4 Steps to Improve Your Search Engine Marketing Strategy by Sutjni
H
Search engine marketing can be a complex and scary topic. Endless opportunities
to advertise and market, constantly changing trends and technologies, and
overly complex solutions all come with the territory. So, what you don't need
when you're evaluating or creating your search engine marketing strategy is
lengthy explanations about how different techniques work. Instead, seek out
advisors who can guide you with simple explanations and techniques based on
real results. That's exactly what the following article is about. It's a simple
list of four things business owners can use in creating or evaluating their
search engine marketing strategy.
1. Establish Your Internet Marketing Strategy Goal
Many consultants will tell you to set goals about what you want to achieve with
your website. Forget it. Those are distractions from the real question you need
to ask yourself, which is
"What is THE purpose of my website?"
Once you answer that question, all other aspects of search engine marketing
strategy can be leveraged to help you achieve that purpose. Typically, people
use their website for many different purposes. Regardless, you still need to
answer this question. The focus you will get from it will help you create a
more effective strategy.
Here are the top three most common answers to the question "What is THE purpose
of my website?"
1. To sell things
2. To generate leads for my sales team
3. To educate my target audience
It can be this simple! Just decide which of the three answers above suits you
best (or create your own) and then move on to step 2.
2. Establish a Search Engine Marketing Plan
There's a reason why search engine marketing is so hot. It works. It consistent
generates leads, sales, etc. at a lower cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale than
traditional mediums like TV or direct mail advertising. It makes sense when you
think about it: when people want to find something online, they go to Google,
Yahoo!, MSN, etc. and search for it.
Search engine marketing is all about SHOWING UP when people search for what you
sell, offer, or have on your website. There is a growing body of knowledge
(books, articles, etc.) on how to do this. And like anything else, it has
become over analyzed and too complex. To further complicate things, some search
engine marketing techniques are ethical and legitimate, while some are not. The
best approach is to create a search engine marketing plan that focuses on two
aspects:
1. Search engine optimization - showing up in the "free" area of the search
engine's results
2. Pay-per click advertising - showing up in the "paid" area of the search
engine's results
For search engine optimization, first realize there is no "silver bullet."
There just isn't a way to easily get ranked consistently high in the search
engines. It is a combination of factors that always come down to one underlying
truth: build your website according to web standards, with a focus on
accessibility for all.
Just like search engine optimization, there is no "silver bullet" for pay-per
click advertising, either. Instead, the formula for PPC success is in
well-placed bids (what you will pay to have your ad show up) combined with
meaningful landing pages (where people go when they click on your ad).
3. Conduct Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The goal of search engine optimization is to make changes to your website to
get higher rankings in search engines. Yet, search engine optimization is a
confusing sector. On one hand, there are "snake oil salesmen" ready to get you
a number 1 ranking with their latest trick. On the other hand, the things that
actually do work are very simple, and frankly, just not very "sexy."
The best strategy to take is a common-sense approach to SEO: develop standards
for your website that ALL pages must adhere to. If you do this, and enforce it,
you can then branch out to some of the other "niche" aspects of SEO.
Here's a sample list of SEO standards to enforce on your website:
1. Write descriptive HTML page titles that really describe the page it is on
(in 255 characters or less)
2. Write a summary sentence that really describes the page it is on (in 255
characters or less)
3. Write page content that is focused on
4. Write descriptive ALT text for all images that describes the concept the
image illustrates and never use images for text
5. Build all pages to comply with current web standards observed by the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Only once your web pages comply with the above standards should you start more
advanced SEO techniques, including keyword targeting, 301 redirects, link
building (getting more links to your site), RSS news feeds, blogs, and
SEO-specific metrics and tracking.
4. Leverage Pay-Per Click Advertising
Pay-per click advertising helps you get more traffic from search engines
through advertising in search engine results. You pick terms that people search
on. You bid a price per click on your ad that you are willing to pay. You ad
shows up when someone searches on that term, and, if you're lucky, they click
on your ad and come to your website.
So, pay-per click advertising really boils down to 3 components:
1. Picking keywords to advertise on (i.e. target keywords)
2. Determining what to bid for those target keywords
3. Writing copy for the ads that show up when people search
Picking keywords is all about knowing what terms your customers, clients, etc.
would use when searching for your product or service. There are several tools
to help you generate ideas. The best tools also check to see how many
searches-per-month your target keywords receive. You typically want to find
keywords that generate a lot of searches every month, but are focused enough
for your business. For example, a company that sells Keen high-performance
outdoor sandals probably would be best served bidding on "keen sandals" versus
"sandals" which could include searches for the all-inclusive resort, Sandals.
Determining what to bid for your keywords can be a highly-scientific process,
sometimes managed by complex software and several key metrics. To keep it
simple, let a tool like Google Adwords Traffic Estimator recommend to you what
to bid at first. Start there, and start small. Your best bet is to lock-in a
low daily budget limit until you are comfortable with the impressions your ads
are getting, the flow of traffic from the ads to your website, and what those
people do once they get to your website.
Writing ad copy comes down to writing a headline that people will click on, and
creating compelling copy below that headline/link that will get people to
click.
Headlines are best created by following what magazine covers do: focus on
getting attention through eye-catching, short phrases. Using words like best
(i.e. "Best Tips for a Summer Barbeque"), ultimate (i.e. "Ultimate National
Park Vacations") and number-based lists (i.e. "Top 5 Hybrid Cars for
2006″) have all been proven to work.
Writing effective ad copy below the title/link is really about reinforcing the
term(s) search for. This means using the keywords in the ad copy, and starting
the copy with an action verb.
By following the approach above, you can create or evaluate your search engine
marketing strategy, focus on what matters most when executing your plans, and
more effectively achieve your goals. This article is published at the Blog of
LocalClick.Com. This is part of InnovateMedia under heading of Local Internet
Marketing.To get more information on Local Internet Marketing visit
http://www.LocalClick.com
About the Author
I am Sutjni H, an Independent writer for SEO/ SEM , Internet Marketing, Online
Video Advertising and other topics on Internet Advertising.
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