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Silverback Strategies was recently invited to speak to students of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. We sat down with one particular class to take a look at trends in search marketing, its history and current best practices in organic and paid search.

Course students included diverse marketing and business majors, many of whom are already working in the field. Some were new to SEM, others were very technically sophisticated.

“Any time we speak, the most important message we can convey is how dynamic SEM is. You can’t set-it-and-forget-it,” said Nelson. “Major shifts like Google’s Panda update and continual algorithm changes are continually shaking things up in this business. Anyone who is going into SEM needs to understand that environment to be successful.”

Panda is the name of Google’s latest major algorithm update that radically changed how Google ranks websites. The new algorithm puts far more emphasis on content quality and other characteristics that align with actual user priorities.

“Google changes their algorithm nearly 500 times each year, so we must continually adjust our clients’ search strategies to maintain their rankings,” adds Nelson. “There are literally hundreds of content, linking, and architectural factors that go into the ranking formula – and I think that came as a surprise to some of these students.”

Not surprisingly, the Georgetown students were particularly intrigued at how social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and emerging social media such as Google+ are becoming increasingly influential to search results.

“Our goal was to leave these students with a basic understanding of today’s search landscape and to start a smart conversation that could hopefully bring some real value to their careers as future marketers,” says Welsh.