Razorfish’s Digital Outlook Report 2009: Search – What will the future look like?

This is going to be my last post talking about Razorfish’s Digital Outlook Report for 2009. I wanted to leave search until the end because it’s the one area that has the biggest potential for game changing  effects I think. Even with spending going down in some industries and with some clients, a lot are also going to be increasing how much they spend. However, they are going to require something in return from their agencies/partners. They are going to want better metrics:

Measurement: Clients are going to ask about how those clicks are really measured. How can 0.05% really be that good? New tools are going to help in finding new ways of measuring the value of a click. This is going to lead to a revaluing of what we thought good ROI is.

Return on Investment: Having a great click through rate or quality score is no longer going to cut it. Clients are going to want to make sure that every person is being maximized for their recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM) over the year.

Quality vs Quantity: This also means that we want to send even more quality traffic to our clients site then we were in 2007 & 2008. In turn we are going to be looking at the overall marketing mix and how search is valued within that is going to change. Making sure that we’ve a strategic approach and that all are bases are covered is key.

These are not the only issues that are going to come up in 2009. I know that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and even at the local level when someone searches  “local SEO Toronto” is going to be important for many business. Clients are going to want that qualified traffic from “local SEO Toronto” or “downtown Toronto plumber”, so they can start targeting more niche people. When you add in the continue strength of link building and the fact that many people are now searching on mobile devices. You can start to see that 2009 is going to be a challenging year for SEO, regardless of which method you practice in.

Conclusion
In the end, clients are going to require partners more then just agencies aa they work through 2009. Making sure the measurement tools, ROI, and quality traffic is going to their site is key. Having a look at local search and thinking of the mobile experience for people who are searching for our client(s) is going to help us stand out from the crowd in 2009. It won’t be an easy year, but it will be a defining year for many businesses and agencies.

Related posts:

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