I read an interesting blog post on Harvard Business Review this morning about how ‘Google will change web marketing in 2012‘. To me, this seems to be quite a divisive topic among critics out there. On the one hand, these changes seem good for the average user (not having to click through irrelevant sites to find answers they require) but on the other hand could be bad since Google will now be directing users to their deals, above all else, especially where travel is concerned. This means that it could actually take more searching for consumers to find that special deal they are looking for. Is Google maybe stepping into becoming a monopoly? It’s motto was always ‘don’t be evil’ but are they now coming round to the realities of corporate culture? Further headaches to marketers trying to use Google will be that they plan to ramp up their efforts to move people into using paid services such as Adwords to attain keyword date that was previously free on Analytics. But isn’t Google just like any other business? How many times have you been hooked in by the ‘free trail’ period? Or maybe you are a user and are sick of marketing tricks that divert you away from your search goal and see this as a move in the right direction by Google? Read the full article here and let us know what you think.
Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012
4:48 PM Thursday December 22, 2011
by Brian Whalley | Comments (62)
Google is poised to completely alter how websites market themselves over the next year. While easing users into changing search results pages, Google has also designed a new method for websites to structure data so that its crawler can better pull information. This is a tremendous strategy. Google doesn’t need to own all of the information in the world, but does own the methods of accessing that information — as well as the ability to advertise to people who use that access.
Search results will include more direct information. Early in 2012, Google will expand how it incorporates data into its search results. For search queries that are direct questions, it will no longer be necessary to click through to a website. In Google’s parlance, it’s like getting both the search results and the immediate result of the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button at once. It’s not hard to see how this is better for the average Google user. Questions will be answered faster and more simply. No parsing of information will be required. This change, however, will take value away from marketers who rely on visitors clicking through to deeper pages.
