Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing... what options are available? For instance, if you build a website and it's on the first page of the search engines well that's search engine marketing... right? What are other forms of search engine marketing? -Gilbert

Pay Per Click (PPC) is very common. Basically, you are bidding for top placement among "Sponsored Links" on the search engine results pages. -SEO-LAD

Search engine marketing includes many things which will generate you business as well if done right, such as submitting to good directories, creating and submitting articles about your area of expertise as well as trying to be featured in the "Hot Sites" section of the USA Today web site.

Whatever works best will benefit you in many ways ... -MikeDammann

Here are a few more options for getting noticed in the Search Engines:

• Link Exchanges
• Link Purchases
• Signature Links
• Banner Advertising
• Press Releases
• Articles
• Postings: Newsgroups, Forums, Blogs, etc.

-SEO-LAD

Gilbert,

Hi. To answer the first part of your question, If you create a website and you are lucky enough to show up on the first page of the results (or even at the top), that is mostly achieved by Search Engine Optimization. This is done by using tricks specifically designed to catch the attention of Search Engines like Google, Yahoo & MSN. Notice what most of the results are in Google now, they are all business directories or sites that have tons of links too them. The reason for this is because Google is putting heavy speculation on "Link Popularity" to gain a high position in the natural results. Yahoo is currently relying on Keyword Relevance -- in other words having keywords included in your headers to your site that actually has something to do with your site.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is paying to appear on the Sponsored listing sections of the Search Engines either at the top, bottom or right-hand side. This works by setting a budget and time frame on your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. Your budget is then used to bid on keywords -- words or phrases that people type into search engines when they are looking for something. When someone does a search for one of your keywords, then your listing will appear. These listings come with text ads about your business and a direct link to your website. Many companies that offer Search Engine Marketing also offer various types of reportings about your campaign so you can see how you're performing. They can include things like how much you are spending per day/week on your campaign, how many hits you are getting, what pages people are looking at on your site and with some of the better PPC Management companies you can get things like Telephone & Email tracking.

Hope this helps out some. -ehixx

To elaborate, PPC means Google AdWords and Overture pretty much. -ohcnetwork

I thought PPC stood for "Pay Per Click"? :confused: -Calvin

Yes, it does. As of today, Google AdWords and Overture are two dominant players. Consequently, if you decide to advertise using PPC, it typically means that you advertise using Google AdWords and/or Overture. That's what I meant. -ohcnetwork

Now Overture is Yahoo! Search Marketing, so Google and Yahoo! dominate :) -MikeDammann

That's a good point. Yahoo finally renamed it. There was a rumor one time that MSN will start its own version of PPC, but I haven't heard about it for some time now. -ohcnetwork

Thanks for the input everyone. :) -Gilbert

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. -cs_obd

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 -Tonyd

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

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? -RainMaker

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 -Tonyd

Thanks Tony. Very helpful :) -RainMaker

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 -Tonyd

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. -Terri Zwierzynski

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 -ilovesuperpages.com

Are you suggesting that organic SERPs are a passing fad or SEO or both? -SEO-LAD

not saying it will "go away"... just stating from a ROI perpective it is not a way to go. Odds are against you.... big companies to compete with... and then the chance that Yahoo or Google Algo's will dismiss you from the index because a PPC client is not getting a big enough bill.

seems like a fad to me. -ilovesuperpages.com

I wouldn't bet my money or my future on it. :D -SEO-LAD

;) I understand... just saying the importance of non-paid inclusions is losing ground to paid. -ilovesuperpages.com

I think I can agree with that. :) -SEO-LAD