I’ve personally been involved in building, maintaining and online marketing now for 14 years. Jivaldi has been around for 11 of those years. I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. And despite the furious pace in which this industry moves, few events stop me in my tracks. This recent Google change has. It shakes the very foundation of Search Engine Marketing and blindsides all those who consider themselves experts in SEO (Woot!).

Enter Google Places.

The ramifications are significant. If Google continues to move in this direction then it has already derailed the SEO landscape as we know it. While rumors of the death of SEO have been greatly exagerated in the past, one can’t deny that with the reduction of organic results and the increase of local (Google Places) results that this is a game-changer. And it does have the potential to wipe out organic SEO all together, or does it?

We all know that when you add a location to your search, ie. San Francisco, Sacramento…etc, Google will show local listings. And in the past, you would see these local results distinctly and separately listed from organic results. Ok, so the big noticeable (and obvious) change is that these local (Google Places) results are now blended with organic results.

This would be fine except that in greater frequency, organic results are either limited to just a few listings or completely pushed off the first page. Let me repeat that, ‘a few listings or completely pushed off the first page.” (at this very moment, 12 random SEO Superstars somewhere – just had an anuerysm)

Also, did you know organic listings change depending on ‘where’ you are searching from? We all know this happens with the Google Places listings (formerly known as Google Local Business), but did you know that what you are seeing for organic results, say if you search in the San Francisco Bay Area, could be very different from what people see if they are searching in Sacramento? Take heed.

Yet, as I sit here and massage the notion of SEO’s death, Forrester’s MidYear Planning review predicts a 20% increase in SEO spend in 2011. Forrester also mentions that, “SEO technologies and tools will help automate the SEO process. Marketers will start paying attention to tools like Altruik, Conductor, and Eightfold Logic. They won’t replace SEO consulting or solve the whole SEO process, but marketers and agencies will find that automation improves scale and provides visibility into the business value of SEO efforts.”

I sit here wondering though, have these tools factored in this local bonanza? I guess we’ll see.

Even if Google were trying to squash organic SEO in the traditional sense, while having Google Places sit at the center of the SERPS rat race, this may not actually remove organic optimization because companies will still have to play the Google Places game and figure out how to make these pages rank or stand out.  Not to mention, we are seeing that organic optimization affects your Google places listings (shoot, I thought that all those SEO sales emails would finally disappear).  Behold, a new acronym in field of online marketing – the GPO Expert (Google Pages Optimization). Uhhggg.

But why would Google make all these changes, you ask? Here are some statistics to consider:

• 80% of budgets are spent within 50 miles of the home (DMA/proprietary)
• 61% of local searches result in purchases (TMP/comScore)
• 90% of online commercial searches result in offline bricks and mortar purchases (proprietary research / comScore)
• 54% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books (comScore networks)
• 97% of American internet users use the internet to shop of which 57% characterize their behavior as shop online, purchase offline (NPD Group)
• 73% of online activity is related to local content (Google)

And some personal thoughts:

• Local search increases in relevance and mobile use increases.
• Increase competition for results and funnel more people to Adwords.
• Use Google HotPot to squash Yelp and make them less relevant.
• Compete with Facebook Pages to become the go-to, website-replacing entity on the Internet. (a future blog post coming on this topic).
• Google intends to make more money.

The bottom line is that local is king right now. There is just too much business to ignore in local markets. We’ve seen companies like Groupon enter local markets, dominate, make an obscene amount of money and then turn down a $6 billion dollar offer from Google.

Back to Google, has anyone noticed that a lot of businesses are paying an extra $25 / month for adding a little yellow tab (Google Tags) to their Google Places listing? Don’t worry, Google will monetize places in many more ways. QR Codes will no doubt be a part of this.

Why I love this whole scenario.
The problem with the digital industry is that there are so many little niches that someone can specialize in – it attracts, well…too many people. And with SEO, which is far from Rocket Science, pretty much anyone can start Googling information about how to optimize a website and have all the basics down by the end of the day.

The resulting outcome is that you have 8 billion (US & abroad) SEO pracitioners all vying for your business.  But these latest changes really throws a wrench into the plans of all these 3rd parties. And from my point of view, it places more emphasis on those agencies that can effectively tie together all marketing efforts and create a viable online marketing strategy. This is not to say that the niche industry is dead – quite the contrary – it just means that a full service agency will be better positioned for companies with more comprehensive marketing needs. And local search is here to stay.

Anyway, where was I…uh, yes, so I was about to try and create an analogy between poker and marketing. I’ve heard some poker stars say that, ‘Anyone can learn poker, but it takes a lifetime to master’. The same goes for online marketing. Anyone can jump in this space quite easily. They can become a marketing manager and direct a design, hire a team to build an application or even be an ‘SEO Consultant’. But the ultimate question is whether they are driving revenue?

Though I’ve only dabbled in poker myself, there are a few things that stick out in my mind about the good players.

• They are good with numbers
• They know the game inside and out
• They’re very attuned to patterns within the game
• They have good instinct (and understand human behavior)
• They’ve got a serious amount of hours logged on a table

With the web, it is very similar. Those who are really good in the online space:

• Know the (online) game inside and out
• They have intimate knowledge of how people use the web
• Very atuned to patterns & trends
• They understand the importance of analytics (numbers)
• They have an obscene amount of hours spent online.

In the end, good poker players end up blending their instinct and ability to read people with their grasp of statistics. Some lean towards the ‘feel’ side while others lean towards the ‘numbers’ side. Whether they realy on their intellect or perception, they’ll move towards their stregnth. But the point is that ALL of them have these two primary pieces in common.

The same goes for the web, but online this comes in the form of analytics, and a variety of metrics, whereas with cards it boils down to statistics & probability.

If you are a marketer that isn’t embracing analytics there is a problem. Sure there are a lucky few who have launched a great product at the right time, spent no time measuring anything and become a zillionaire. But if you are an Ad agency, creative design shop or Interactive group you’ll have to embrace the numbers to make a difference.

Note of caution: As with anything else, too much of something can be bad. Be careful not to get lost in the numbers. This can lead to paralysis by analysis.

While many of us have had great ideas over the years, we have also lost a lot of opportunities for improvement by not paying enough attention to user behavior. Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics and HaveaMint just happen to provide us with these tools free of charge. Despite the fact that analytics is a deep & dark tunnel and has the capability to consume an enormous amount of hours, there is some very valuable information within.

In the end though the equation is simple. You need to get your website visitors to do what you want them to. If you do this on a consistent basis, you will never lack of clients.

The key is to effectively blend your intuition with data.

Both Ken and Barbie are very similar in nature. Each possesses a natural propensity to succeed, have a strong work ethic and want to grow their businesses. In the past, both have worked with and had less than desirable experiences with web designers and developers, so as they look to enter the online environment with their new projects, they are trying to be more efficient.

In any case, they both need:

1. A solid Internet marketing strategy
2. A website that is built around their online strategy
3. to Drive traffic
4. to generate online sales

There is one major difference between Ken & Barbie’s mindsets. Ken thinks that he needs to exercise greater control over his next project because of his experience with less than stellar web designers and developers in the past. With this control, he’ll ensure that the website is built, designed and laid out exactly as he wants it. He understands that conversions and sales will translate to online success – especially if he is intimately involved with each phase.

Ken knows that he can build his new vision on the cheap and is reaching out to ‘find a coder’ type websites and understands that he can easily get in touch with an offshore team via Craigslist to keep his costs way down. After all, his niece is 14 years old and had designed her own website so why not keep costs to the bare minimum?

Barbie on the other hand, believes that she can become successful online but only if she has all the right people in place. She knows that she’ll need a designer and developer to build her website, but that she also needs a team that really understands the online space to make her idea work.

Here’s why Barbie stands a much higher chance of succeeding than Ken though they both possess the same skills sets.

• Barbie is more likely start her questions with, ‘What is the most effective way to…” versus “Here’s what we’re going to do…”
• Barbie doesn’t care if she doesn’t understand terminology or all the latest trends, but she’s determined to learn as much as she can whilst forming a relationship with a good Internet marketing team. (Ken won’t ask questions about what he doesn’t understand. Ken’s the man with the plan, so why would he need outside consulting?)
• Barbie wants to bring in someone who has a thorough understanding of the online space, is willing to take the time to understand her business vision in order to reach deeper into the US market.
• Barbie believes that in order for her online business to succeed she needs an effective blend of creative design, web development, online marketing and analytics. Most importantly, she understands that all must be given equal weight.

1 Year Later

Ken has actually been faster to launch his program. He hired a team in India for $12/hr and got his new site up fairly quickly. He’s already started some pay-per-click efforts and driving some traffic to his new site.

Barbie launches her site a few months later and feels comfortable with the Internet agency she hired. Her site has little traffic but she’s already generating consistent online sales and is about to start her traffic driving campaign once her team shores up various bug fixes and improvements.

18 Months

Ken has double the traffic than Barbie’s site but is getting nervous because he has few online sales. India can’t keep up with Ken’s requests so he fires them and switches back to a local web designer and developer in the U.S. Ken is now re-thinking the entire site and isn’t very happy that he may have to re-do his entire website, content management system and online strategy.

Barbie at 18 months is starting to see significant results. Her team had challenges of their own but were able to come up with solutions on the fly given the increasing number of online sales. Not only is she happy with her web team, she’s turned over much of the consulting and management of the website to them, given their familiarity with her business goals. She’s adding more players to the mix and ramping up additional online marketing spend.

Paying close attention to analytics and cost of conversion, she is able to make accurate spending decisions. Additionally she’s making enough money and realizes that she won’t need a second round of investment. Her customers are starting to spread the word about her products via Social Media and her online business is taking off.

Two Years Later

Ken ends up firing his web team in the U.S. (again) – much to their relief. He spends the next six months trying to assemble another team to manage his current site but no one is willing to do it for the price he wants to pay. Ken is a trooper though and despite difficult lessons learned he realizes that he needs to do more homework and really immerse himself in the online industry.

Ken pushes on but it is becoming evident to him that he’s spent triple the amount he thought he would and that he could have hired a seasoned US team from the start, and for less than he’s already spent.

On a whim, Ken attends and Internet Marketing Conference – where Barbie Roberts is the featured guest speaker. Ken has heard of her online boutique figures it wouldn’t hurt to hear a little more about Barbie’s success story. (not to mention he thinks she is hot after seeing a picture of her in a popular magazine recently)

Meanwhile, Barbie has a full ‘online staff’ and is still using the original team that built her site and constructed their online marketing plan. The business has gained enough traction and is confident with her team so that she’s able to have more time to herself. She dreams of meeting the right guy and settling down one day…

We all know what happens next. Ken and Barbie meet at her web conference and fall madly in love. Barbie gives Ken the contact information for the agency that helped that get her company off the ground. The rest is history. Ken gets the girl, Barbie is no longer lonely and the agency gets a new client.

The moral of the story you ask?

“Just do the damn thing right from the start.”

You’ll save time, resources, money and have a better product.

On the other hand, Twitter caters to the tech savvy not your casual (or older) computer user – which FB is going after. This will need to change if they want to compete with Facebook in attracting marketing spend.

Here are some points to consider about the two mediums:

• Twitter is more of a communication platform, while Facebook is more of an online destination/community.
• Facebook is also more personal, Twitter is somewhat impersonal.
• On Twitter, anyone can follow you.
• Women love Facebook
• Older men tend to avoid it until they finally cave in
• Many people still look at Twitter and say, ‘I don’t want to hear about when someone brushes their teeth, I just don’t get it’.
• On Facebook, by default, they cannot be your friend, unless you give them permission to.
• For a Facebook Fan Page though, anyone can become a fan (or ‘like’ a page as it is now called).

There is certainly cross-over & similarities between the two, but for businesses this realm does represent significant potential. Only in the last 6 months have I really felt this as Facebook has opened the door wider to businesses.

On the web & technology front, Twitter tends to attract the tech savvy type and therefore can easily continue its momentum in this regard. Something tells me that Twitter will eventually be purchase – but by whom (don’t say Google) ? And how would they integrate it (would Google nix Buz if they did purchase it)

But I also think it boils down to the ‘type’ of business. For example, here is a very random sample of business/brand entities and what they might see with these mediums.

• Clothing company:
  Facebook is completely relevant, Twitter is less effective based on what we are seeing.
• Coffee shop (ie. Starbucks)
  Twitter is very relevant as customers tend to be tech savvy and ‘on the go’ but Starbucks has nearly 7 million fans on FB compared to under 800k followers on Twitter. Wow!
• Golf Course:
  Facebook is more relevant, Twitter is not very effective from what we are seeing.
• Marketing company:
  Twitter more relevant, Facebook not as relevant (yet)
• Company/Retail:
  Facebook will become increasingly a better medium for all retail business now that Facebook is integrating e-commerce.
• Food Chain:
  Facebook becoming more relevant than Twitter
• Celebrity or Athlete:
  Twitter is an amazing platform for these folks (who are already popular) to enlarge their following. A perfect medium for stars and athletes on Twitter. It keeps people (followers) at a distance, and allows them more 1 way communication without too much interaction if they don’t want it.
• Renewable Energy Company:
  They could rock both spheres but I think FB could generate a lot of momentum for these types of companies.
• Gym (Fitness)
  No brainer. Facebook. They can create a sense of community online and get their members to talk to each other outside the gym *Creating an Online Community* – which is the highest achievement of any web presence.

The way I see it, Facebook may not seem very inviting right now to many businesses, I think that is changing very quickly. They will be a juggernaut for businesses looking to tap into Social Media.

What about your business?