Search & New Digital Markets

Within every metropolitan city or global community there exists unique digital markets of niche websites and digital community sites serving industries or social groups of people with similar interests. The activities of these social groups can influence regional industries to create new growth environments. Ways to increase your presence within these markets may be fueled by economic changes in policy or political electoral agendas, opening new markets unsaturated with search relevancy. Corresponding national and/or local events will also increase or decrease the activity level within these localized markets.

To enter these new digital markets or dominate any search interest you should understand some common facts about search marketing that allows a website to achieve first page rankings in the search engines.

In 2007, search is going through an evolution of complexity that will shape information gathering for years to come. local search and industry search will reach new heights with workable applications to connect the globe without the barrier of language. topical interests span all countries and cultures, and people and special interest groups are getting connected through the evolving intricacies of search. and topical interests will dominate search trends in new digital markets, like alternative energy.

Influence and capItalIze on hIgh-growth search trends

As a search marketing strategy, it is ideal to initiate the lead in spotting an industry trend and promoting that search trend publicly. This is especially true when it is your objective to gain clients within an industry that will soon be very competitive from an increase in related search activity.

The opposite or backward approach would be to see a market grow and then to take months to plan a strategy to saturate the market as the search trends mature.

The evolution of competition in new digital markets is slow, in my opinion, and the search trends seem to start about 1.5 - 3 years ahead of companies ranking for related revenue terms. take the keyword phrase "solar energy products," for example. This phrase was dormant until it became a derivative of "global warming."

As a result, heavy shifts in search trends both create and replace search markets and an organization's perceived value to the search market on a national, local or global scale.

So, if you have the resources to attract industry-specific business clients who themselves are experiencing high growth rates because of a national or global trend, then it is critical that you initiate energetic efforts to saturate the localized search markets within those high-growth industries.

As an example: using "energy" as the root word, consider the relationship between nanofilms, the solar panel industry and real estate:

Cause: technological advances in nanofilms allow glass windows the capability to be more energy efficient than ever before and even convert those windows to solar energy collectors for cost effective use in residential and commercial applications.

Effect: Building developers become much more interested in constructing eco-friendly homes and offices, as the technology is now more accessible, marketable and cost-effective. in addition, recent political and policy changes offer tax breaks to those developers building ecofriendly structures.

The search effect: new keyword searches will create search brands in industries and markets spurred by high growth rates in related searches.

Searches for "green homes" will return results for nanofilm windows and solar panels. Searches for "nanofilms" will return results for solar-powered homes, solar panel windows or eco-friendly buildings. The real estate agent thinking ahead of the curve will optimize for keywords and phrases related to nanofilms and solar panels, while the solar panel manufacturer should optimize for searches for eco-friendly or green homes.

It is important to remember that some search brands are transitional, as the public's choice for keyword phrases dominates searches as trends mature. Your site's perceived value will depend on your ability to capitalize on transitional and permanent digital shifts in search traffic.

The strategy is to create and saturate new online search markets, influenced by high search-driven social trends at a growth-rate similar to the increased search activity of the new industry keyword phrase.

However, if an organization attempts to create and label a new digital market with their own brand or keyword phrase to describe the change, they will typically find rejection for that search term. after all, it's the public who is doing all the searching, not the organization. Search history has shown that it is better to identify the new search phrases that will soon represent a growing digital market and create products or services around accepted phrases. The key is to identify those high growth keyword-driven markets as early as possible, before complete saturation by the competition.

in the end, natural search will fortify your brand when the competition grows. You will benefit from the large, future budgets spent on the new digital markets and their chosen keyword phrases. Being first to market will also deflect the fury of competition and rising ppC prices associated with growth.

About the Author: Tim Langmeier is founder of The SEO Agency. If you would like more information on growing Digital Markets and the influence of Search, contact The SEO Agency at media@theseoagency.com