Search Industry Year in Preview

It’s January 15, which means the first SEO Newsletter of the new year! There’s a grip ton of good stuff in there, including Bruce’s annual Year in Preview, where our favorite search veteran gives us his predictions for the industry in 2009.

Now, before I get to search, here’s my big prediction for 2009. Fabio wins Top Chef!

Last night’s pork and pesto ravioli didn’t go over so hot with the judges, but do you remember the episode where the chefs had to demonstrate cooking a meal to a TV audience? Fabio made it to the top three with his beef Carpaccio recipe, and at his Moorpark restaurant the other day I ordered it. Gustoso! (That means “tasty” in Italian, or so says the online English-to-Italian translator I just used. We all know how reliable those are.)

Of course, I assume most of you aren’t actually here due to a zealous love of drool-worthy food and dreamy Italian chefs, so let’s get back to the newsletter, shall we?

To whet your appetite for the trend projections and actionable insights available to you in the article, here’s a quick peak at Bruce’s search industry predictions for the next year:

• There will be an increase in in-house PPC campaign management.
• More companies will close down their brick-and-mortar locations and ramp up their online retail sites.
• More local business will go online than ever before. This presents up-and-coming SEOs the opportunity to make a reputation for themselves as an industry- or city-specific service provider.
• Companies that survive through the first quarter will realize that SEO is mandatory to survive. As a result, the demand for SEO training courses will grow significantly by 2010.
• Significant changes to the algorithm accommodating for personalization and improved blended results will lead to volatile SERPs rankings, which will in turn lead to a sharp rise in the price of PPC bids.

Those are just a few of the predictions that have to do with the way the industry will transform. Bruce also explains his predictions for search engine technologies (customization, algo changes, indexing rich media, etc.). It’s all interconnected, so read the article for the whole picture, won’t you?

This is the third annual forecast by Bruce (you can find 2008 and 2007 as well), and just by gauging how many of his predictions turned out to be true last year, a glance at this year’s will be worth your while.

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.