Search engine marketing can be a complex topic, especially if you’re new to online marketing. 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 working on your search engine marketing strategy are long, convoluted explanations about how different techniques work. The better strategy is seeking out advisers who can guide you with straightforward explanations based on real results. That’s exactly what following article is about. It’s a simple list of four things business owners and newbies can use in creating or evaluating their search engine marketing strategy.
1. Establish Your Internet Marketing Strategy Goal A lot of consultants will tell you to set goals in terms of milestones for your website. Nope, that’s a distraction what you need to ask is “what is the PURPOSE of my website?” Once you got that answered, the other aspects of the search engine marketing strategy can be leveraged in helping you achieve that purpose. Normally, folks use their website for a variety of purposes but you need to answer the question and have a clear core focus. That focus 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?”
Nothing fancy, it’s that simple! 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 Search engine marketing is popular because it works; it consistently generates leads, sales, etc. at a lower cost-per-lead or sale than traditional mediums like TV or direct mail. It’s a simple process; someone wants to find something online, they’ll go to a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing and search for it. Search engine marketing is all about showing up in the search results when people search for what you sell, offer, or have on your website. There is a LOT of info out there on how to this and like everything else it’s become so over analyzed and complex. Some search engine marketing techniques are legit, while some are not. The best approach is to create a search engine marketing plan that focuses on two aspects:
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 can be confusing if you overload on info. On one hand, there are “salesmen” ready to get you a #1 ranking with their latest trick. On the other hand, the things that actually do work are simple, just not very “sexy” or even guaranteed to rank you high due to sheer competition in certain niches. 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:
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 (PPC) 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:
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 tagless dark blue shirts would likely want to bid on “tagless dark blue shirts” versus “blue shirts” or “shirts” which will likely includes searches from unrelated and/or bigger brands. Determining what to bid for your keywords can be a highly-scientific process. 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 Barbecue”), 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) searched 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. If you have anything additional to share, feel free to leave a comment. |
Frank Sheppard
NOTE: all opinions/views represented here are my own and do not reflect on any third party that I am affiliated with. Archives
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