by Bryson Meunier
Appeared in Visibility Magazine
It’s 2008, and advertisers both large and small are looking for the next big thing. Fortunately, they may not have to look any further than the palm of their hand.
ReadWriteWeb, a leading technology blog, is predicting that the mobile web will finally break into the mainstream in 2008. Innovative devices that have recently come out on the market (like the iPhone in 2007) are increasingly making mobile web browsing addictive. The search engines are also betting on mobile, with Yahoo! going so far as to say that there will be more mobile Internet users than Web users by 2017.
This may surprise you, as most interfaces on mobile phones currently make searching difficult at best. Yet people are conducting mobile searches right now, with 219.2 million mobile search users in 2006, according to eMarketer. This is predicted to grow quickly to 844.9 million by 2011, with mobile ad revenues soaring to $2.4 billion in 2011 from $6.8 million in 2006.
Read the whole column...
Mobile Visibility: Search Optimization for the Mobile User
Web Analytics Responsibilities Will Move to Media Agencies
by Jeff Campbell
Appeared in Web Analytics, Demystified
Based on my experience, the majority of web analytics (WA) tools are currently managed by a single, in-house person. More than likely, the WA tool is underutilized and the WA team is too small and undertrained. Heck, web analytics is hard. ;) I predict that within three years, media agencies will build out ‘web insights’ specialties and capitalize on the web analytics opportunity. Why will they be successful?
Read the whole post…
Open Wide and Say Yahhhhhhoo
by Aaron Goldman
Appeared in MediaPost’s Search Insider
Having just shed 1,000 employees in an attempt to trim costs and with a possible Microsoft acquisition casting a shadow over Sunnyvale, it would be hard to fault Yahoo for just trying to keep its various business units fully operational. But Yahoo’s not taking the lumps handed to it by the market lying down. Showing great resilience, Yahoo is pressing ahead with a series of innovative initiatives designed to improve user-experience across its properties and create compelling opportunities for the online media ecosystem.While the scope of these various projects is diverse, they can all be tied together under Yahoo’s continual push to “open up.”
Read the whole column…
Before Our Very Eyes: What’s Google Up To?
by Aaron Goldman
Appeared in MediaPost's Search Insider
Lost in the shuffle of a heavy news week that included Yahoo spurning Microsoft’s advances was this eye-popping bit of tid — Google is now running video ads on SERPs. The New York Times broke the story, reporting that “on Thursday, Google started testing video ads on some pages of search results.” The article includes excerpts from an interview with Marissa Mayer in which she discloses the move and provides the rationale behind it.
Read the whole column...
Will Paid Search Go The Way of CPA?
by Aaron Goldman
Appeared in MediaPost's Search Insider
In my last column, I raised the question, “Will CPA Become the Default Pricing Model for Paid Search?” The topic stemmed from a panel I participated in at the recent Digital Media Measurement and Pricing Summit. My first instinct was to write CPA off as nice in theory but “never gonna happen.” In turn, I feared my conference session would turn out to be the “shortest panel ever.”I’m happy to report that my dialogue with fellow panelist Jason Clement of Neo@Ogilvy was bountiful and we used the entire 45 minutes allotted. However, the net-net as far as CPA goes is that we landed somewhere between “nice in theory” and “never gonna happen.”
Read the whole column...
Search Marketing Skills: Tips, No Tricks
By Matt Spiegel, CEO
Search Engine Watch
In response to my recent column about a reader's personal experience breaking into the search marketing world, I received an interesting e-mail from another reader. She positioned herself as a potential apprentice and asked me to answer the following question: "What skills do I need to demonstrate to break into the search business?"
In my correspondence back, I highlighted three key areas of necessary exposure (at minimum):
· Using data to tell a story and make strategic marketing decisions.
· Basic knowledge of how search engines work (paid and organic listings).
· How search fits in with broader marketing strategies and initiatives.
To these three bullets I added a caveat. It really depends on what job someone wants within the search space.
Jack-of-All Search Trades?
This got me thinking about how this reality is often overlooked. I'm not sure why so many search teams are built with a jack-of-all trades mentality. In a single week, the same employee might on successive days:
· Build a keyword list.
· Manage bid strategies.
· Determine the best creative test plan.
· Present the client with their next quarter initiatives.
I've yet to meet anyone who can bring the same amount of passion and expertise to this diverse set of tasks -- at the same point in time that is. Over time, one could definitely build their career having done all of these things. Yet despite this reality, many organizations are asking their people to know and do it all.
Or Master of One?
In an industry growing as rapidly as ours, and with the known talent shortage, it seems an automatic response to segment like skills/functions. That allows individuals to master them and provide more immediate value to your organization (and your client's if relevant). Not to mention, this enables each individual to find greater fulfillment in their work.
When focused on mastering a limited set of skills, you see progress more quickly and are encouraged to keep learning and growing. I played tennis for many years growing up. My first lessons had me spending hours feet from the net just learning how to hit the ball over it from someone tossing the ball towards me. I didn't learn how to serve with slice for years.
Or Master of One?
For search marketers to earn and then retain the proverbial "seat at the table," we better make sure we have the right people to fill those chairs. The right role/person is entirely dependent on the situation. I can tell you with certainty (based on my own experience) that when done wrong, there's more work to do than just undo a meeting.
First impressions do matter.
A Knife to a Gun Fight?
If I'm tasked with preparing a presentation for the CTO of an organization, you can count on the fact I'm at least bringing people who have a much deeper understanding of Web site architecture and code structures to the meeting.
If I'm meeting with a CMO, I'll either bring a seasoned marketing professional or, because of my personal background, handle it myself. The point here is that the obvious statement, "we all have strengths and weaknesses," must not be all that obvious to the many people creating search marketing teams.
The reality: there are a handful of unique and different roles, each requiring a unique set of skills, within search marketing. Of course there are common traits (such as my three bullets above), but don't let this fool you into thinking that your teammate who creates top flight bid strategies is equally capable, or for that matter equally desirous, of presenting this information.
For all those looking to break into this space, and for those managing a search team, don't think of search as a one-size-fits-all solution. There are opportunities for many skills and many roles as long as you create them.
Can You Really Learn Search Marketing at a Conference?
By Aaron Goldman
MediaPost’s Search Insider
With another Search Engine Strategies in the books and the biannual Search Insider Summit going down in Park City this week, I've got my mind on search shows – and search shows on my mind. More specifically, I've been thinking about just how much people actually learn at these conferences.
Fellow Search Insider Mark Simon put in his two cents on SES Chicago in Monday's column. While I don't fully agree with his assessment of the show — overall, I do think it was "worth the trouble" — I also don't fully disagree with many of his points. So, rather than engage in the tit for tat back and forth that Mark and I often do in this space, I want to focus on one specific aspect of SES and conferences in general — practical search marketing education.
At SES Chicago, I had the pleasure of manning the CIMA booth, which gave me a chance to meet and interact with fellow attendees and exhibitors. With this topic in mind for my column, I tried to ask as many people as I could if they had learned anything practical at the conference.
The answers I got were all over the place, ranging from "yes" to "no" to "define practical."
Not surprisingly, first-time SES attendees seemed to come away with more tangible learning that did the regulars on the trade show circuit. But that's not to say the old-timers were disappointed by the show. They just had very different reasons for attending — namely, keeping their fingers on the pulse of the market and networking with fellow search professionals.
Search marketing education and training has been a hot topic for just about as long as search marketing has been around. The first wave of search professionals was largely self-taught. Over time, resources such as books, trade pubs, and certification programs surfaced to meet the demand for focused training.
But can you really learn search from a book or an online tutorial? Sure, you can learn how to use a search engine UI or best practices for copy testing. But can you really learn search without interacting with professionals? There's just so little that's "by the book" when it comes to search marketing.
It's this crucial face-to-face aspect of "learning search" that spawned trade shows like SES, SIS, and SMX (Search Marketing Expo.) As more and more companies build out search departments, the most popular form of training seems to be sending people to conferences.
But are trade shows really the answer? Can you learn enough about search marketing at a conference or two (or even five or ten) to develop (and maintain) the skills necessary to manage a robust holistic paid and natural search program?
I suppose the answer is relative. To effectively manage search programs of a certain scale, it may be sufficient to read a book, get your Google cert and hit up your closest trade show. But if I'm a mid-sized or large company spending millions of dollars search marketing, I don't know that I'd trust my search budget to someone whose training came in the form of note-taking from a bunch of self-promoting presenters who think that being on a panel at a conference makes them the next Danny Sullivan — yet are too afraid to share any real tips for fear of losing their competitive edge. (OK, that may be a bit harsh — not all sessions at search shows feature shameless self-promoters. In fact, many of them include genuine search experts who are willing to disclose their success stories — but I think you get my point.)
One thing I can tell you with certainty is that at my company, we don't rely on trade shows to do our training. We've spent a good deal of time and money to develop a thorough orientation program that enables all our new hires to learn the ins and outs of search marketing through practical training led by seasoned professionals (I know, I know — who's the shameless self-promoter now?)
Our program includes a mix of classroom and on-the-job training and requires all employees to successfully complete two levels of internal certification exams. We have a fully dedicated staff member responsible for the planning and implementation of our training, but have the individual courses (over 50 of them) taught by subject matter experts from within the organization.
To augment our internal training, we require our account strategy, project management, production, and data analytics teams to achieve certifications from each of the major search engines. And our ongoing training includes the requisite book reading, trade pubs — and, of course, attending conferences.
Now I'm not saying that this depth of training is required for everyone looking to learn the ropes of search marketing. But I know our clients, who are primarily Fortune 500 marketers, feel more comfortable that their budgets are in good hands than they would if the extent of our team's training was limited to trade shows.
Bottom line? I firmly believe that search conferences provide value to attendees. I just think the value is more-so in the participation than the education.
It's in this spirit that I eagerly anticipate this week's Search Insider Summit. By the time this column is published, I will be en route to Park City, where I look forward to sharing challenges and successes with fellow professionals, cultivating relationships with key business partners — and, yes, actually learning a thing or two about search marketing.
As always, I promise to recap the top buzzwords from SIS in my next column, as I have for each of the last two summits.
Search Engines, Silos, SES Solutions
By Matt Spiegel
Search Engine Watch
Some of the biggest companies in the world took the stage at SES Chicago to discuss SEO (define) and SEM (define). Not, though, in a silo.
Several weeks ago in my column, "Breaking Down Silos: Specialization with Integration," I reviewed the lack of search marketing with traditional marketing. It's the one issue that relegates search engine marketing to the sidelines. This theme generated enough interest that Kevin Ryan created a new panel for SES Chicago.
Our panel included two marketers (Hyatt and Chicago Tribune), one agency (Critical Mass), and two engines (Google and Yahoo). We centered the discussion on the key causes of silo thinking, as well as what each organization is doing (or needs to do) to foster marketing integration. Here are some of the most interesting (and useful) nuggets:
It All Starts With the Consumer
Anyone heard this phrase before? This phrase holds a lot of weight when discussing the importance of breaking down silos; after all, what do consumers think about corporate or marketing silos?
Not long ago, it was easier to justify the existence of disparate marketing functions, each working within its own domain. Today, consumers move between touch points with ease and expect consistent and meaningful messages to be delivered on their terms.
It was rightly brought up during the panel discussion that if we begin by asking questions about the needs of the consumer, then the goals of the business silos are naturally harder to justify. If only that were enough...
Lack of Resources
Every organization can use more resources. Too often for us search marketers, the resources we need in IT, eCommerce, or content development are all booked for the next 12 months. (I find it amazing how often I hear that comment.)
The Yahoo, Google, and Critical Mass panelists discussed their ability to add resources for key initiatives. The key point: all too often good ideas are not executed when stakeholers can't leverage a few hours from an overworked department, and the more departments work together (within and across companies), the more likely it is to lift the priority of your project within those resource-constrained departments.
Follow the Money
Budget ownership was raised as a driving factor, especially for marketers, in building up silos. It isn't surprising that in many ways ownership of an activity is tied to budget ownership.
When a large organization with multiple departments is separately funding related activities, naturally each group finds it easier to work in a vacuum on their piece of the pie. Add in that product or service owners want to influence how their dollars are used by shared service groups like IT, eCommerce, or marketing, and you can see why rational people make ultimately irrational decisions (at least from a long-term company performance standpoint).
While not discussed directly, the implied set of solutions is not to address the budget issue head on, but instead to approach the topic with some of these key ideas.
Expand the Mental Image of 'Creative'
Search has a definite image problem. For many people in advertising and marketing, their creative juices flow from an image that makes them stop in awe.
Unfortunately, search text doesn't have the same type of appeal. Rather than suggesting that search needs to employ images to be more appealing for integration, the panel argued that it's more important to change the meaning of "creative."
We need the idea of creativity to not only be about a stunning image, or an emotional commercial, but also about the idea of purchasing keywords connected to your Super Bowl ads, or capitalizing on a competitor's missed opportunity, or in using search to generate buzz months before your product is launched. In each case, by thinking more broadly about what is creative, we can garner attention and interest from our siloed brethren.
Demonstrating Real Business Value
At one level, this is a no-brainer, but think about your experience -- all too often marketing efforts stop short of measuring true business impact. Understanding what data constitutes real business value is a topic unto itself.
As the panel aptly pointed out, this doesn't mean focusing on brand values or on direct response values, but in finding the and solution. The right combination of metrics can demonstrate to those who wouldn't typically notice your search investment that integrating search strategies generates better results.
Summary
There isn't a single solution to solving marketing silos. However, it's encouraging that no matter the industry silo (agency, marketer, or engine), everyone agrees that fostering collaboration and integration is good for us in the industry, and even better for CEOs who want to increase the value of their organizations.
SEM Mentors: The Apprentice
By Matt Spiegel
Search Engine Watch
Two weeks ago, I pointed out the responsibility we, the search marketing industry, have in solving the Search Marketing Staffing Crisis.
The solution? Developing new talent, including the future leaders of search marketing: talented students still in school. I've heard from quite a few readers who shared how they learned Search 101.
Alex Vega, a search advertising manager for Submitawebsite Inc. wrote me to echo my sentiments on the importance of teaching the next generation. He shared some stories about how he's helped newbies to search marketing. I wrote back and asked him to expound on his experiences. I think you'll find Alex's insights as interesting as I did.
SEW Experts E-mail
An excerpt from Alex's original email to me:
"Thank you so much for this column. It's well stated and makes me feel good to be reassured the pros care about educating the student body, since they'll be the next generation of pros.
I can speak for myself, I went to a smaller state school in Buffalo, NY, and after graduation the exposure to and options for the advertising/marketing industry were small, while the pressure of the real world was fast approaching.
I did the best I could for several years out of school. Since then I've figured things out for the most part. But oh, if I had a mentor like you described, I could have been further along."
SEW Reader Responds
Alex and I enjoyed an enlightening exchange about his career path and the search industry experts who helped him along the way. To kick off the conversation, I asked him how he got his first break in the industry.
Matt Spiegel: What exactly did you do after school?
Alex Vega: After graduation, I struggled to break into the business, as they say, and ended up in a low wage, low skilled fast food job because I wasn't able to land a position in my field with any of the agencies in town. Either they weren't hiring at the time, or my portfolio, which was strong, wasn't strong enough to meet their standards.
What they failed to see was my positive attitude, willingness to learn, commitment and passion for the craft, and creative capabilities. Nevertheless, I continued to develop myself and my craft, and do the best job I could, no matter who I worked for.
Over the next several years I eventually moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, met a few key people along the way, gained industry experience, and worked several freelance opportunities, including my first PPC (define) assignment in 2002, while trying to get established.
MS: How'd you figure things out?
AV: The personal and marketplace mentorship I received from key relationships I built have been a big part of why I am personally and professionally successful at my current position as Search Advertising Manager at Submitawebsite Inc., a leading search engine marketing company. I met Joe Griffin Jr. in 2007 and he gave me an employment opportunity because of the qualities he saw in me, that I could help his PPC department grow and be profitable even though I did not have many years of PPC business experience.
MS: What would you have liked to learn in school that would've helped you with your search career?
AV: Easy. The Google Advertising Professionals Program, more visits, lectures from the pros, a commitment to student-teacher mentorship, and a search internship. I already had natural creative talent, strong computer skills, and good interpersonal skills, but lacked the business experience and wisdom that comes from a professional who has been there and done that.
Search Marketing Mentor
MS: Tell me more about how you encourage and teach other young adults in high school and college.
AV: The very thing I didn't get until I was in my mid- to late-20s, I now do for other young adults. I've become a mentor to the mentor-less by giving away my time, tongue, talents, and treasure to those who are interested in design, the Web, and PPC.
I share my good and bad experiences so that students will not have to go through what I went through. I tell them that talent and charisma alone won't cut it. They must also have character, skill, and faith.
MS: Expand on anything you think is relevant.
AV: Over the years, I know it was not so much what I was taught -- as much as what I caught -- that prepared me for the responsibilities I have as a person, PPC specialist, and mentor.
Key Takeaway
Alex isn't alone. How are you helping colleagues? If you have stories of either receiving or giving mentorship you think the industry can build on, please let me know. The training of new SEM talent has just begun. Together, we can educate tomorrow's SEM leaders
Is Your URL Hot or Not?
By Aaron Goldman
MediaPost’s Search Insider
I have become obsessed — some (namely, my wife) might say possessed — by URLs. I can’t watch TV, drive down the highway, or look at search results without fixating on URLs. And I certainly can’t let a URL go by without comment.
My Name is URL
To satisfy my URL-petite, I recently started a blog — GoodURLBadURL.com — showing pictures of URLs I encountered, with a label of Good or Bad based on the URL that was chosen and the way it was displayed.
You should see the looks I get (again, namely from my wife) when I interrupt TV commercials (interrupting commercials - now there’s an oxymoron!) to take pictures of advertiser URLs or when I pull over to the shoulder to zoom in on a billboard and fire off a couple shots.
What Have I Been Smoking?
As Rory Gallagher put it, “don’t know where I’m going, don’t know where I’ve been.” I can’t explain why I’m so affected by URLs or why I feel the need to air my URL grievances to the world.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to parlay this URL-addiction into an AdSense machine. For now though, it’s enough to simply scratch my URL itch and give me an outlet for URL-venting that does not require my wife feigning interest (I should point out that she’s gotten really good at separating the good URLs from the bad and the ugly.)
As for what brought on this case of URL-itis, I’m pretty sure it has to do with my day job in search marketing.
What Do URLs and Search Have in Common?
With traditional search sponsored listings, marketers have a few short lines of text to make an impact so every last character counts. The same goes for URLs.
In a world where we’re inundated with thousands of marketing messages each day, it’s tough to stand out from the clutter. Marketers need a succinct, impactful message to really resonate. Ditto for URLs. Whether it be on a SERP or at the end of a 30-second spot, marketers have just a few seconds to make an impression.
And we know that offline media drives search activity. Research has shown that print and TV ads drive consumers online to search for more information. Of course, one of the main reasons for this is that people don’t know (or don’t remember) the URL of the advertiser for the product or service that piqued their interest.
Are Good URLs Bad for Search?
One might say that those of us in search marketing stand to benefit from advertisers using bad URLs. After all, confused consumers create a confluence of queries (say that ten times fast!)
But there are two key reasons I don’t think we need to lose any sleep over marketers waking up to the power of a good URL.
The first is that no matter how memorable your URL is, there is still a significant percentage of the online population that can’t (or doesn’t bother to) differentiate between an address bar and a search box. There’s an anecdotal stat I once heard that I love (and repeat often to marketers who don’t think they need to “do search”) — two of the top ten queries on Google and Yahoo each month are “Google.com” and “Yahoo.com.” Brilliant!
The second is that, quite simply, most of the good URLs are already taken. And, no matter how many great URLs might be available with alternate top-level domains (.biz, .name, etc.) no marketer wants to touch those (and for good reason — it’s hard enough to remember what comes before .com.)
What Makes a Good URL?
On GoodURLBadURL.com I list some best practices for marketing professionals who, like me, take this URL thing seriously. Here are the Dos and Don’ts I’ve come up with for selecting and promoting URLs. I’d love to hear yours, too — either in the Search Insider Blog or the comments section on my site.
Dos
1. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord.
2. UseDifferentColorsOrBoldToHelpEachWordStandOut.
3. Whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com.
4. If .com is not available, use YourBrandName.net.
5. If .com and .net are taken, find a new brand name. Seriously.
6. Use YourSlogan.com when running an integrated media campaign.
7. Use subdomains when driving people deeper than your homepage — e.g. Product.YourBrandName.com.
Don’ts
1. Don’t include www. We know to go to the World Wide Web to find you.
2. Don’t include http://. If your audience isn’t Web-savvy enough to know where to type the URL, you shouldn’t have a Web site.
3. don’tusealllowercase (canyoureallytellwhereonewordendsandthenextbegins?)
4. DITTOFORALLUPPERCASE
5. No-hyphens/or slashes.
6. Don’t use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such.
7. Don’t bury your URL at the bottom of a billboard. I’m the only nerd driving around with a 4x zoom lens to find URLs.
Happy URLs to You
Hopefully I’ve raised your URL-IQ a bit or at least made you URL-aware. What you do with this newfound URL wisdom is up to you. For your sake, though (and the sake of your family) I encourage you not to get too fixated on finding or creating the perfect URL — it’s not healthy.
As for those of you focused solely on search marketing who might be thinking that URLs don’t matter since your Web site is always one easy click away (and, thus, people don’t need to remember it) — I wouldn’t overlook the importance of getting every last advantage you can on a crowded SERP or in a content/contextual environment. Searchers are finicky, and even the slightest use of CAPS can get eyeballs away from competitor’s placements. Not to mention, if you’ve got a bad URL and want people to skip the SERP next time and return to your site directly, your only hope is that they bookmark it.
And now I’ll close with the Dixie Chicks classic — Goodbye URL.
You Say Search, I Say Query
By: Aaron Goldman
Appeared In MediaPosts’s Search Insider
In my last column, I asked the search marketing community to resolve to be consistent with verbiage in the year ahead. It's hard enough to keep up with (and explain) evolving algorithms and best practices, much less all the various buzzwords and search-isms being thrown around.
Search media, search network, search technology, search retargeting, search analytics -- it seems the word "search" is being appended to every marketing platform to capitalize on its growing popularity and effectiveness.
As the applications of search marketing grow and seep into different media channels and technologies, I believe the term "search" is now too big of a catchall to be really meaningful.
As such, I want to more closely examine the root of search and what it has come to mean to marketers. In turn, I'd like to introduce the concept of query marketing as a platform centered around consumer-initiated queries.
At its core, search refers to an individual's behavior. A query is a manifestation of that behavior.
When an individual is searching for something through a digital platform, he/she submits a query.
When all is said and done, it is the query that becomes immediately actionable for marketers, not the search.
Today, queries are being submitted on computers and cell phones at rapidly growing rates. And not just at search engines -- at video sites, newspaper sites, music sites, etc. Tomorrow, queries will be submitted on radio and television in much the same manner via TiVo, Comcast, and, eventually, through content publishers themselves.
As we know, Google is leading the charge to make all content digital and, thus, searchable. And it's likely that Google technology will someday span all media platforms. This is another reason why I'm pushing for the differentiation between search and query marketing.
Google has become synonymous with search -- both from a marketer standpoint and a consumer standpoint. I can't tell you how many times clients have asked for a POV and budget reco on a new Google platform, assuming it will fall under our domain simply because "it's Google" and we're that marketer's search agency. And, try as it might, Google has been unable to get consumers to stop saying things like, "I Googled it on Yahoo."
But just because Google does it, doesn't make it search. DMarc and Google Print are two great examples. These are not search propositions. Neither is the rumored development of a Google digital billboard network or the potential Google in-game ad platform. Yes, these can be relevant, efficient advertising vehicles but they do not involve queries and, therefore must be treated differently than how "traditional" search platforms have been managed to date.
As I've discussed in previous columns, what has made search marketing so powerful to date is its ability to marry proactive consumption with mass customization, instant point-of-need direction and dynamic, performance-based pricing. DMarc and Google Print can only check two of these boxes. Ads in these environments are not consumer-initiated -- there is no query -- and cannot instantly direct a consumer to a point-of-brand interaction.
Despite these differences, my hunch is that these platforms will be quickly adopted under the umbrella of search marketing, and planned and executed by search marketers and search agencies solely because they are Google products.
So, rather than fight the battle to define what is and isn't search, I'm focusing instead on carving out the practice of query marketing.
To be clear, I'm not passing judgment on the viability of a search marketing landscape inclusive of platforms like dMarc or Google Print. In fact, I think those opportunities will prove to be very effective for marketers. I am just emphasizing the importance of distinguishing the facets of the emerging search world that are triggered by a query versus those that aren't.
I know that many folks probably aren't ready to start flying the query banner after years of hard work pounding the word "search" into the heads of everyone in the marketing world. However, if we sit back and let search be defined as "everything Google does," we risk losing sight of one of the core competencies of search marketers -- the ability to translate queries into action.
Those search marketers that define their core capabilities as the ability to manage an open-auction marketplace or place contextually relevant media are welcome to continue marching behind the search marketing mantra and follow Google into all its new ventures.
Everyone else is welcome to join me on the query marketing train. All aboard!
