Google Universal Search will change the SEO market landscape, and SEO activities has to be spread to variety of digital assets, as it is said by Lee Odden on Online Marketing Blog. I recommend to read the very detailed article about implications of Google Universal Search from Danny Sullivan.
In brief, depending on what users search for, the results page on Google Universal Search could feature sections with images, video, links to book content, maps or local business listings.
SEO implications for integrated search results were obvious before (this is not a new approach to the presentation of search results), but now, day-to-day activities of SEO people have to be spread with the optimization of other distribution channels (the sources of vertical searches, presented in integrated search results).
In other words, there has to be done a separate (and different) tasks for the optimization in news results, video results, local listings…
Integrated SEO approach and Marketing Operations Management (MOM)
Described new entrance of activities in SEO business process are also in collision with appropriate online PR activities (like a news placements, choosing different media format and places strategies, etc.). Increased number of SEO tasks, and its relations with adequate online PR tasks, has to be managed in a bigger perspective of complete (online) marketing operations in an organization.
In my opinion, companies which decide to implement integrated in-house approach of advance SEO activities (SEO 2.0), they can do very good job of integrating all online activities, from the point of relating business processes and the cooperation between different parts of marketing department, if they did not do the integration of (online) marketing activities before. It means that an appropriate marketing model* has to be set, to meet desirable outputs related to the goals of marketing department.
* Marketing model – In the context of (online) marketing, models simulate real-life marketing activities.
For outsourced SEO activities, the management problem is moved to the organization of SEO agency’s day-to-day activities.
SEO is not equal to online PRÂ
The reason why I emphasize the importance of good project management, related to integrated SEO approach, lies in the problems which can be seen in relatively new Search Engine Reputation Management activities of SEO professionals.
The people who are not adequately educated in online PR (SEO people are not online PR experts – see the briefing about the needs in online PR industry), take some actions (a creation of massive number of posts, for example) which can directly damage the reputation of target organization, due to increase need for hiding some other incriminated content on the Web.
With the new tasks like news placements (placements on the news aggregators), the work with video materials (how to optimize what video should be on youtube.com), and similar tasks, has to be done with the cooperation between SEO people and appropriate professionals in online PR, or with other persons in (online) marketing department.
Of course, there is another problem for middle and large business companies in the case of integrated SEO approach, such as digital assets management, or the problems related to lack of document management software systems.
