Search Engine Marketing Guide
This guide is not meant to replace the role of a professional search engine marketing consultant. On the contrary, when you as a client are more informed, we as your consultants will be more able to help you achieve top search engine results. There is no substitute for an expert when your goal is to achieve top placements in search engines.
Introduction
The challenge of an effective search engine marketing (SEM) strategy is that, unlike other facets of marketing, it is not a matter of doing a couple of things well or how much money you spend. On the contrary, a successful SEM strategy requires getting many small and subtle details exactly right. Many of the strategies and tactics are one-time tasks or projects; others require ongoing monitoring and maintenance.
In most cases, effective search engine marketing requires changes to your website. In many cases, the changes that are necessary can easily be done to your existing site without affecting the overall design of the website. Whenever possible it is ideal to include an SEM strategy as part of the website design and planning process. In all cases it is crucial that you have very specific knowledge and expertise regarding how potential customers are using search engines and how those search engines guide potential customers to your website and your competitors’ websites.
Following are more detailed descriptions of the six essential elements comprising an effective SEM strategy. Included with each is why it is important, and a few specifics about how to approach each element.
Search Engine Marketing Guide
Designing to Effectively Address Searchers’ Needs
Many websites are designed to control the visitor’s path through the site using the home page as the starting point, assuming that this is the primary way the visitor starts a visit. Since more and more visitors are arriving via search engines, they are entering on pages other than the home page. This is a fundamental shift in the Internet and requires your website be designed accordingly.
Focused and Controlled Advertising: Paid Listings and Pay Per Click Advertising
Search engine marketing has two primary methods: search engine optimization and paid listings. The most common form of paid listings are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Pay per click ads generally show up above and below the search “listings” or to the right of them. The location depends on the provider.
Search Engine Friendly Site Design and Coding
The goal is for your site to show up as high as possible in the search engine results for the keyword phrases you are targeting. To better understand this objective, one needs to understand how search engines interpret your website.
Selection and Management of Keyword Phrases
Selecting the right keyword phrases to use in your SEO and Paid Listings plans involves looking at your website content and structure from the perspective of the search engines and analyzing your observations against what users are asking search engines to find.
The Importance of External Links for Search Engine Optimization
Links to your site from other sites are one of the most important factors search engines use to rank your site and the pages within your site. There are a number of factors that search engines look at when evaluating links.
Tracking and Measuring Search Engine Marketing Results
Regardless of how much or how little effort you put into your organic and paid listings strategies, you need to ensure that accurate and detailed tracking mechanisms are in place, and that you have the tools to report and measure how your strategies are working.