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Search Engine Marketing Simplified
Search Engine Marketing is a process. It is not a single act or one-time investment, and should not be treated as such. Properly planned, executed, and maintained, this process can substantially improve your company's Internet presence, thereby generating increasing numbers of qualified leads and customers. Why Search Engine Marketing Matters There are now an estimated 430 million people online in the world, that's double the number from just a year earlier.1 The World Wide Web population is growing at an astronomical rate, and there seems little chance of it slowing in the near future as the number of people online represents only about 7 per cent of the total world population. With so many people looking for products and services online, mostly through search engines, it only makes sense to have your company's website listed. Search engine users are looking for something specific. If they are looking for a hosting service for instance, then they probably intend to purchase a hosting plan. In marketing terms, they are qualified buyers. They know what they want, are looking specifically for a place to get it, but just haven't found the right provider. Using Search Engine Marketing, you can target these pre-qualified visitors and drive them to your website. The estimated conversion rate from search engine traffic is significantly higher than online advertisements, bulk email messages, and other marketing methods. The cost of implementing a successful Search Engine Marketing strategy can also be much less than conventional advertising methods and the benefits are easy to spot. For an illustration, check here: http://www.anduro.com/case-study-perfect.html Search Engine Marketing may help your business by:
With regard to branding, a recent study by the Dieringer Research Group reported that 40 per cent of Internet users in America changed their opinions of brands due to information gathered online.2 This not only reinforces the importance of attracting maximum quality traffic to your website, it also highlights the importance of visitors being able to find relevant information about your products and services once they are there. Many companies invest significant resources to build a website, yet do not consider how to get people there. Other firms are successful at driving current customers to their site, but are not using the Web to generate new business. This is a huge missed opportunity, and these companies are often amazed when they learn how many Internet queries are conducted every day by people looking for exactly what they offer. Companies of all types and sizes are successfully using Search Engine Marketing to improve their overall marketing ROI. The Importance of Analysis The first phase of any Search Engine Marketing strategy must begin with critical planning procedures. First, examine your company's current website and analyze its strengths and weaknesses from a search engine perspective. Then examine the websites of some of your competitors to discover the strengths and weakness you might exploit to improve your site ranking. This information is very useful in later phases of the Search Engine Marketing process. One of the objectives of preliminary analysis is to eliminate guesswork. Is your website delivering all that it could be? Do you have a vague feeling that site performance is satisfactory, but could be improved? Benchmark your company's website before, during, and after any Internet Marketing programs to have a quantitative measurement of its effectiveness. Set a benchmark score against which you can measure the before and after progress of Internet Marketing strategies and improvements to your website. Anduro Marketing can help you through this process using our 20 Point Internet Marketing Inspection. With this inspection, we perform measurements of your company's web visibility by checking your site for blocks to search engine indexing, keyword traffic volumes, search engine rankings, and more. Once this analysis is complete, recommendations can be made and your company will be in a strong position to embark on the next phase of its Search Engine Marketing strategy. Pay per Click Search Engines Once your company's website has been analyzed, one method of generating qualified traffic instantly is through use of Pay per Click search engines. Also known as 'paid listings' or 'bid for location', these search engines sell placement within their search results. Companies bid for placement in search results on keywords relevant to their businesses, and pay the search engine only when a consumer clicks on their listing. From the searcher's point of view, this can focus the search to those companies large enough to advertise in this way. For the advertising companies, this is a cost effective way to bring targeted customer leads to their websites. Many of the Pay per Click search engines share or sell the top portion of their listings to other search engines, greatly increasing the exposure for businesses bidding for top position. For instance, popular Pay per Click search engine Overture lends its results to Yahoo!, while AdWords is Google's paid listing service. The major advantage of Pay per Click search engines is that you can bid for any keyword phrase, although popular (high traffic) keywords can be expensive. Bidding wars can occur, especially with the automatic bidding feature that some larger companies use. However, it is relatively easy to estimate the cost of a keyword campaign, and many keywords can be bid on for 10 or 11 cents and bring in very qualified traffic. Note that the search terms with the highest traffic are not always the best ones to bid for as competition may be high and they may not pertain directly to your website. Strategies to manage Pay per Click include:
Anduro Marketing can assist you to set up these services to quickly generate qualified traffic to your website. As later phases of the process generate increased natural listings, paid listings can be reduced. A strong Pay per Click campaign can give your site the boost it needs as you move forward in your Search Engine Marketing strategy. High Performance Keywords When someone types in a search term, the search engine will return the most relevant results based on the information it has stored. These results are most frequently described as natural listings and are the target of a good Search Engine Marketing strategy. Research shows that most people will respond to a search ranking in the top 30 natural listings. The proper use of effective keywords in your website is the key to high search engine ranking. Researching High Performance keywords and keyword phrases is a crucial step in your Search Engine Marketing strategy. It's not enough to just to have keywords appear your coding or content, you need to use phrases people are actually using in their searches. Keyword phrases related to your business also need a reasonable volume of traffic. It is of little value to get high search engine ranking for keywords that no one is seeking. Keywords are the magnets that will attract search engine "spiders" and have a large impact on how your website will perform with search engines. These keywords should be directly related to the information, products, and services included on your company's website. They can be monitored for the volume of searches being done by Internet users against a reasonable number of competing pages to ensure that high Search Engine positioning can be obtained. Well chosen keywords should be seeded throughout the site content. This is the most important place for keywords to be found. Ensuring a large amount of interesting, original content infused with High Performance keywords means your website will be ranked higher by search engines. High Performance Keywords can also impact your company's website indirectly. The Internet presence of your site is a result, in part, of the number of in-bound links and the strength of each link. As an additional effect, links to your site from others with high search engine ranking may funnel traffic to your site, potentially increasing its own ranking. It is important to keep in mind that as your products and services change, you will need to make changes to related pages on your website, including keyword selection and placement. Also, along with your company, searcher sophistication, and search engine algorithms are changing frequently. Be prepared to make modifications based on these factors, and continue to keep an eye on your competitors, who will also be making changes. Due to the potential frequency of these changes, an ongoing maintenance program will help retain strong keyword positioning and visitor traffic. Anduro Marketing performs a very systematic analysis of potential keywords. We determine the best keywords by researching Internet usage and compiling a list of terms that people are actually using for searches and how many competing websites are using those terms. Under proper conditions, if the High Performance Keywords are selected correctly, any page using them will likely rank within the first 3 pages of results from the major search engines. Remember, High Performance Keywords are literally the "keys" to better Search Engine positioning and increased traffic for your company. Used correctly on your websites informational or marketing pages, they are a powerful element of your Search Engine Marketing strategy. Marketing Pages Websites made up of dynamically generated pages, using Flash technology, built in Frames, or using certain eCommerce shopping carts can hinder search engines from properly reading them. In such cases, Marketing Pages are an excellent alternative for websites that incorporate search engine unfriendly technologies. Marketing Pages are static HTML pages that look nearly identical to your website and are hosted on your server. Their primary purpose is to be indexed by search engines. They have been proven to get high ranking with Google, Yahoo!, and many other search engines. In order to help search engines to direct qualified, targeted traffic to your website, the headings, text, and coding on the Marketing Pages are composed around High Performance Keywords. They are then individually submitted to major search engines to improve the success of acceptance. Potential visitors, using related keyword phrases, will find the Marketing Pages and, if interested, click through to your website. The main objective of these Marketing Pages is to expand your Search Engine Marketing program by circumventing the problems that can occur with dynamic pages, though search engines are progressing in this area. Keep in mind that you can also use them simply to add more content to your existing website. More content allows for more keywords and more links which will lead to higher search engine ranking. Be aware that Marketing Pages are not the same as doorway pages that you may have heard about. They are not redirects or spam landing pages such as those used to try and fool search engines, many of which are now being eliminated from search engine results. Marketing pages hosted on your server under your company's domain simply create a search engine friendly alternative to the dynamic pages which may not work well with search engines. As with all elements of your Search Engine Marketing strategy, Marketing Pages must be kept up to date and accurately reflect any changes to your company's marketing strategy and collateral. With a good system in place, site maintenance can be handled easily and at less cost than traditional advertising methods. Anduro Marketing excels in creating and deploying our eSignPost Marketing Pages with the goal of optimizing your website's search engine compatibility. Search Engine Optimization The term Search Engine Optimization specifically refers to modifying a website for maximum search engine and visitor effectiveness, but this is really a combination of the topics discussed so far. To narrow the idea of Search Engine Optimization down somewhat, there are a few factors to focus on in terms of the makeup of your company's website. The primary objective is to optimize the content and coding of your web pages so search engines can easily read and catalogue the company's website. The purpose of content editing is to develop site content that is unique, understandable, concise, and promotes the company's offerings. Seeding the content with the proper density of High Performance Keywords will lead to higher search engine ranking. Website code should be as neat as possible. It is preferable to have any CSS or JavaScript code referenced from an external file. High Performance Keywords should then be placed in prominent positions in the code. These include the TITLE, META, ALT, and COMMENT tags. Keep in mind that search engines read from top to bottom, so placement of keywords high on the page is important. HEADING tags are also search engine magnets. While considering website design, it is important to evaluate site navigation to ensure that it is simple and effective, allowing search engines and visitors to follow a clear path through the links in the website. For this reason, having a sitemap is very useful. Once your website is properly optimized, it will be ready for submission to major search engines. Anduro Marketing's optimization service creates websites that can be easily accepted and indexed by search engines. Proper Search Engine Optimization will increase qualified traffic and generate customer inquiries that can ultimately be converted to sales. Be sure your website meets proper optimization criteria to enhance the effectiveness of your Search Engine Marketing strategy. Website Criteria for Search Engine Optimization A company may have a visually stunning website, but if search engines can't index the content, potential customers won't find it and a shiny website becomes simply another piece of cyberspace debris. The following 6 criteria will determine whether or not search engines will be able to "read" your company's website and result in high keyword ranking. 1. Hosting Server and Domain Name If your website is hosted on a secure server, then it is inaccessible to search engines. Consider changing servers for the main site and keeping critical data on the secure host. Also, if your domain name has a re-direct from your Home page, it will be difficult for search engines to read the site content. 2. Use of Flash or Frames If your website uses Flash, Frames, or dynamically generated content, it may be difficult for search engines to index the pages correctly. One solution is the creation of static HTML Marketing Pages. 3. Links and Crawling For a search engine to find all the pages on your company's website there must be links between them. An excellent way to do this is with a site map. It is good practice to ensure there are no dead ends or "orphan" pages and there is an organized link structure throughout your company's website. 4. Optimized and Readable Content The written content of the website should be professional and original. High quantities of quality content are search engine magnets. The more targeted your keyword seeded content, the easier it is to attain high search engine ranking, and the easier it is for potential customers to find you. 5. Keyword Optimization These keywords are what potential customers are typing into search engines and are crucial to search engine listings. Website content - the text displayed onscreen - is the most important place for keywords to be found. They can also be placed in high profile coding areas, signalling to search engines that those High Performance Keywords are the main corresponding search terms. 6. High Quality In-bound Links In-bound links are one of the greatest influences on search engine positioning. Quantity is a consideration but the quality of in-bound links counts the most. For Google, links from high ranking websites will result in higher positioning for your company's site. Online Directory submissions are a great way to develop a network of in-bound links. Not only will being listed drive targeted traffic to your website, it will increase your Google PageRank! Meet the 6 criteria outlined above to ensure your company's website can be found easily by search engines and potential customers. Proper implementation will lead to higher exposure for better in-bound links and higher positioning. This creates a cyclically building effect which is ultimately how any Search Engine Marketing strategy should work. Search Engine Marketing Strategy Sustainability Your company's website has been subjected to a strong Search Engine Marketing strategy. Search engines are now finding your site and website positioning, along with customer response, has increased. While it may be tempting to rest on your laurels, it is important to remain vigilant. Not just content, but link integrity and popularity must be maintained as well as directory submissions and Pay per Click account status. It is also critical to monitor the status of competitor strategies. To stay on top of all this, it is important to meet regularly to review the status of your strategy and adjust as necessary. With a good system in place, site and strategy maintenance can be handled easily and at less cost than traditional advertising methods. Tracking the effectiveness of your Search Engine Marketing strategy can be done using specialized software, which creates detailed reports on page and keyword ranking, visitor behaviours, in-bound links, and more. From these reports recommendations can be made for adjustments to elements of your strategy for the purpose of maintaining high search engine positioning. Remember, an increase in sales is the ultimate measure of success, but not the only way to measure ROI. Value in web initiatives can also be measured in terms of reduced costs, improved customer satisfaction, widened customer base, as well as improved relations with partners and suppliers. Regular monitoring and reports can let you know what techniques are proving effective, and which require modification. Proper maintenance of your Search Engine Marketing strategy ensures a steady increase in the volume of visitor traffic to your company's website. Reference: 1. http://www.mindbranch.com/listing/product/ R203-151.html 2. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358584&rel=true For more information on any of the products available from Anduro Marketing, contact us at info@anduro.com or (403) 410-3803. |
