Search Marketing – How It WorksSearch marketing can be organized into three basic categories: - Organic search
- Directory listings
- Paid placement
Each of these has its own strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. Here is a brief look at each of the three. You may decide to try all three strategies, or only one or two, depending on your goals.
Organic searchOrganic search is thought to be the Holy Grail for online search marketing. Why? Because the popular conception of organic search is first of all, that it is free (fortunately for companies like GDM InterActive, that's not entirely true); and secondly, that it is considered the most trustworthy and reliable by those people who are searching. There are three essential steps to developing an effective organic search marketing program. - Getting your web pages indexed
- Choosing the keywords you want to target
- Optimizing your content
Getting your pages indexed This initial step is really a matter of letting the world know that you exist and where to find you--this is known as indexing. Getting your web pages indexed can be considered similar to getting your business or organization listed in the phone book or yellow pages. People cannot search for a company, and therefore cannot find it, if it is not listed. Likewise, your web page cannot be found by Internet searchers unless it has been indexed by the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.). Getting indexed is somewhat technical in nature, but is not rocket science. The major search engines index pages on the web using automated programs commonly called "robots" or "spiders." Your goal is to make the job of the robots and spiders easy and to not to trip them up. In other words, you want the spiders and robots to find and then index your web pages. Here's a basic how-to: If you are using a form of content management or product database, you will want to modify your setup so that real word descriptive page titles are created on the fly, and are related to the content of the page and are rich with juicy keywords. Better yet, choose a content management system that will rewrite your URLs with keywords embedded. Example: www.domain.com/keyword_keywords/etc.html Make sure your URLs have no more than two dynamic parameters--less is more. Adjust your metadata tags so you do not inadvertently block spiders and robots. This step is mostly so you don't have code that actually tells spiders to go away. Any meta tags you create will have little or no influence on spiders' actions or on your page ranking. Simplify your menu systems and nav bars so you are not using JavaScript. Spiders need to be able to follow links on your site so that more of your pages get properly indexed. And spiders don't do Java! Trying to avoid session IDs in URLs you would like to see indexed, session IDs are OK for shopping carts because you don’t want these links indexed anyway but they can stop spiders dead in their tracks. You may have to talk to your IT gurus about this one. But at least now you know enough to ask!
So, how much of this can you do on your own? If you are working with an e-commerce site that creates pages with information pulled from a database, you will probably need to work hand-in-hand with your web developer or in-house IT gurus. If you are running a small and simple site, you may want to tackle these steps on your own. You’ll need to have a good sense of what you’re doing if it comes to setting up a web site or creating HTML code. If not, you may need to call upon some outside help or support. Someone like GDM InterActive, for instance! Another key consideration is that you work with the mindset of a marketer, especially when you are working on dynamically-created page titles. Setting up solid and accurate page titles are critically important because they form the first line of your search listing copy when you finally see links to your web pages showing up in the search results of the major search engines. Teh screen shot below shows how the page title (circled in red) influences what the searcher will see on their results page. 
Important note: Don't tackle this step until you have already decided upon your keywords strategy and selected the keywords you wish to target. Dynamically created page titles usually come from the deep IT bowels of your site and you don't want to blow your cred with the techies by having to come back and ask them reprogram for page tiles a second time because you were too quick on the draw. Directory listingsDirectory listings are very simple. There once were a lot of different directories on the web, but today, the field has narrowed down to only two directories you need to bother with--Yahoo!Directories www.yahoo.com and DMOZ www.dmoz.org. Basically, all you need to do is visit the home page for each of these directories and submit your website for consideration. It’s free, but can take a long time for them to get a pair of human eyeballs on your site to review and approve your submission. Yahoo offers expedited service for $300 per site. If you are in a hurry, paying the $300 might be money well spent. You will not get much traffic from your directory listings, but every little bit helps. However, and this is a very big "However" your directory listings will bring more traffic indirectly by getting your pages indexed. When you submit your URL to the major directories, you are really saying to the spiders and robots of the world, "Come and crawl my site." Plus, the links themselves will improve your page rank. When the major search engines present search results, the results are ranked according to relevance and importance. One factor used to determine "importance" is who else is linking to your site. Both Yahoo! Directories and DMOZ links are considered valuable validations of your web site's authenticity and value. Paid placementPaid placement comes in three flavors: CPM, CPC, CPA. - CPM = Cost per thousand. For example, you pay a targeted web site to display your link or banner every time the web page is viewed for as many times as you have agreed to pay. This is very similar in nature to television advertising or radio advertising where you pay for your ad to be heard or seen a specific number of times.
- CPC = Cost per click. For example, the targeted web site or network agrees to show your link or banner, but you only pay when that link or banner is actually clicked. This is a highly-effective, performance-based form of web advertising. It’s the heart and core of Google’s keyword advertising platform. (More about that elsewhere on this site! PPC Advertising)
- CPA = Cost per action. For example, the targeted web site or network agrees to show your link or banner. Web surfers click on your banner and visit your site, but you pay only if they perform a specifically defined action such as making a purchase, downloading a file, filling out a form, etc. CPA is a relatively new form of performance-based web advertising. It involves a higher level of integration with your website in order to verify the action. It is also the basis of affiliate marketing.
Key elements for success with search marketing using paid placement include creative copywriting and graphics, management and tracking. What you say and how you look have a dramatic effect on the number of clicks you get and what visitors do on your website. GDM InterActive can help you develop ads with compelling copy and eye-catching graphics that will bring customers in. Banner ads and keyword ads are the two most commonly used web ad formats. Banner ads are simple to create. You can even find lots of free tools online for creating your own banner ads. But remember! You only get one opportunity to make a first impression so you may want to hire someone to help you make your banners look great and more importantly, work. But don’t spend too much--$50 for a good, static banner should be plenty. You'll likely pay more if the ad uses video or animation. For the most part, banners won’t give you much bang for your buck, so keep your costs low. Keyword ads are even simpler to create. Google gives lots of online tools to test advertising copy. But beware--you can blow a lot of cash fast if you are not careful! You may want to hire the services of someone who has already learned the basics. A well-planned and thought-out CPC campaign will save you lots of money and heartache. GDM InterActive can help you set up a basic PPC campaign to let you get into the pool without draining the bank. The biggest benefit to using paid placement is the speed with which you can get up and running and see concrete, trackable results; plus, you only pay for actual visits. Cost per click campaigns with Google are easy to target and easy to set up, but as previously mentioned, they have the potential to cost you a lot of money while you are figuring things out. GDM InterActive already knows the ropes and can give you solid marketing advice. An example of how to lose money with Google and words Here's a story from a friend you might find informative. "In earlier days, I set up a Google keyword campaign targeting web design and graphics for a major publication in the field. I toggled on the contextual advertising and let it rip thinking, 'The bids are so low, what can it hurt?' That was before I knew about MySpace. I was getting hundreds of hits every day, but no purchases! As it turned out, I was getting lots of impressions on MySpace where millions of users swap free web page designs and free graphics back and forth. They were clicking my ads like crazy looking for something for nothing. That mistake cost a lot of money before I figured out what was happening." Here's a hint--Use Google's tools to block high volume, low quality websites like MySpace ... unless of course that's your target market! When you work with a virtual marketing professional, you get the benefit of their hard-earned experience. Let GDM InterActive put our experience to work for you!
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