I am not sure I understand your question, so please let me know if I have got this wrong, but I think you are asking why I think online should be at the forefront of everyone’s marketing platform. The change in consumer behaviour over the last few years has resulted in most people, across all age groups and most demographic groups, looking for goods and services that they are seeking to buy locally, online. Ask yourself how many people do you know who do not search using the internet for everything in their lives. It is after all just one big library and repository of information. We have said for many years that this is how it would be, and in 2009 our predictions have become reality - every business of every size must have its online marketing strategy however much or however little they spend as the cornerstone of their advertising marketing plans.

I was reading with interest your more recent articles about 2009 trends etc, but then this piece caught my eye and i felt i had to respond.

I find the trend towards returning a whole page of results that invariably feature nothing more than a collection of different directories quite off-putting.

It is not only denting the real hard graft seo efforts of smaller businesses (like ourselves) by pushing them off of the first pages, but i suspect denting consumer confidence that they will find what they were searching for in the organic listings.

We’ve all been there - clicked on an organic link only to get lost in a maze of directories that don’t actually deliver what we were searching for and usually giving up out of frustration in the end.

This is leading to more and more home browsers becoming increasingly ’savvy’ to the fact that paid sponsored links (pay-per-click) do take them to the product/service/info they were looking for.

I think this has more to do with the increasing popularity of ppc and why revenues are increasing.

If an organic search result talks about what you were searching for in its title and description, then it should take you to that page and you shouldn’t have to spend ages hunting around. Most directories are worthless apart from their obvious seo benefits.

The downside for most small businesses is the cost of sustained ppc campaigns hence, the reliance on directory listings still. I still believe there’s no substitute for good content. Something the directory sites often lack.

Jonathan.
Technical Partner - Fabulous Photo Gifts - personalised photo gifts