underlying but unofficial theme at SES this year. Search Marketing has become the primary cornerstone of mainstream advertising. We’ve worked very hard to get here. We’re going to work even harder to propel the industry forward and to responsibly take our place at a far larger table. Ten years later, SEM has grown up. The next decade will be even more interesting.