Recent progress in the way we communicate through the Internet have been less about conventional broadcast media and more about interactive, two way contact. As this type of communication develops it will undoubtedly affect the way search engines operate and by default the process of Online Marketing.

Conventional media “broadcasts” a message to the intended audience, whether it is in the form of a tabloid or an commercial (physical or digital) which exposes the reader, listener or watcher to a idea. The communication is one way and the proposed audience is told something, in fact “talked at”.

Established methods of Online Marketing carried out by the marketing sector and in recent times the relatively new genre of Search Engine Optimisation companies (SEO Company) are aimed at the way that Google (predominantly) accesses web pages. This is a variety of broadcast media not too unlike to a newspaper albeit with digital trickery to make the incidence more attractive.

Is this all about to alter? Are the accepted Search Engine Placement services about to become less valuable? Assuming the internet continues to progress along the same lines as it has for the last ten years, we can expect to see the use of the web becoming more embedded in our day to day real time lives. It will develop into more of a delivery platform as opposed to an information source, a concierge as opposed to a librarian. If we are using the net in real time that connection will become two way and transactional, broadcast methods will offer a superficial experience and become obsolete.

Once a buyer can connect with the seller of the product or service through two way communication just reading a website will be less than rewarding. At this point traditional Search Engine Placement services become obsolete and Online Marketing becomes about making connections not recognising content.

The smart Search Engine Optimization Company will be looking at how that conversation can take place in an environment that is so packed with information. If at all possible, a buyer is exposed to a seller (or a number of sellers) in an environment where he can actually interrogate and compare their product, ask for detail and maybe even tailor the product or service to his requirement before he makes the conclusion to buy.

Instead of offering website optimisation for a fixed broadcast, online marketing may be about promoting links and may take place on Twitter, chatrooms, forums even within games where product placement is already beginning to take place.