The Future of Search has arrived. Or at least it’s arriving, according to a Google webinar held in late July.

Brian and I sort of attended. “The Future of Search” isn’t a bad name to put on the webinar, although to be honest, the material was really more about economy-driven changes to search behavior and new search tools than about some grand Metropolis-style vision of super-intelligent digital entities surfing for electronic nirvana.

We had a bunch of distractions but here’s my $.02 summary.

• consumers are using search a lot more to get better deals and coupons ‘cuz they’re poor and/or jobless
• the future of search is more intelligent web traffic, and consumers spending more time surfing (probably whilst underwear-clad and jobless)
• users are now using 2-3 keywords in their searches rather than 1, realizing that this results in more relevant results

In addition, Google has 3 new webtoys for our enjoyment:

Searchbased Keyword Tool: a cool new keyword research tool that suggests keywords and keyphrases based on the content on your site. Nice idea.

From Google’s help page on the “sktool”: “The main difference between the Search-based Keyword Tool and the Keyword Tool currently in AdWords is that the former generates keyword ideas based on your website, and identifies those currently not being used in your AdWords account. Additionally, the Search-based Keyword Tool provides more detailed data for each keyword, such as category information, suggested bid that may place the ad in the top three spots of a search results page, and ad/search share. Both tools, however, offer the option of browsing all keywords across all categories.

“You may also notice that some of the data (like such as the monthly search volume) may vary slightly between the two tools, which is due to different methods of calculation at this time.”

Website Optimizer: for super-intense conversion analysis of high-traffic pages.

With this thing, you make a zillion versions of the target page, playing with variables like calls to action, graphics, headlines, design, whatever, each at unique URLs. Website Optimizer randomly displays different versions to users. These URLs could be bookmarked by users, so after your experiment finishes, you want to keep these URLs valid. A WO “experiment” with 3 page variations will typically need around 300 conversions before drawing any conclusions.

and lastly, Google Insights for Search.

“With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. Useful for comparing different keyphrases over different regions and timeframes.”

You can hear a full recording of the Google webinar online. It does require a password, but just contact us and we’d be happy to share it with you. (We don’t want to get in trouble in case the Future of Search is copyrighted etc.) Enjoy!

Market Research Study Shows Website Advertising Formats to Be Missing Their Targets

The website advertising formats you’re used to seeing may be gone in a few years because they’re not getting the job done. A 2008 study by iPerceptionsAdvertisers, surveying over 14,000 August visits at top media sites, discovered that rich media and video internet advertising scored very poorly compared to text advertising. Even banner ads trounced rich media and video website advertising.

Text advertising garnered clicks 25% of the time. Right-side banner website advertising scored clicks 20% of the time; top-of-page banners registered at 12%, and rich media and video website advertising trailed behind at 11% and 7% respectively.

How Website Advertising Fails

In the study, the researchers were also surprised to see that video website advertising was roundly shunned by well-heeled visitors. A whopping 87% of surfers who clicked on video website advertising earned less than $150,000 per year, and nearly half less than $50,000 per year. Many of these surfers were under age 25. Clearly, website advertising campaigns that spend heavily on video and rich media ads are missing their target market.

iPerceptions vice president of marketing Jonathan Levitt also points out the limitations of the “pay-per-click” advertising measurement, citing the data on the inverse relationship between a viewer’s income and willingness to click on video website advertising.

We agree: it’s always been our opinion that all clicks are not created equal. That’s why our website advertising and internet marketing model integrates search engine marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, link building and careful content aggregation.

Why Text Website Advertising Works

Levitt attributes the success of text website advertising to “Google conditioning,” saying, “Consumers respond best to this particular ad format because they’re used to seeing it when they search.”

I think he’s only arriving at half the truth here. When I’m on the web, I almost never intentionally click on an ad. I’m seeking content. If I want to buy something, I want content about the thing I plan to purchase. I know that website advertising leads to irrelevant sites 99.9% of the time. And video and rich media advertising is clearly advertising.

I think text website advertising is successful because people don’t want to see advertising. They click on text website advertising because it looks like it leads to legitimate content.

In other words, these website advertisements are successful mostly because they deceive people into clicking on them. If you ask me, that’s a pretty shaky business model.

Why Website Advertising Needs Search Marketing

At Get Page One, we’re firm believers in the power of organic search engine optimization. Certainly, website advertising plays a role in brand recognition and sales conversions, and it does attract good numbers of people who really want to view advertising. But we believe website advertising’s complimentary to a strategy that achieves strong rankings in popular search engines.

If your website ranks well in the search engines, your webpages don’t appear as website advertising. They don’t even appear to be like content, as text ads do. Instead, they are the content that the customer is seeking.