My Last Article

• Mar. 23, 2006

The time has come for me to say goodbye to readers of my articles on Searchengineposition.  I have decided to move on to other things, but I’ll still remain in the SEM industry.

 

I was trying to figure out what my final article should be about, and during that thought process I began to remember what I’ve seen in this industry in the past 5 years (actually I’m about 2 weeks short of 5 years in the industry).  And I must say, I’ve never experienced an industry which moves at such a pace as this one.  In light of that I thought I’d list some of the things I’ve seen and experienced over these past few years:

 

• When I started, Altavista was “THE” engine.  IF you weren’t in Altavista you weren’t anywhere.
• Google was still an experiment (more or less) that was only used by techies and computer geeks.
• AOL was a concern because it was big and it was difficult to get indexed.
• Inktomi was the other power player.  But you had to pay to play with Inktomi which put it out of reach of many webmasters.
• PPC emerged from the shadows to become a major force driving SEM budgets around the world.  I remember when I first heard of Goto.  At the time I thought it wouldn’t last.
• Doorway pages were all the rage when I started.
• There were many more “black hat” SEO’s out there than “white hat” but then again there were way more holes to exploit in search algorithms then there are now.
• Google later introduced us to the concept of  “PageRank” and for quite a few years we all chased that little green bar.
• In the last couple of years these things called “blogs” began.  They gave the average person a voice on the internet.  I don’t think we’ve seen the end of blogging.  In fact I expect it’s going to continue to grow.
• For a long time there has been a dream of wireless, always on Internet.  Well today I’m glad to see that this has become a reality.  While it’s still out of the reach of the average person I expect over the next couple years most of the wired world will be wireless.
• Along with improvements in technology and the general availability of broadband we are just now beginning to see another evolution in advertising.  One where streaming media will become as pervasive as text ads.
• Entire cottage industries have developed out of the Internet.  People are working from home and selling online thanks to the likes of Ebay. 
• Link building has moved from someone requesting link exchanges to an industry of its own.  There are entire firms dedicated to the process of buying, selling, researching or otherwise building links.
• There are entire firms dedicated to researching, buying and selling advertising in general including Pay per click advertising, streaming media ads, and more.

Of course there was lots more that happened but these are just some of the anecdotes I could come up with in a short time.  And as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, I think we are just at the tip of the iceburg.  This industry is still trying to find itself and establish itself as a true marketing medium.

 

While it is true that many companies have realized this, many more are just beginning to.

 

We are seeing an interesting trend emerging; one where mid level managers in large companies are going to their bosses and saying “hey I was checking out our website last night.  Did you know I couldn’t find it in any search engines?  I think we are missing out on something big.”

 

Yes I think we’re still in the midst of something big.  And while I won’t be writing about it for this site any more I’m sure with a little work you’ll find me elsewhere.

 

A simple name search will do just fine, but keep in mind that I’m not a motivational speaker, or a basketball player, or a financial advisor, but just below that you may find an article or two I’ve written.

 

Rob Sullivan

Head Organic Search Strategist

Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition

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