3G Search Engine Marketing

In the early days of search engine marketing, the mistaken approach was to "beat" the search engines. Read how things have moved on in advanced search engine marketing since then.

These techniques were often referred to as black hat - a reference to the "dark side" of SEO, where web sites often hid content or used bait and switch techniques to artificially boost their search engine positions. Some agencies still use these techniques - beware.

Before long, search engines became wise to this and unethical techniques have become less and less effective, although some practitioners, largely in the adult, gambling and pharmaceutical sectors, still try it on.

The second generation of search engine marketing was heralded by the introduction of pay per click (PPC) advertising, such as Google AdWords. Flexible, measurable and highly effective, PPC represented a breakthrough in the way search campaigns could be planned, deployed and measured.

As brands began to recognise its advantages, both organic and paid search was increasingly integrated into mainstream marketing strategy and delivered strategic benefits and applications far beyond just driving traffic to web sites, as Weboptimiser's search engine marketing case studies demonstrate.

As search strategies became more sophisticated, with techniques such as pre-emptive optimisation, SEO PR and campaign-specific micro-sites, the time was right for a new generation of search: Third Generation Search Engine Marketing.

As the concept of '3G' has come to refer to the next generation of marketing, namely on mobile devices, 3GSEM represents the most advanced vision and technology of search engine marketing - it works across all media, not just mobiles.