Internet Marketing & ROI
What is Search Engine Marketing and How Can it Improve Your Bottom Line?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can be extremely profitable for your company. Done properly, SEM can drive highly targeted traffic to your site every day. Web traffic with the potential to buy your products and/or services. Forrester Research, a leading on-line marketing research firm, reported that over 80 percent of Internet users reach sites through search engines. With 55 percent of online purchases made on sites found through search listings. It’s been proven, people use search engines when shopping to buy. With the World Wide Web growing at an exponential rate, it is so important for a business’s Web site to be listed in search engines. Without proper optimization the chances of a business’s Web site being found are slim-to-none.
Search Engines and How They Work
Search Engines are often referred to as spiders, crawlers, or robots. These “spiders” will crawl the Web, indexing and categorizing information that is found. Search results are influenced by site architecture, design, content, and how well your site is interlinked with other sites.
Outsourcing Search Engine Marketing
An efficient and cost effective means of having your Web site optimized for search engines is to hire a professional SEM firm to work for you. SEM is second only to email marketing campaigns, yet many companies do not have a budget for SEM. CyberAtlas, a major on-line market research firm, reported last Fall that 58 percent of the marketers surveyed allocated less than 1 percent of their annual marketing budgets to SEM; however, 20 percent allocated 25 percent or more to other traditional marketing campaigns. SEM is a pure science.
Just like any other form of marketing, SEM requires persistence and a lot of testing. Search engine requirements and ranking criteria change almost daily. SEM Firms employ professionals to deal with these types of changes - specialists who focus on your site’s optimization and understand the complexities of search engine requirements. A reputable SEM firm can provide you with the latest and most accurate advice to improve your search engine rankings. It is a complex process that requires a large amount of time but, a qualified SEM firm can get your site listed quicker and provide expertise to help sustain traffic, equating to results.
Choosing a Search Engine Marketing Firm
When choosing an SEM firm it is important to define the services that are to be included in your on-line marketing campaign. The SEM firm must have knowledge of your needs as well as an understanding of your long and short-term goals. They must be able to communicate their strategy and techniques for getting your site indexed. To get the best return-on-investment (ROI) it is imperative that you choose an SEM firm that can:
- Fully optimize your site. Offering consultation on how to get your site indexed most efficiently and effectively.
- Research your keyword phrases and build a central theme for your site.
- Assist you in the formulation of all Meta Tags. (Page titles, descriptions, and keywords)
- Assist you in writing “keyword rich” content for your pages.
- Understand the submission / re-submission rules to avoid having your site “black listed.”
- Offer assistance with submissions to the pay-for-placement programs. (Yahoo! Directory, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, etc.)
- Provide you with monthly reports indicating your rankings and traffic in the major search engines.
Take Advantage of the Opportunity
SEM is a proven form of on-line marketing. Marketing where you can directly target customers, convert leads into sales, and retain your customer base. SEM produces an excellent return-on-investment because prospects who find your site through search engines and Web directories are actively looking for services and/or products that you offer. Don’t let your site get buried in the depths of the World Wide Web, incorporate search engine marketing and improve your bottom line!