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The Changing Face of Web and Search Engine Marketing |
by:
Charles Ryder |
A few years ago, search engine placement was arranged by your average Web designer and/or Webmaster. The Webmaster would simply submitsite to search engines manually or use rudimentary software that was widely available.
Keyword relevance was largelymatter of link popularity andWebmaster assigningsimple keyword meta-tag to each page of your site. The system used to work reasonably well, or so it seemed. That is no longercase.
Today, submission tomajor search engines like Google is largely irrelevant, although there iscomplex mix of PFI (pay for inclusion) and PFP (pay for performance, sponsored links, PPC ads) that require complex submission of details.
Today's Methodology
In today's Internet economy, sophisticated and complex programs - called spiders - surfWeb looking atsource code of Web pages. They sort throughcomplex web of formatting tags, programming script, multi-media, page titles, and content thatuser may or may not see, to ascertain how to rank each page of your site for each and every word and word combination that it finds.
These spiders indexwords of each page found and add it toengine's database, making them available as keywords for search engine searchers. In this new environment, sophisticated software programs that analyzevarious search engine algorithms and how they rank selected pages have moved toforefront of search engine placement.
This has spawnedlarge industry of SEO (search engine optimisation and marketing) experts and specialist SEM firms.
What Does Keyword Based Marketing Offer?
If implemented correctly, SEO can offerhigher return on investment than nearly any other marketing strategy (online or offline). Placing high insearch engine ranking positions (SERPs) isgreat way to attract first time visitors. Placement insearch engines can largely determine"reach" of your online marketing strategy.
The stakes in this battle are being raised alltime asnumber of users going online increases - which inU.S. alone approaches onezerozero million - with over sixzero% of those users spending some foureight BILLION dollars per year for online shopping (Greenspan, twozerozerotwo, cyberatlas.com).
With broadband prices in Australia falling rapidly andrate of Internet takeup extraordinarily high,Australian consumer is showing similar enthusiasm for online sales. Unfortunately, many potential buyers - some say as many as sevenzero% - give up because they cannot findgood sites to shop at, because they are poorly keyword indexed oractual site has poor navigation and design.
When any business is making plans to improve their Search Engine positions, they need to understand that optimisation of your site forSearch Engines is notone-shot job. It requires ongoing monitoring and tweaking in order to keep ahead of bothcompetition ANDchangesSearch Engines make to how they rank sites.
Any comprehensive Web marketing plan should:
(one) Promote your web site based on(optimised) content of your site and knowledge ofrelevant marketplace;
(two) Utilise data of howaverage search engine user actually looks for information on your site - including alternative terms, synonyms, common phrasing, etc;
(three) Include internal and external link building with relevant sites and relevant keywords;
(four) Regular reporting of search engine positioning, general Internet visibility and actual visitor statistics/analytics and recommendation for improvements.
Every serious Web site owner should be onWeb marketing plan that is definitely more than justsubmission or reporting service. Setmonthly budget and take action.
We've seen many of our clients benefit fromongoing relationship we have developed with them through our web marketing plans. Plenty of page one rankings on Google, Yahoo, MSN are not uncommon over time, as we monitor and tweak their sites forSearch Engines.
However, in almost all cases, those clients would have never achieved and then maintained those high rankings if they had not had someone inknow keeping track of how their site is ranking, and making changes where ever needed.
It's like advertising inYellow Pages really. If you do not pay to have your ad included, you do not getentry inbook, and eventuallycalls to your business start to drop off as people update tonewest edition.
Search Engine Optimisation / Marketing issame. The Internet is NOT static - it's always changing and evolving, and in order for your site to get and maintain good rankings aroundkeywords that are important to you, you have to keep someone onjob onregular basis who knows how to react tochanges happening.
The Return On Investment (ROI) for good SEO/SEM services is very high, compared to traditional advertising and marketing. According to Google's statistics, Search advertising is up to twozero times CHEAPER per lead, compared to (for example) Direct Mail. For any company spending money on advertising, this statistic should be of EXTREME interest! After all, what company doesn't want to reduce their cost of customer acquisition?
That's what SEO/SEM companies are supposed to be about! Well, at least at our company, we are - I can't speak for our competitors. Before you hireSEO/SEM company, ask what their plan is forongoing optimisation of your site. If they do not haveplan, run, do not walk, tonearest exit and hang onto your money.
Aboutauthor:
Charles Ryder isCEO of WCR Internet Marketing,specialist Australian Search Engine Optimisation company. Forfree site analysis, visit www.wcr-internet-marketing.comau
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