Marketing Digital Report: Search - Keep your eye on the prize

by Matt Brocklehurst, Head of marketing, Latitude Marketing 26-Mar-08

If you have ever seen a search marketing presentation, the chances are it included the famous 'heat map', which shows where eyeballs typically focus when looking at a search results page.

You probably know the one - the red cloud at the top left of the screen
showing where you're getting the most attention from and, if you get the
content right, it will show that the majority of clicks will be on the

first three or so listings; mainly natural, some paid.

Well, the landscape is now changing. A new Enquiro Research heat map
illustrates how life just got a lot more complicated. Now with blended
search - most pertinently Google Universal, where images, videos, news,
blogs, maps and so on appear in the listings - the eyeballs are
attracted to other areas of the screen on all search engines. Simply
put, an image used on position number four, for example, grabs more
attention than the top three listings. It may seem minor, but it has
far-reaching effects.

You can't afford just to optimise your site; you need to distribute your
content across the web. Go social with video optimisation, local
listings and product placement (such as on Google base) as well as a
good blog and news coverage.

What's more, with the results changing far more rapidly, and the risks
of negative customer and media sentiment rising, the need to have a
reputation-management strategy aligned to search is critical.

The potential for even bigger returns from integrating blended results
with paid search is clear. Before blended search, Hitwise reported a 51%
improvement in clicks with paid and natural search working together.
Could that rise still further?

The same applies to the 22% improvement in conversions when search and
online display are aligned, as reported by Atlas. The effectiveness of
paid search is also being boosted by the increased ability to target
demographically and geographically.

At the heart of all this is the increasing relevance of analytics. The
days of 'last click gets all the return on investment' are numbered.
Improved understanding of user journeys and better multivariate testing
of landing pages are all contributing to the expectation that online
advertising spend, spearheaded by search, will overtake TV ad revenues
this year or next.

Whether it does or not, one thing is clear - the enduring need to keep
your (tracked) eye on what's happening in search.