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VII.
Search Engine Marketing & Optimization
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Search engines are a popular way for consumers to find information and businesses. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 30 percent of people with Internet access use a search engine daily.
Search engine results at most major search engines are made up of two areas, "Algorithmic" and "Sponsored" or paid results.
The algorithmic results are also called "organic" or "natural." In Yahoo! and Google the algorithmic results are a combination of natural results and paid inclusion results. Other search results are normally labeled "sponsored links," "sponsored sites" or "sponsor results."
Paid inclusion is a method by which you can guarantee your site (or pages of your site) will be included in the search engine database (index). There is generally a cost per click for paid inclusion traffic even through no guarantee of position is given (i.e., you have guaranteed inclusion, but don't know if you will show up high in the results for any specific searches).
How Search Engines Work
Google, Yahoo! and the other search engines have a simple mission: to find all the content on the web, "crawl" or "spider" it, and keep that information in a large database index. When someone searches for information that is a good fit for a page on your site, a link to your site will be placed somewhere in the results.
How Search Engines Rank Your Site
Within the current landscape of organic search, Google and Inktomi/Yahoo (Slurp) are the most important engines for organic positioning and search engine friendly design. Many search engine optimization (SEO) experts, designers and site architects recommend a site structure that maximizes Google PageRank. Inktomi/Yahoo and Teoma also use link structures and popularity as a variable in gauging relevance. An in-depth analysis on the Google PageRank algorithm (as originally written by the Google founders) is available here:
http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/.
A secondary calculator that some have found useful in predicting PageRank is available at:
http://webworkshop.net/pagerank_calculator.php3
Simplified greatly, PageRank (and other search engine ranking techniques, heretofore referred under the general term PageRank) works as such: The better match a keyword is to your title, URL and content, the greater the PageRank (PR). The greater the quantity — and quality — of sites that link to your site, the greater the PR for that term, or anchor text. If a site that the search engines deem important uses the word “yellow pages” to link to SuperPages.com, SuperPages.com will gain a greater PR and ranking for the keyword “yellow pages.”
Search Engine Optimization
Sometimes the traffic you get from the non-paid algorithmic search results is called "free search traffic." However, it takes skill to get your site to come up high for keyword searches that are appropriate for your business.
Don't get duped into thinking you need to use a submission service to get your site into the search engines. Most search engines will find your site as soon as you make it into your first directory or get linked from any site already in the search engine. You also can often go to the search engine and find a link to "submit a site" or "suggest a site." Here you will find instructions.
Search engine optimization is sometimes sold as voodoo or requiring a “secret sauce.” However, if you follow some basic steps, you can take advantage of the traffic the search engines can send your way when someone searches for whatever it is you sell. Everyone wants to be No. 1 for keyword searches that will bring in customers, but there is only one No. 1. If you're not in that spot, try to be on the first page of search results.
To give yourself the highest possible chance at top positions for relevant keywords, you have to remove any hurdles to the search engine spiders and make your site "search engine friendly." It's impossible to cover all the nuances of SEO here, but the essence is:
- Make sure your site is crawlable by spiders (don't use flash navigation, pull-down only navigation, frames or javascript-only navigation).
- Use unique title tags on every page that describe the essence of what makes that page unique.
- Make sure the copy on your site is crawlable (not embedded in images or in flash movies).
- Use "alt tags" on images to describe the images.
- Use descriptive keywords and phrases in your copy that are also the kinds of phrases that people search on (use keyword research tools for guidance).
Search Keywords
For both organic and paid search marketing, one of the keys to success is the list of keywords that you would like to be "found" for. For example, a lawyer in New York might want to have her site come up high for the following keywords:
New York Lawyer
Manhattan Lawyer
NYC Lawyer
NY Lawyer
New York Attorney
NYC Attorney, etc.
NY Attorney
Manhattan Attorney
Manhattan Divorce Attorney
etc...
The list of appropriate keywords for your business might be huge, particularly if you are targeting a national audience. Keyword lists can range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands. You may also want to include common misspellings of your company name or products (attorny, attornay, atorney, etc.). NOTE: Many PPC engines, including SuperPages.com, provide advice on keywords to bid on — and some automatically correct on misspellings or show your ad on popular misspellings.
Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
The sponsored or paid textual results in the search engines are primarily through Google and Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions, as well as through other more targeted media, such as SuperPages.com. In Yahoo Search, each and every keyword (and phrase) is in a real-time auction for position. The position of each and every listing within the sponsored area of the results is based on a real-time auction based on a cost per click: The more you pay, the higher your ad will appear in the search results. In Google, the other major vendor of pay-per-click search results, the position of listings in the results is based on a hybrid auction where the bid (price per click) and the relevance/popularity (click-through rate) of your ad in comparison with other ads combine to determine your ranking.
Needless to say, because each keyword is in a real-time auction where bids and positions change all the time, the management of pay-per-click keywords within the search engines can be an arduous task, assuming you know what positions you want and the price per click you want to pay.
How should you decide the bid or cost-per-click that you should use for each of your hundreds or thousands of keywords? The best practice for this bid calculation process is to use your Web site success metrics to calculate your campaign efficiency on a keyword-by-keyword basis. Metrics that are used fairly often are cost per lead, cost per order, return on investment (ROI) and revenue per dollar spent.
If you are running large campaigns with large numbers of keywords across Google, Overture and other PPC search engines, there are automated services available to automate the campaign processes. With some engines, like SuperPages.com, you can have your account managed by professionals, freeing you up to concentrate on business.
Many engines, like SuperPages.com, also offer the ability to display PPC ads to a geographically targeted audience. SuperPages.com allows ads to be run in either metro, state or nationwide regions. Google and Yahoo Search offer choices of what countries and languages where you would like your ad displayed. Both also offer local search products that allow you to target your ads based on the searchers’ Internet protocol (IP) address and other telling factors.
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