Today one of the biggest concerns for owners of online businesses is their placement in the search engines, especially Google, Yahoo! and MSN. For many companies losing top placement in the search engines would be devastating. But how are the search engines affecting business in general?

I've been with an SEO company for about three years now and getting results for our clients is getting a lot harder than it used to be. Three years ago you could simply stuff a website with keywords and it'd be on the first page of Google for the desired keywords. Today it takes at least three to six months to see good results for any keywords worth going after. What I'm wondering is if it's changed this much in the last three years how much more will it change in the next three? Or five? Or ten?

I see things going something like this. As internet access becomes more available and portable the use of search engines is going to increase more and more. On the other hand there are still only going to be ten spots on the first page for search results. This means that the same group of ten to twenty websites is going to get more and more business. As these companies grow they will be able to spend more money on other kinds of advertising such as print and television advertising. As these get more aggressive in their advertising they are going to be able to push out the other companies that depend on the business that comes from print ads and commercials.

How long until this becomes reality? It's already starting to happen in some markets. For businesses in very competitive markets they are already feeling the squeeze being put on by their competitors who are enjoying the top ten ranking. To those who aren't there now all I can do is suggest you do whatever you have to do to get yourself top placement in the search engines. For some businesses the short term return on investment might be small but come on, this is the future. Plan ahead before its too late.

I hope I've gotten your thoughts running. One thing I see is people only worrying about next week and next month. Five years is a long way away and ten years is even farther but I know that five years ago doesn't seem that long ago and if I knew then what I knew now I'd be retired already. Don't be the guy who in five years wishes he had taken care of this now. Instead be the guy who in five years is reaping the benefits of his foresight.

Jeffrey Henderson
Director of Marketing
ViP Search Engine Marketing
(877) 484-7736 ext.209
www.vipsem.com