Marketing in the Age of Google

1. Search has fundamentally changed business and marketing.

In today’s searching world, customers turn to online search engines first.

Customers start online. The way people find information, research products, and make purchasing decisions has shifted dramatically. Online search engines are now the primary starting point for a vast majority of consumers, replacing traditional methods like phone books or newspapers. This fundamental change means that a business's online visibility, particularly in search, is paramount.

Marketing must adapt. Traditional advertising methods are losing effectiveness as consumers actively seek information rather than passively receiving it. Businesses must move from "interruption advertising" to "reverse advertising," where they make themselves discoverable at the exact moment a potential customer is looking for what they offer. This requires understanding customer needs and being present where they search.

Search is business strategy. Because customers are using search as their primary entry point to find businesses and products, a company's search strategy is no longer just a marketing tactic; it is intrinsically linked to its overall business strategy. Failing to be found in search is akin to keeping your physical store locked when customers are lined up outside.

2. Search data provides invaluable market research and strategic insights.

Every Day, Millions of Potential Customers Are Telling You Exactly What They Want.

Free market intelligence. Search data offers an unprecedented, large-scale, and often more honest view into what potential customers are interested in, what problems they are trying to solve, and how they talk about products and services. This data is available for free through tools like Google Trends and the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Informing product strategy. By analyzing search queries, businesses can identify unmet needs, gauge interest in potential features or products, and prioritize development efforts based on actual consumer demand. Examples include:

• Intuit learning customers search for "accounting" more than "bookkeeping."
• NIH seeing higher search volume for "arthritis" than "heart disease."
• A camera company discovering interest in "underwater" or "disposable" cameras.

Predicting trends. Search data can even act as an economic indicator, predicting trends in areas like unemployment claims, housing markets, or seasonal demand for products. Businesses can use this predictive power for better budget planning, marketing campaigns, and resource allocation, often getting a jump on competitors who rely solely on traditional research.

3. Understanding searcher behavior and intent is crucial.

Searchers themselves provide very little that indicates their intent.

Queries are short. Search queries are typically very brief (average three words), making it difficult to discern a searcher's true intent from the words alone. Search engines and savvy businesses must look beyond the query to understand what the searcher is trying to accomplish.

Behavior reveals intent. Search engines analyze aggregate and individual searcher behavior to infer intent. This includes:

• What results searchers click on.
• What they search for next (query refinements).
• How long they stay on a page before returning to results.
• Their location and previous search history.

Search is a process. Searchers often refine their queries or navigate across multiple sites and sessions before finding what they need or making a purchase. Understanding this journey, from initial broad searches to specific transactional queries, helps businesses meet customers at different stages of their buying cycle and provide relevant information or calls to action.

4. Develop searcher personas and conversion workflows.

Searcher personas also provide snapshots of your potential customers at different phases of the buying cycle.

Identify target audiences. Based on search data and business goals, create detailed searcher personas that represent key segments of your potential customers. These personas should capture their goals, needs, and typical search behaviors, including the specific queries they use.

Map the customer journey. For each persona, outline a searcher conversion workflow. This maps the path a searcher takes from typing a query into a search engine to ultimately converting on your site. Key stages include:

• Search: The query and initial intent.
• Rank: Your site's visibility in results.
• SERP Display: How your listing appears (title, snippet).
• Page Content: The relevance and usability of the landing page.
• Conversion: The call to action and task completion.

Align content and goals. Use these workflows to build a content strategy that ensures each page not only ranks for target queries but also effectively meets the searcher's needs and guides them towards your business goals. Every page should have a clear purpose and a compelling call to action relevant to the searcher's likely intent.

5. Organic search is a critical, often untapped, customer acquisition channel.

Eighty-eight percent of online search dollars are spent on paid results, even though 85 percent of searchers click on organic results.

High click-through rate. Despite massive investment in paid search advertising, the vast majority of search clicks (around 85%) go to organic, non-paid results. This represents a huge, often underutilized, channel for customer acquisition.

Greater visibility and trust. Organic listings often have higher visibility than paid ads, and searchers tend to trust organic results more, perceiving them as more relevant and authoritative. Appearing in organic results can significantly boost brand awareness and credibility, even if the searcher doesn't click immediately.

Long-term value. Unlike paid search, where traffic stops when spending stops, investment in organic search (like creating valuable content) provides lasting value and continues to drive traffic over time. Ranking well organically can also enhance the performance of paid search campaigns, as appearing in both locations increases overall clicks and conversions.

6. Technical website architecture is foundational for search visibility.

If the search engine bots can’t crawl and extract content from a site’s pages, that site has little chance of ranking well in search engines for relevant queries.

Crawlability is key. Before a search engine can rank your site, its automated "bots" or "spiders" must be able to discover, access, and read your web pages. Technical issues can act as barriers, preventing search engines from seeing your content.

Common technical obstacles:

• Poor internal linking structure (pages aren't discovered).
• Slow server response or page load times (bots crawl less).
• Duplicate content issues (pages are ignored).
• Content hidden in inaccessible technologies like Flash or certain AJAX implementations.
• Incorrect use of redirects or robots.txt files.

Developers need support. Ensuring a site is technically search-friendly requires collaboration between marketing and web development teams. Developers need training, time, and executive support to build and maintain an infrastructure that facilitates crawling and indexing, using best practices like XML sitemaps, proper redirects, and semantic HTML markup.

7. Integrate search strategy across the entire organization.

A successful search strategy depends on IT and Engineering, Product Marketing, Business Development, Marketing and Advertising, PR, Customer Support, User Research, User Interaction Design, and any other department that thinks about the business, customers, product, or Web site.

Beyond a single department. Organic search acquisition is not solely the responsibility of an "SEO expert" or the marketing team. Its success relies on cross-functional collaboration and shared understanding across the company.

Shared goals and data. Departments need to align on common search-related goals and share data. For example:

• Product teams use search data for market research.
• Content writers use keyword research for messaging.
• PR teams understand how links impact ranking.
• Customer support monitors social search for issues.
• Development ensures technical searchability.

Executive buy-in. Support from top management is crucial to break down silos and empower teams to integrate search best practices into their daily work and project planning. This ensures that searchability is considered from the outset of any new initiative, rather than being an afterthought.

8. Focus on actionable metrics and true conversion attribution.

What metrics give you insight into how well you are reaching those goals?

Beyond vanity metrics. Traditional metrics like overall traffic volume, rankings reports, or total indexed pages offer limited insight into business performance. Focus instead on metrics that directly relate to your defined business and conversion goals.

Segmented conversion data. Analyze conversion rates not just overall, but segmented by the specific search queries or query categories that brought visitors to your site. This helps identify which audiences are most valuable and which content strategies are most effective at driving desired actions.

Understanding attribution. Recognize that customer journeys are complex, often involving multiple searches, site visits, and even offline interactions across different channels (organic search, paid search, display ads, social media, offline advertising). Invest in understanding how these channels influence each other and contribute to the final conversion, rather than simply crediting the last click.

9. Social media and PR significantly enhance search visibility and insights.

Social media can help on all of these fronts, working as a brand amplifier and customer support extension to deepen engagement with your customers.

Increased visibility. Active participation in social media and strategic PR efforts can lead to your brand and content appearing in search results beyond your own website. Mentions, discussions, and links from social platforms and news sites can increase your footprint for relevant queries.

Link building and authority. Links from reputable social media profiles, blogs, forums, and news articles act as votes of confidence for your site in the eyes of search engines, helping your pages rank higher. Strategic PR can generate valuable links with descriptive anchor text.

Real-time market research. Social media provides a direct channel to hear what customers are saying about your brand, competitors, and industry in real-time. Monitoring social conversations allows for immediate feedback, helps identify emerging trends, and can alert you to potential PR issues before they escalate, as seen in the TSA example.

10. The future of search is evolving beyond traditional text results.

These new search engines won’t replace Google. Rather, they’ll be additional ways we search as part of everyday activities that may not currently involve search.

New interfaces and inputs. Search is expanding beyond the traditional text box. We are seeing the rise of new search interfaces that use different inputs like images (Google Goggles, Face.com), audio (Shazam), or location and context (Urbanspoon).

Blended and real-time results. Search engines are increasingly integrating various content types (images, videos, news, social posts) directly into the main search results page. Real-time search, pulling from sources like Twitter, provides immediate information about current events and trending topics.

Personalization is increasing. Search results are becoming more tailored to individual users based on their location, search history, and even social connections. This means the "standard" search results page is becoming less common.

Prepare for evolution. Businesses must stay aware of these evolving search behaviors and technologies. While foundational principles of relevance and technical accessibility remain important, being present and providing valuable content across different platforms and media types will be key to future discoverability.

Last updated: May 11, 2025