The search engine landscape is evolving again. The number of important sources of traffic is becoming smaller. But is the job of an SEO easier? Lets take a quick look at some recent industry shake-ups. AOL has recently announced they will drop Overture and Inktomi in exchange for Google Adwords and Google's free listings. Inktomi is experiencing tough times financially but may have partnership opportunities in the near future. Excite is now back as a meta-engine with help from InfoSpace. Finally, Looksmart has made a recent, sudden switch to a total PPC model, which has in the process upset many customers and SEOs. Can they rebound?

From these industry changes emerges a new, shorter list of important search engines and directory referral sources. SEO's will likely now focus on: Google, AOL (through Google), MSN (through Inktomi and Looksmart), and Yahoo!, with the addition of an Overture PPC campaign. Google Adwords is another PPC option, but with (often) higher prices, no position guarantee, and the possibility of free traffic from Google, it is not a smart spending option for many clients. Compared with the long list of search engines from two years ago, it would seem easy to optimize for this new short list of traffic-producing engines. In fact, some say that it is easier than ever to get traffic; just manage a few pay-per-click accounts. While there is no doubt about the traffic numbers PPC can generate, it is an expensive alternative to the recent years of virtually free traffic.

An SEO's job is to provide inexpensive website traffic. The SEO industry has flourished because of the ROI it offers clients. As search engines move to pay-for-traffic models, SEO firms are finding it increasingly difficult to give clients the same return for each dollar spent. SEO is far from dead, however. SEO management of free traffic, pay-for-inclusion, and pay-per-click traffic can still offer clients a far better ROI than if they managed PPC accounts themselves.

There are still opportunities for many free clicks from Google. With the recent AOL deal, Google may command close to 50% of the global Internet traffic market. Sound huge? It is. Virtually all free traffic now comes from Google. With their new audience reach, optimizing for "Googzilla" has just become much more important and fiercely competitive. Only good optimization will be able to produce lots of high-quality free traffic for its clients.

SEO's can also provide clients with a much higher ROI on pay-per-click and Pay-For-Inclusion listings. From the beginning, search engine optimization has required a great deal of keyword phrase research. Pay-per-click models do not negate this basic rule. In fact, picking the right keyword phrases just became more important. It may seem easy to pick general terms and phrases that relate to your topic, but:

• Can you balance spending on broad, 2-word term listings and narrower 3 word phrase listings with varying bid ranges to maximize ROI?
• Which keyword phrases are actually converting to sales? Which are not?
• Are your titles and descriptions right for the target audience?
• Do you always know when a competitor has dropped a bid price far below yours?
• Would it be more cost-effective to keep a listing in the #3 position?
• What is the most effective for your product line: Overture, Google, or a combination of both?
• Should you still try Looksmart?
• Should you include all of your pages in Inktomi? Should you pay for a Yahoo listing? Which will generate enough traffic to justify the inclusion costs?

Each client/website will have different answers. If you don't know this information, you are essentially throwing away your money.

Although the focus of search engine marketing shifted, the job is not an easier one. Google's free listings are becoming increasingly important to search engine marketing. It is now even more important that SEO's know the in's and out's of Google, how to avoid being removed from the index, and how to achieve top rankings on converting terms. Other players (Looksmart and Inktomi) have suffered setbacks, but still drive qualified traffic (for a price). New partnerships are emerging at a blistering pace. Pay-Per-Click revenue models are growing in popularity, and SEO's are learning new methods to produce valuable results for clients. Pay for Inclusion (Inktomi, Yahoo) may also produce a good return, but not for all websites. In spite of constant industry change, the search engine optimization process remains a complex art. Achieving the best results requires SEO firms to have experience with an extensive and specialized set of variables.