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

Historic media “broadcasts” a message to the anticipated audience, whether it is in the form of a newspaper or an advertisement (physical or digital) which exposes the reader, listener or watcher to a concept. The communication is one way and the planned audience is told something, in essence “talked at”.

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

Is this all about to morph? 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 10 years, we can expect to see the use of the internet becoming more implanted in our day to day real time lives. It will become more of a delivery platform as opposed to an information supply, a concierge as opposed to a librarian. If we are accessing the net in real time that association will become two way and transactional, broadcast techniques will offer a superficial experience and become a thing of the past.

Once a buyer can connect with the seller of the product or service through two way communication only 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 identifying content.

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

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