Stay ahead with up to date search engine marketing news

To say that the search engine marketing industry can be changeable could be considered an understatement.  It’s not surprising online businesses feel like chameleons crossing a 1970’s disco dance floor - constantly having to adapt to the search engines changing their algorithms, both in organic search and increasingly now paid search as well, with Google’s quality score and Yahoo’s Panama platform. 

As in any industry, Partnerships also come and go.  Just two or three years ago, a large number of the main search engines displayed results from a different search engine partner, i.e. Yahoo used to show Google organic results, MSN – Inktomi results, etc. 

However, it’s a vastly different playing field today, with each major search engine taking ownership of the results they display.  This means staying on top of industry developments is an essential, however, time consuming part of every search marketers role. 

So what does this mean for search engine marketing?  Well, some may say a big headache!  But the trick to staying on top of the constantly evolving search engine marketing field and latest developments is to evolve with it… sponge up the information, and the best way to do this is to monitor search engine news websites.  However, with hundreds of sites offering information, it is all too easy to get totally bogged down.

The cornerstone of search engine and search engine marketing news for 10 years has been Search Engine Watch (SEW) –  – originally set up by Danny Sullivan, the most recognisable name in the industry. 

In 1997, Danny sold SEW to Jupiter Media, and more recently Jupiter sold on to Incisive Media.  In recent months, Danny has chosen not to renew his contract with Incisive and has now left SEW.

11^th December 2006 will see Danny start up again with a new site, Search Engine Land, taking with him some of the other leading figures at SEW, including Chris Sherman (the man behind most of the Search Engine Strategies conferences) and Barry Schwartz (who also runs a leading search engine blog at www.seroundtable.com).

When Danny launched SEW, it was the first site of its kind, rounding up news and tutorials about search engines and search engine optimisation.  These days there are hundreds, if not thousands of blogs and forums where the discussion of search marketing is common-place.  None the less, SEW has been able to remain at the top of the pile in terms of credibility and depth. 

With Danny Sullivan now setting up in competition against the site, it is expected that Search Engine Land will become the next first point of call for anyone associated with search engine marketing.

You can subscribe to their email newsletter or RSS feed now at http://searchengineland.com/feeds.html