SEL: The Evolution of UK Search Marketing

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Search marketing in the new media era.

May 09, 2005

The Evolution of UK Search Marketing

Revolution magazine has an in-depth look at the evolving UK search marketing industry.

Some interesting themes include:

Many UK SEM's are rebranding as their old names no longer reflect the services they offer.

Suddenly, the old names of companies no longer seemed appropriate. Cue a spate of recent rebrandings: Corporem Global is now Latitude; Web Site Positioning Services (WSPS) has become The Search Works, and AdvancePositions.com is mSearch. All these rebrands set out to show clients that the industry is growing up, is on the cusp of going global and is more service-orientated.

More UK companies are seeing increases PPC costs and are looking to search optimisation (yes, UK spelling for this post) as an alternative.

Mike Grehan, chief executive officer of Smart Interactive, goes as far as to say that paid-for listings should only be used for tactical campaigns - such as product launches - and that brands should focus on natural-search listings. In other words, forward-thinking brands should focus on a natural 'search-engine optimisation' (SEO) strategy.

Grehan believes the current obsession with paid-for listings is only because brands are "failing miserably" to understand how organic listings work. "Organic is a lot harder, so many brands find it easier to buy advertising in paid listings. But it's just like traditional ads - editorial is far more powerful," he says.

Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

...the search industry queries new media