Watlington, the founder of Searching for Profit, has dealt in both SEO and marketing for a number of years, and observed that in 2009, “We have seen some of the choppiest economic waters . . . that any of us have endured.” Obviously, this caused a lot of negative effects.

2010′s not looking entirely rosy, either, and in an interview with Abby Johnson, Watlington talked about clients cutting back budgets while expecting better results. She stated that clients can get hung up on old SEO issues that may not matter anymore, too.

Another problem then relates to changes at the search engine level, with Google’s announcement about speed really standing out. Watlington argued that cutting sites’ load times is more of an engineering task, and one that can consume a goodly amount of money at that.

Still, the news isn’t all bad. As she works with retailers, Watlington said, “I’m seeing an actual uptick in purchases.” She also issued a piece of advice that can take companies pretty far: “love your customers.”

As search engines become more sophisticated, so do the searchers. In the above video from SES Chicago, Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist for ComScore, says 73 percent of searchers are  now becoming more specific with their search queries and are looking for information and help. Although these observations strengthen a paid strategy, ComScore is seeing a shift in traffic to social media enhancers such as Yahoo! Answers, Google Blogger, and About.com.

To make the search experience more sophisticated for the user, the CPG sites need to cater to those early on in the purchase process instead of only focusing on product details and where to buy. Users want and need the opportunity to ask questions and have those questions answered.

If searchers have a positive user experience, then they will become repeat customers. Another perk with a producing a positive user experience is getting effective word-of-mouth promotion in return.