By Jen Doyle, Senior Analyst

The Expected Future Impact of Search Innovations


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With a number of search engine innovations being released, it’s only natural for marketers to speculate on what role these new additions will play in the future of SEO. It’s not surprising that personalized search tops the list. Because personalized search causes different search engine users to receive different results, it’s possible that personalized search may have a negative impact on some organizations' SEO efforts by decreasing exposure. This has caused considerable speculation among the SEO community.

Another recent addition -- real time search -- is also expected to have a significant impact. As the popularity of using social media for marketing purposes grows, so will expectations of this search innovation’s impact.

Of all the segments surveyed, organizations that integrate social media into search campaigns had the greatest expectations regarding the impact of all the above innovations. This could be due to the fact that this group is generally more well-educated in the most recent developments in both search and social media.

For additional research data and insights about search marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report -- SEO Edition.