As is my annual tradition, below please find my predictions for the Online Marketing space in 2009.
1) SEO gets Uber Competitive- In a down economy, the best bet online is still a FREE click. Next year, I predict an onslaught of companies trying to competitively position themselves for these free clicks. Expect a frenzy of activity, lots of new entrants, and the utilization of underhanded, cut-throat, and even black-hat tactics. Everyone will be vying for top rankings in a very limited marketing space (where only the top ten results matter) and I anticipate they will be doing anything they can to make it happen. Expect a lot of both the good and bad here from companies next year but know for sure that people are coming after your coveted rankings and will be spending considerable time, effort, and resource to get there.
2) “Super-Sized” Websites: As people truly begin to start ”optimizing”, you will see sites grow in terms of their size, by leaps and bounds. Twenty page websites, once the norm, will now be insufficient and generally unable to rank well in Google. In 2009, I predict that we will start to witness the birth of the “super-sized” website. Anyone trying to compete effectively online will absolutely need to have a GIANT website with thousands of pages ready, willing and able to be indexed on the web. In SEO, size does matter and next year large sites will become the standard that all participants in the game will need to have, if they are to survive.
3) A Boon for Content Developers: If you are a copywriter (or any maker of content for that matter), you will be rewarded handsomely in 2009. You know the cliche’ but content really will be Queen, King, and everything else Regal next year. Who do you suppose is going to help these websites grow from 20 to 1000 pages?
4) The Continued Growth of Social Media- There are currently no standard measurement tools and I truly think nobody knows yet how to best do it but we do know for sure that your prospective customers are spending an enormous amount of time social networking on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tagged, Digg, StumbleUpon, Squiddo, de.licio.us, and MySpace. As these sites continue to grow in popularity, the Industry will find a better way to market and standardize the practice in 2009, allowing for ALL online marketers to participate in Social Media Marketing with the same ease that they are currently able to do with search.
5) On-Going Growth of Industry- The online marketing Industry is in great shape. Next year, we will see the proliferation of advertising dollars funnel from traditional media like TV, Radio, and Print to Online. We will start to see more client experiment with Ad Networks, Banner Ads, Social Media Marketing, Online PR, and Link Building (in additional to on-going efforts in search engine marketing as noted above).
6) Conversion Optimization Rules - If ”conversion optimization” seems like a foreign term, you’ll no doubt be hearing a ton about it in 2009. Conversion Optimization in it’s simplest form is the practice of improving your conversion rate by providing more ”relevant” experiences to your visitors through behavioral testing and landing page optimization. Some companies like www.Magnify360.com, however, have technologies that can supercharge the typical A/B, Multivariate testing process that can take most firms years to show result. Conversion Optimization will come into the vernacular in 2009 as conversion rates continue to slide for most companies.
7) Goodbye Brittney??? If you hadn’t heard it yet, Brittney Spears was the #1 searched term in 2008, winning the title for a second year in a row. Sadly, in an election year, (his election year) Barrack Obama could only pull #3. This year…Someone will finally supplant Brittney Spears as the topped searched term in 2009. Maybe its wishful thinking but I have got to believe that something more worthwhile will take the crown in 2009. Somebody. Anybody. Please.
Tags: conversion optimization, Marketing, online marketing, predictions, SEO, social media marketing
