2005 Industry Predictions?, What's up, down, or unchanged Options

[Hyperformance]

Hey Everyone, (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

As I work through 2004 accomplishments and 2005 goals I wanted to pose a question to you regarding your thoughts on 2005 in our Industry. I do believe it will be a banner year for business, the 4th quarter of 2004 convinced me of that.

I'll kick it of with an interesting example; At the start of the New Year and in the same 7 day period, 2 of the larger competitors in our Industry (iProspect and another one? - memory (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarrassed.gif) ) were bought up by two (different) large advertising firms. Will this trend continue?

I believe the Ad firms besides learning that they need to excel in this area for their clients, also see that there are not enough Jill's in the World to be "hired" (employed by) these firms, and now the solution is to buy their professionals and processes through acquisition??? One guys guess, but interesting none-the-less.

Your thoughts? Other topics to watch in 2005?

[Randy]

I would tend to agree with your assessment of Advertising Firms getting a lot more involved with SEO. I'm not sure they'll go on a spending spree for any old SEO firm though. For the most part I think the buyouts/mergers will come because the Ad Firm has worked with a specific SEO firm, and seen the performance. In that case a buyout makes sense for them.

From the chit chat I heard at the Ad Tech conference last summer, most of the advertising firms are quickly coming to the realization that they need to incorporate Web advertising into their offerings. The bit I heard about it (actually I was interrogated by a few firms! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/lol.gif) ) indicated that this realization is coming directly from their clients. The clients want to know what the advertisers are going to do to create or beef up their web presence. Right now many ad firms don't have a good answer to that question.

FWIW, and I said this in another thread last year, it would be a good business decision for those invovled in the SEO industry full-time to start working more with advertising firms. The Ad Tech conferences sure look to be a good way to open that door of communication to me. There weren't many SEO's at the one I went to last summer... Take from that what you will.

Other predictions?

MSN Search is going to change the playing field somewhat. If for no other reason than that Microsoft is so huge and doesn't mind spending a lot of advertising money on a project for a time if it gains them market share. I look for an MSN marketing blitz as soon as the roll out their Beta product for real.

The first version Personalization of Search is finally going to become a reality. And will cause changes in how many SEO's prove their worth to customers. Where a site ranks will no longer be a valid metric for anyone to use, because you'll never be able to see where a site really ranks for each personality profile.

PoS will also change the way search engines determine which sites rank well across many personality profiles. If for no other reason than that the search engines will be able to collect feedback directly from the searchers, without being obtrusive.

[Haystack]

I think we'll see some leaps forward in the quality of search within certain niche markets.

Maps - Yahoo's traffic information overlayed on maps is a start, but we'll see more similar enhancements to this type of search.

Shopping Search - Still VERY new. As more customers become accustomed to this powerful type of search, more retailers will follow.

SMS Search - Other companies will follow Google's lead. Have you used this yet? Pretty handy.

Personals Search - Will a company provide a Froogle type search that indexed multiple personals sites? Personals companies could push their ads into a consolidated search. Maybe epinions could provide personals services ratings?

Overture's interface will become more like Adwords - It already is, but still has a way to go to offer people the same level of control of their ads.

Ad Firms - Companies who think SEM is simply an online ad buy will choose to work with their ad firms to handle the their online ad budgets. Some will receive surprisingly good service while others may fall short on the technical skills necessary to handle the various tasks involved in SEM.

Reciprocal Linking Taken Down a Notch - Search engines will get better at detecting links for link's sake, and sites currently ranking high solely from reciprocal links will feel some pain. Quality web sites owned by people with little understanding of reciprocal linking will mysteriously be rewarded for being good.

Personalization won't make a big leap forward, but people will continue to get better at searching.

[mcanerin]

I predict that an upstart industry association will arrive in full force on the SEO/M scene and actually do something useful. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Ian

[Randy]

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/hysterical.gif) Ian!

No fair! I think you have some inside information. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[BobetteKyle]

The first version Personalization of Search is finally going to become a reality. And will cause changes in how many SEO's prove their worth to customers. Where a site ranks will no longer be a valid metric for anyone to use, because you'll never be able to see where a site really ranks for each personality profile.

If this comes to pass, seems to me the long-term strategy moves toward incorporating key user profiles into keyword research and optimization. If search results become more specialized and customized according to searcher profile, it becomes more important for a site to pay attention to and rank highly in the customized searches initiated by those in its target market.

Quality web sites owned by people with little understanding of reciprocal linking will mysteriously be rewarded for being good.

(or little interest in reciprocal linking) I'm hoping hard you are right on this one, Ed. IMO, many spend far too much time and energy playing the linking game rather than building building a quality business (that's not to say I don't believe in links - because I do - but IMO in many cases the focus is all wrong).

[cline]

The iProspect acquisition will encourage a lot of mergers of SEM firms so that they get to the size at which they'll look attractive to be acquired by much larger firms.