Search marketing is different: how to gain a competitive advantage by insuring a successful SEO project

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In a related article, I consider how Internet search marketing remains a niche focus for a few early adopters despite laser-like targeting and measurement abilities. As a relatively new media, search engine mechanics and user interaction with search engines remains a bit of a black box for many marketing professionals. In the following discussion, I aim to outline the process of a typical search marketing project.

The first consideration for a company is to identify an internal resource who will be responsible for search marketing initiatives. This person has a solid understanding of the company’s business goals and marketing strategies. They also tend embrace technology as a business enabler and ideally are already involved with the company’s web presence.

Selection of an external search marketing partner usually follows, unless the organization decides to recruit resources to manage search marketing in-house. The usual vendor selection criteria come in to play: reputation, experience, value for money, etc.

There are two types of search marketing: the first is known as natural or organic visibility. I like to call this “merit based”™ search engine visibility as it nicely sums up how search engines determine the top listings. The second type is of a “pay to play” nature: sponsored pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. When looking for a search marketing partner, companies should consider if they will be focusing on natural SEO, sponsored PPC, or both.

PPC offers companies a relatively easy way to get started with search engine marketing. Activity focuses on proper keyword selection, ad copy writing, landing page creation and campaign monitoring. There are several limitations to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. In western countries, we read from left to right, making organic listings on the left more visible in search engine results. Users typically learn to discount paid advertisements meaning ad copy has to be much more convincing than similar organic results. Finally, PPC visibility requires continual spending with individual click costs increasing significantly as the number of advertisers increases.

Organic search engine optimization is similar to PPC except that the website becomes the primary protagonist of search marketing attention and traffic doesn’t dry up if funding is depleted. Enhancements to the web site generally lead to improved site usability, thus better business results.

The search marketing considerations which follow assume a comprehensive search engine optimization approach to search marketing as I believe SEO offers greater benefits over time.

Once engaged, the search marketing consultant should help in the definition of project goals – what are the key performance indicators (KPI) which determine the success of web marketing for this business? At a minimum, a company is looking to increase overall traffic to a website, although in most cases, the objective is qualified traffic, people potentially interested in the company’s products and services. Contacts from the website are normally tracked as well as online transactions for sites which include e-commence functionality.

After business goals have been defined, the search marketing consultant should then conduct a thorough current state analysis of the company’s website or sites. A review typically looks at how well a website is performing in search engines, checks if the website is search engine friendly and performs a series of quality tests. The review will also document which keywords are currently bringing traffic to the website and will consider visitor behavior, such as top exit pages. The review serves as a snapshot to which future progress can be benchmarked. It also helps determine the most critical opportunities for organic SEO improvements. If not already in use, a web analytics system is usually deployed and search engine supplied dashboards are enabled.

An analysis of the top competitors compliments the site review by providing external benchmarking information.

Keyword selection can be particularly difficult: companies often want to rank highly for sector specific jargon. Yet search engine users often use every day language when expressing their needs or desires. Consider the real estate sector; a professional may think of “real estate listings” yet la signora Pina will search for “cerco casa roma”. Never the two shall match!

Special attention needs to be dedicated to internationalization issues for companies targeting multiple languages and countries.

Some search engine marketing firms will incorporate SEO training in the project, usually through a mix of documentation, classroom sessions and informal knowledge transfer. Training renders the entire search marketing process more transparent and enables the client to obtain a degree of self-sufficiency.

Ongoing support is usually available as an option and can be useful as a way to keep abreast of changes in a constantly evolving market.

Not so bad, no? Well truth be told, organic SEO isn’t for everyone. Companies sometimes suffer an inability to make web site changes (this is usually an internal process problem). In other cases, internal politics interfere with objective business goal definition and keyword selection. Companies sometimes encounter difficulty finding a consultancy they can feel comfortable to work with.

If a business can precisely target people looking for specific products and services, track those people as they become new customers all while associating an exact cost of acquisition, why isn’t everyone talking about it? Mostly because the secret isn’t out. Use this as your competitive advantage. Don’t tell your competitors you’re optimizing your website. Keep it as our little secret.

Similar Posts:

• Psst: Your Competition is ignoring Internet Search Marketing, are you?
• Google Maps, formerly Google Local, preparing for Italian Launch?
• Did you mean: porn or why not all keywords are suitable for SEO.
• Search engine marketing acronyms: what are they talking about?
• Why SEO & Usability are like two peas in a pod

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