“The Great Equalizer” – it sounds like some sort of powerful relic, or perhaps something related to political correctness. It’s neither of these things, though, and it’s also not the Internet, Google, or search marketing; according to Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock, it’s your common sense.
At SEW Live in Ohio, Laycock explained that you and your marketing are only as good as your ideas. Search engines, she said, are attempting to become more and more human (or, rather, their designers are trying to program those tendencies into them), so there is no longer any sort of magic formula.
Laycock dubbed this trend the Pinocchio Effect, and believes that it is already in play. She firmly stated that there is no sandbox – it makes no sense, according to the Search Engine Guide editor – and said that, like a person visiting an Ethiopian restaurant instead of a Chinese takeout place, search engines attempt to find uncommon content.
As Google’s, Yahoo’s, and Ask’s little Pinocchios become real boys, tracking click-thrus and latent semantic advertising are on the horizon.
This leaves just three rules of organic search, according to Laycock. First, speak the customer’s language. Second, understand the search buying cycle. And third, searchers must learn to be more effective, building interest, doing research, and making purchases. And the number one rule of pay-per-click: it’s not about buying clicks, it’s about buying customers.
Want to gain some more insight on these subjects? Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide guru, recommends reading Dale Carnegie’s 1937 book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” After all, the Great Equalizer is just common sense.
