BecomingWhoYouWantToBe

Search Engine Marketing is vital today. So we now need to look carefully at where the commercial market-place is going. Any service or product related company must have a website – that’s a given. But a web presence by itself won’t bring results. Purchasers won’t necessarily be able to find you.

Let’s compare it to a new store opening up… A lot of money has gone into setting it up. They open for business… And see where they are – in the middle of nowhere, down some side-alley. And no-one has given any thought to advertising their location. Is anyone likely to buy from them? This is exactly the scenario for 99% of ALL commercial websites in existence.

The shape of modern marketing has radically altered. Ten years ago, as everyone was getting on the bandwagon, there was an idea that everyone needed a website. It wasn’t uncommon for businesses to spend huge amounts getting all the fancy bells and whistles on their site. (To the great delight of web designers, of course). It started to become obvious though that these sites weren’t receiving any traffic. People had thought that if they had a big website, it would be easily spotted. Alas it wasn’t so.

Modern internet marketing requires a fundamental shift in thinking from traditional marketing. People used to established marketing techniques would say your web site is simply an advertisement of your company and its products. As a result, they’ll try to get you to promote the site on radio, TV or in the press. Essentially they’re working in the same way as they’ve always done. They start with a flashy sales site, and then try lots of ‘off-line’ avenues to get people to look at it. Completely missing the point of the web environment!

This process only utilises the web as viewing gallery, which is quite wrong. It allows us to search and research – to discuss ideas and interact with others. It’s completely interactive, bringing massive choice to billions of people. We can find the sites we’re looking for because Google, Bing and Yahoo etc. have formulated huge site directories to simplify the task. Can you imagine trying to find something in Yellow Pages if there wasn’t an order and an index? We’d be forever frustrated and disappointed.

The Search Engines solve this dilemma. And so marketing is forced to move on. If you want customers to find you on the internet, indexation by Google etc. is paramount. Yet if you only show up a few pages in, you might as well forget it. By the time you get to page 5, you can forget it, unless you’ve got a very detail-oriented and persistent customer!

So to give all companies a chance to be on the first pages, the Search Engines came up with a new form of paid advertising. You only pay when someone actually chooses your advert – hence the name ‘Pay-Per-Click’. This caused quite a storm when it happened. Basically, the only time you now paid was when someone who was already interested asked to look at your site. This is an incredibly targeted way of advertising, and done properly, can yield some exceptional results.

Unfortunately, PPC advertising has now become literally swamped with adverts in most fields. New online marketers have forced up the price per click, largely through over-the-top bidding. So it’s often the case now that many are priced out of the market. In particular, where a sale requires a large number of clicks. Consequently we’re seeing a renewed interest in SEO. This means websites are optimised in ways that naturally push them up the search pages.

Do this small task – Enter some service or product keywords (relevant to your business) on Bing or Google. Then check through as far as page three. Can you find your website? Probably not. Consequently, like the situation we described earlier, you’ve got no visibility! Maybe it is there. But is it listed for terms that clients are actually using?

You may have some successful experience of PPC advertising. Can you be sure you’re working it as efficiently as possible? Is your ROI satisfactory? Have you got an eye on the stats that measure your results? It’s important to split test your campaigns – are you doing this? If you don’t know what your stats are, then guaranteed you’re not getting the best results for your money.

It’s very evident today that both global and local commerce are moving swiftly onto the internet. Make the most of this trend. Unless you embrace the internet and utilize all of its advantages, your business will become a dinosaur.

(C) Jason Kendall. Go to EvolveSEM.co.uk for great business advice on SEM Consultants.