Writing a book about a multibillion-dollar company that affects over 1 billion people on this planet can be intimidating, especially when the book is about a strategy that can show you how to dominate Google for your brand, company, product, or service. And to make it more interesting, Google changes its algorithm 500–600 times per year!

Because I wanted this book to be the most powerful book that has ever been written on the subject of digital marketing, search engines, and, specifically, Google, I decided to reach out to some of my colleagues, who are some of the best and brightest search engine experts and digital marketing gurus in the United States. As a matter of fact, my network's clientele generates billions of dollars in revenue annually. I also wanted to make sure that I had the most objective strategies and best practices, as well as all the secret tips I could get my hands on so I could give them all to you!

I had the honor of speaking to, interviewing, and brainstorming with the following people:

• Rand Fishkin, Cofounder of MOZ, best-selling author for SEO
• JD Rucker, President of Dealer Authority
• Michael Cirillo, CEO of FlexDealer
• Christian Jorn, President of Remora
• Tim Martell, President of Wikimotive
• Eric Miltsch, President of Command Z, automotive consulting

I asked my network of experts the same question for the last chapter of this book, the bonus chapter:Where do you see Google going in the future as it relates to SEO?

SEO is rapidly becoming more of a significant strategic element of the marketing and communication efforts of today's business. SEO is no longer the lone responsibility of an overly aggressive web marketer simply looking to rank a website for basic keyword terms. SEO is visibility in today's world. It does not matter what industry you are in. It doesn't matter if you are a person, a company, an artist, a brand. Everyone needs to be visible in today's overly content- and stimulus-saturated world.

Integrated search efforts now involve multiple disciplines, strategies, and departments; public relations (PR), product marketing, copy writing, and even web development are contributing to successful search marketing initiatives.

We're experiencing a massive shift within Google as it moves from being a web of links toward being a web of linking people. The newest portion of content on the Internet is user-generated (social), and this helps create new opportunities for trusted, helpful content. Google is working tirelessly to add the information contained within this layer to the search engine results by connecting and ranking our social connections as well. This will help usher in a new age of implicit trust between strangers as they search for what's most important to them online.

Another item contributing to this change in behavior is the mobile device segment. Mobile devices have expanded the buying spectrum by introducing new scenarios, such as subconscious shopping behaviors further out in the buying phase, while also introducing new heights of instant gratification closer to the final decision-making stage. Google also knows that it must provide the most accurate and helpful local search results as well.

Local directory optimization is among the most neglected elements of a marketing plan, and it's quickly becoming one of the most effective ways to connect users and convert them into customers. Content that addresses both technical and social needs among local citations will have an immediate positive impact. Consistent business names, addresses, and phone numbers are vital. Other key elements, such as business categories, new images of the business, and positive reviews, not only help create customer actions but also are specific items Google looks for to create local search authority.

The final piece of this shift is the manner in which Google can understand the connection between words and actually understand the context of a page within a website. Google's ability to understand the meaning of words is helping build the Semantic Web. This will create an Internet that provides even more specific results when a user is seeking answers and information. It's this change that will push a new wave of marketing integration as companies see the opportunities to develop internal media departments who exist for the sole purpose of developing incredibly rich content.

Google's largest search engine update, called Hummingbird, is just the tip of the iceberg for its ability to help understand the context of pages and match those results to our specific intent. This will shape conversation search and create even better user experiences versus Google serving us plain vanilla marketing content. The content provided will be truly beneficial as the personalization will speak to us clearer than ever and eliminate ineffective and irrelevant content.

Add layers of social content being injected into the Internet every day, and you have another major contribution factor with the introduction of content that is conversational, influential, and trusted.

So, what does this all mean for the future of SEO?

As long as there are search engines, there will be a need to categorize, rank, and serve up content within the search results to users. The methods by which this is done need to change to provide a better, trusted user experience for Google's user base, while taking into consideration our changing device behaviors and including more personal connections within the search results.

The first expert I spoke with, Eric Miltsch, says he sees many other changes contributing to the evolving search ecosystem. His comments are as follows:

Natural language search behaviors will continue to increase and improve, creating the need for more expert, authoritative, and trustworthy content that will answer specific questions users have. Google's ability to understand the content via machine readable data and Semantic Web technologies will shape this movement.

Personalized search results will also continue to grow as Google connects social content to provide greater results by understanding context better. This will also help marketing messages speak directly to user intent even faster. Specific needs and desires will be spoken to directly, speeding up the decision-making process, while also reducing the number of final sources needed to make a buying decision.

Topic modeling will replace the focus on keyword phrases and individual rankings as Google aims to provide more specific answers to our search queries.

The best SEO efforts going forward will also include more proactive web development and technical abilities referring specifically to mobile speed performance and more efficient site structure. Improving the user experience will include more than just content improvements; providing technology enhancements per Google's recommendations will also reward your search efforts.

Here's what JD Rucker had to say:

We've had a decade of search being pretty much more of the same. There have been great innovations, and the engines have developed methods of detecting the majority of spam, which is good. Now, Google is going to focus on reinventing search for the next decade.

They have a good chunk of the data they need. Now, they simply need to teach computers to truly understand humans. Their investment into quantum computing is the solution. Imagine personalized search that knows you better than you know yourself, literally. Google will have the ability to make recommendations to people based upon trends it has collected about individuals as well as outside forces. For example, if you tend to like restaurants that others have indicated put too much salt in their dishes, Google will know that you like salty foods without having to tell it that. You won't have to ask your mobile device to “Take me to McDonald's” or “Take me to an Italian restaurant.” Instead, you'll be able to say, “Take me to a restaurant I'll enjoy.”

It goes much deeper than that, but within a decade we will see search turning into much more of a direct knowledge, a recommendation engine, rather than a place to do search. It's very exciting to watch it unfold.

I asked internationally recognized SEO expert Rand Fishkin, “What is the most important opportunity (or thing) that a person or company can focus on to be successful with SEO, specifically how to dominate Google?” In addition to everything that was outlined in this book (all the unique Googleopoly strategies), Rand mentioned the following:

People have their own expertise and knowledge and should focus on that. Google wants unique, relevant content and it wants a lot of it. So, people should focus on what they know the most about or what they specialize in and create diversified content on all of the mediums (Googleopoly strategies) accordingly.

Tim Martell of Wikimotive goes a step further and says that the content can't just be unique or relevant. It also must be remarkable! This means that the content you create must be so remarkable it causes someone to take action or experience emotion. This is what Google is looking for, says Tim.

Rand Fishkin and Michael Cirillo both predict that Google is going to enhance its Knowledge Graph search functionality. Specifically, Google is going to try to provide the most important and most searched information via the Knowledge Graph—it will provide not only information but also real-time resources and functionality. This is going to neutralize the need for the searcher to click through to a website. This will make it much easier to get information based on the context of your search.

To be specific, they predict that the Knowledge Graph will:

• Be broader
• Provide competing pricing
• Provide different restaurant options
• Provide different hotel options
• Provide “what other people searched for”
• Provide different automotive car models
• Provide the ability to search for a restaurant and book a reservation
• Provide the ability to check movie listing times and buy tickets

Here's what Christian Jorn had to say about the future of organic search.

Over the last five years we have seen Google completely change its business model from an impartial traffic director into a total destination website. I expect this trend will continue. Google is not a charity and stockholders demand growth. The only workable way that Google can keep up with these demands is by morphing into a new scrape and displace ideology. When Google went public in 2004, Larry Page said he wanted to get search engine users “out of Google and to the right place as fast as possible.”

Now the only “right place” is a Google property. It will continue to gobble up entire industries, just like it did to the online travel and booking industries and the airlines. Google sees an opportunity to “be the value add” and turn everyone else into a commodity. It is these large industries that were its biggest advertisers and are in large part the reason for the wild success of Google. Scrape and displace is working well for Google now; the only question is will it work long term? I think no.

As for myself, I believe that Google will continue to evolve and will provide faster, more accurate search results. I believe that Google will utilize everything at its fingertips like social media, localization, personalization, ratings, and reviews to “think about” what would be the absolute best search return for an individual, instead of in general. For example, I believe Google will be able to recognize (and keep track) of an individual person's likes and dislikes, as well as identify what an individual's friends like or dislike. It will be able to see the types of things a person searches for, and the types of places a person checks into on Facebook or Foursquare. I also predict that Google will evolve its Knowledge Graph and make it more robust and real-time interactive.

So Google will combine the deeper details—more specific and more relevant search returns for an individual—with the more robust return via a Knowledge Graph. And that is just the beginning!