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search engine marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to the overall process of marketing a website on search engines. Paying to be listed on search engine result pages is only one aspect of a complete SEM program. In addition, it makes sense to employ tactics that improve “organic” (not paid for) results. This is accomplished by taking a close look and improving how your site interacts with search engines, so that the audience you seek can find you. A comprehensive SEM program will consider four major areas. This is a cursory explanation of each to help give you a sense of how a program should be put together.
1. Web site Optimization for Search Engines
2. Pay-Per-Click/Sponsored Results
3. Link Popularity
4. Search Engine Submissions
The first step in conducting a SEM program will be to determine your site’s key terms and phrases. Then, look at the amount of traffic those terms generate and analyze how your competition fairs regarding those terms as well. The resulting list of search terms will be used as a foundation to build your SEM program. Every aspect of the SEM program will focus on how to attract individuals who search these terms. Broader terms, like “design” will allow you to reach a larger number of people, will probably be more costly and your site may not be pertinent to many of them. More specific search terms, like “gourmet food packaging design” will be less popular and highly targeted. It is critical to monitor and evaluate the search terms on an on-going basis to ensure your campaigns are in sync with the most important and popular terms.
o Website Optimization for Search Engines
It is important to understand that your site is being visited and viewed by robots as well as humans. Making your site compatible with search engines spiders requires modifying both the programming and the content of your site. Spiders do not see graphics, colors or any aspect of design. They only see the words of code. Often the most spider-friendly sites are the ugliest ones. Therefore, you need to balance the need for making something look attractive with making it search-engine friendly. One of the variables used by spiders in their complicated algorithms that determine your search result rankings is relevance. The number of times a particular word appears on the page and the number of links related to the term on the page will determine a page’s relevance and thus its ranking. To make your site appear to be more relevant beyond the actual text on the page, the programming code can “tag” images and links with words and phrases. This is a step beyond META tags. The titles and headings need to be customized based on the information on the page.
In addition to incorporating key words within the programming of the site, the actual content of your site should be up-to-date to echo the identified key search terms and phrases. Gentle rewriting of the articles, project briefs and other text on your site to ensure that the search terms are in fact used multiple times within the text of each page would illicit improved search engine results for those search terms. It is necessary to review and modify only those pages that address the key terms, not the entire site.
It is also recommended to develop new pages that are specifically about your targeted keywords and phrases. A new site would have individual pages for each service and capability.
I also recommend creating a glossary of the most important search terms. Each term would have its appropriate definition but also include why that term is relevant to your business with respective links.
Lastly, and arguably most importantly, your website needs to include a call to action and a direct response mechanism on every page. It should include an email link to make it easy for visitors to contact you. Giving them the ability to ask quick questions, get advice or get more information on a particular subject is important. There should be an email form so that these inquiries can be monitored and evaluated.
o Pay-Per-Click/Sponsored Results
Beyond the organic results listed by a search engine, you also have the ability to pay to appear on search engine result pages. This is done through a bidding process where the highest bidder is placed in the first position in a special area for paid listings. While organic listings are perceived as being more authentic, paid listings are often perceived as experts. If someone is willing to pay for the keyword, they are probably pretty familiar with the subject matter.
It should be noted that the search results are often listed beyond the results pages on the search engine site. Google Adwords sells its results on others sites such as blogs, catalogs, directories, etc. giving you even more exposure. For example, you might be reading a blog about calcium and see a few text ads from Google for calcium supplements.
The bidding process is quite simple. You bid on the amount you want to pay for a click-through, not an impression. This is an important distinction because you only pay if someone actually clicked on your link and went to your site. The highest bidder gets the first slot (not always the best) and successive bidders fall consecutively down the page. You determine the amount you would like to bid for each search term (you can have as many as you want) as well as the monthly budget you would like to spend. Once your budget has been exhausted your account goes temporarily offline until you replenish.
With the amount of searches being conducted, it is amazing how quickly your site will gain visitors which is exactly what you wanted. However, if you do not have the right content and do not provide them with an easy means of contacting you, then you may be wasting your money. The site needs to convert these leads into real prospects that you can follow-up on.
o Link Popularity
Search engines are always trying to find new ways of measuring relevance, preferably using factors that cannot be unduly influenced by webmasters. Google led the way by introducing link popularity as a major factor in its ranking algorithms. Google reckons that a site with a lot of inbound links must be good, so it gives it an extra boost in the rankings. The more popular the site where your links come from, the more weighted its importance.
In general links from major search directories, i.e. Yahoo!, and the Open Directory count a lot. Hence, you should do all you can to get listed in these directories. Inbound links from sites related to your topic may also give a fair boost in engines so it makes sense to pay for, barter and establish links on relevant industry websites.
One way to develop links is to offer helpful tools or interesting content that other people will want to link to. For example, maybe you could provide an excerpt from one of the books on your site. Other sites that are writing about that same subject might link to it within their article.
o Search Engine Submissions
Search engine submission continues to be a part of the search engine marketing trade, although not as important as it once was. Most search engines prefer finding your web pages on their own. However, letting the search engines know about new sites and pages does not hurt, as long as you don't overdo it. There are many software programs and online tools for submitting web pages automatically to search engines. Many sites are free to submit to, however some require a one-time fee. The worst of all, is Yahoo, which requires $300 a year to be a part of the yahoo.com directory.
By addressing each of these aspects of your website, you can expect to increase web visitor counts and improve your ranking in the results. The next step is to look beyond the number of visitors that get to your site ("the click-through rate") and begin to calculate the number of buying visitors ("the conversion rate"). You might consider someone who sends an email requesting more information a buyer since you don’t sell a product direct on the site. Coding the pages and the email form can be done so that you will know how many people who searched a particular term went to your site and ultimately requested info. Review of that data and learning from it allows you to move forward.
Conducting an SEM program requires an initial investment to update and optimize the site and then a monthly retainer to conduct maintenance and reporting.
Next Steps:
o Choose a vendor
o Identify key search terms
o Evaluate key search terms of competitors
o Ensure Meta Tags, titles and headers are properly
coded
o Build call-to-actions and direct response mechanisms
on site to entice visitors to obtain info or quotes.
o Modify programming code to optimize for spiders
o Build content around key search terms
o Write a glossary that defines terms and explains how
it is relevant to your business
o Build link network
o Submit site to directories and search engines
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