Google is being transformed into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. This is being termed as a major change to how Google’s search results are going to work. It’s a development that brands and business with an online presence need to scrutinise minutely.

EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta spoke to Adam Crawford, Senior SEO Manager (Europe), Cheapflights Media, Emilie Mouquot, Head of Global Online Marketing and Pleasance Coddington, Global Content and Social Media Manager about the latest trends in search marketing and social search.

What do you think were the major developments for SEO and PPC in 2011?

Adam Crawford (SEO-related):

The release of Google+ was a big indicator of Google’s desire to take social signals into account. We’re thinking of this more in terms of greater levels of personalisation that Google can offer users based upon their social networks and activity, rather than hard, across-the-board signals like link popularity.

Emilie Mouquot (PPC-related):

2011 saw major changes at the ad copy level on Google which gave marketers an amazing opportunity to significantly improve CTR. The introduction of longer headlines and the release of 3 lines of sitelinks gave more space to Paid on the search result page and bumped down SEO listings – good for PPC but bad for SEO!

What should the travel sector watch out for when it comes to search marketing in 2012?

Adam Crawford: On the organic front: more personalisation. Google’s latest offering “Search Plus Your World” seeks to bring greater definition to personalisation whilst bringing new data sources into your results page. This may shift the marketing emphasis for travel companies to focus on an earlier stage in the buying cycle to give a greater chance of being visible at the latter stages.

Emilie Mouquot: We should watch out for developments of Google’s Flight Search quietly expanding its routes. Flight Search could either become a threat or a new opportunity for online travel agencies. Only recently, Google started testing paid ads on Flight Search which could potentially be a new opportunity should Google decide to open it up to all online travel agencies.

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