Search Engine Marketing

Gilbert

Thanks for the input everyone.

__________________
"If today was a test, how did you do?"

cs_obd

SEO or SEM, and getting ranked is only a piece of the pie. Getting high ranks on SE or PPC is only part of the whole, and effective task oriented navigation and feedback mechanism is as important.

Get Visitors to your site >> Give them what they want >> Guide them through your lead conversion and give them ways to contact you.

Tonyd

Hi All!

Before one can use SEM or SEO to its fullest, one must take a step back and understand the importance of KEYWORDS!

A simple check on Overture/Adwords will provide good info on the types of phrases that people search for. Never forget, 1 to 2 keywords used to search = researchers, 3 or more keywords use to search = most probably buyers (unless brands are search for).

An excellent place to start with Keyword research is www.wordtracker.com
For a nominal fee of £4 sterling per day, you can enter all relevant search terms you think most suit your business/company/enterprise etc and Wordtracker gives you not only a number of extra terms searched for, BUT ALSO A KEI RATING WHICH RELATES TO HOW EFFECTIVE THAT PARTICULAR KEYWORD IS. The higher the KEI rating, the more chance you have of appearing on the first few pages of Google, Yahoo, MSN etc IF you optimise the rest of the site. Best keywords to go for are obviously those where there is a high demand (searches every day) but where there is not major competition. Once a list of keyword phrases is developed, a "Search Engine Friendly" website can be built around them. As I often hear in the industry "Build it and they will come" does not apply to web marketing. Instead, fidn out what people are searchign for, then build it. Track conversions, devlop landing pages for PPC engines (Adwords, Overture etc) and monitor, test, monitor and test.

Good Luck!

Tony D - Sales Journey

VB-Hack

The Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool is another good tool for this which happens to be free.

RainMaker

Tony, do you use this? I am optimizing my site (first time) and I ordered wordtracker for 1 day (which I thought was a great option for those of us that don't need access regularly) and LOVED IT. I am building my pages around some of the better KEI's. I would have never chosen these particular keywords--but it seemed so logical, I decided to give it a try. Does this really work?

Tonyd

Hi Rainmaker,

Yes I use it. Isn't it great value for money?! As you stated, it gives a number of keyword phrases that you wouldn't imagine are searched for - and yes, it really is that simple.

Few points now you have done the groundwork:

a) Ensure that your web copy is readble by humans - you would be surprised how many people use the keyword phrases they find in a non-grammatically correct way.

b) Ensure that you use your keyword phrases in the following areas on your website: Title Tag, Meta Description (different for each keyword optimised page of your website), Meta Keywords, Headings and Anchor Text (links to your website - Google gives extra brownie points for this!). Aim

c) Aim for keyword phrases to have around 5-8% density per page. Dont forget point no.1 - if is doesnt make sense to humans, it certainly wont make sense to the spiders that Google, Yahoo and MSN unleash on it.

d) Check the heyword phrases you use during the course of the year - sometimes some phrases are in higher demand than others depending on the time of the year.

e) In needed, use your best KEI phrases on Landing Pages via PPC on Google to guide traffic to buy online (if indeed you seel online)

Good luck and hope the above helps!

Tony D from Sales Journey

RainMaker

Thanks Tony. Very helpful

Tonyd

Hi Rainmaker,

Just remembered 1 other area to put your keywords - ALT TAGS, as not everybody views websites with the graphics set to "on".

Good Luck

Tony D from Sales Journey

terriz

My opinion is that the use of keywords in Search Engine Optimization is a passing fad. Everyone tries to games the rules, which change constantly to keep ahead of the "gamers". That's not the way to build a sustainable business, folks!

Of course as noted above, SEO is just one form of Search Engine Marketing -- and I consider myself a relatively new student of the latter.

ilovesuperpages.com

I agree with you. SEO is a passing fad.... even Yahoo results include PPC. It is more and more difficult to compete with paid inclusions. I am also still concerned about the legitamacy of some of the non-specific or targeted PPC's that are out there..... shams exist everywhere. Caution is a vertue.

in the 30's there were 100's of auto makers.... today only 8 really "exist".... in 96 there were 100's of SE's.... now only 3 dominate (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) Aol is no more thanks to broadband. I assume PPC/SEM's will do the same!!! Keep an eye out!

Mike
Superpages Guru