Search Engine Marketing

Introduction to Search Marketing

Search Engine Marketing is by far and away the most cost effective way to get large volumes of search traffic to your site. However, it takes time and knowledge your site in the top 20. If you're not in the top 20-30 results of SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) you may as well not bother.

Search Engine Marketing Top Ten Rules:

1. Keywords. Choose your keywords by identifying who your target audience are and what they will be searching for.
2. Entry (Splash) pages. There's no need for them! Introductory logo pages instantly put up a barrier to search engines so you should use this space for priority info.
3. Don't use frames. Although they can neatly divide a page, search engines find it hard to index sites that use this sort of design.
4. Don't overdo the Flash. Search engines read text and links; they don't look at images or Flash animations. Concentrate on a text-based design.
5. Theme your text. Search engines look for lots of text with a definite theme for each page. Regular use of a keyword and phrase will show the search engines the page is relevant.
6. HTML Coding. Try to keep the main text body near the top of the HTML code, and JavaScript and navigation cells towards the bottom.
7. Dynamic sites. Dynamically-driven sites will struggle to get individual pages listed; these are often complex for search engines to navigate.
8. SPAM. Search engines may ban a site with small or invisible text, unrelated phrases, repeat submissions, duplicate pages, etc.,
9. Submit your site. Don't over do it. In fact, don't bother at all! Concentrate on getting good quality sites to link to you and you'll be indexed by the search engines that matter naturally.
10. Pay for it! Use Pay-per-click (PPC) if you have a budget and want to ensure predictable positioning results. I tend to get best results from Yahoo Search Marketing and Google AdWords.

It's common knowledge that Google is the main search engine in terms of number of searches. It is also one of the few that still offers a level playing field in terms of the chances of success you have in getting rated highly. If you're serious about developing your online presence, then you need to go to the Google site and read the section for webmasters. Basically though, build your sites for people, not for robots. Follow the top ten tips above and develop a linking strategy.

Search Marketing Software

If you need some help with your SEO / SEM activities, then use the right software. That is Internet Business Promoter (IBP) It can help you by:

	Generating HTML pages designed to rank near the top of the search results.
	Analyzing your existing Web pages and giving plain-English advice on how to improve them.
	Submits your pages to the major International search engines.
	Reports your positions on each search engine for each keyword you are targeting.
	Tracks the number of visitors to your site, where they came from, and what keywords they used to find you.
	Generates Keywords
	The professional version allows you to customise reports for your clients
	and much, much more!

Used correctly, this can be a major part of your online marketing tool kit: Internet Business Promoter.

Pay Per Click

The pay per click (PPC) market is a huge industry and requires relatively little to set-up and can be a low risk investment if handled correctly. So... where to begin?

1. Understand your objectives. You need to understand what it is your website is trying to achieve and target your traffic to achieve them.
2. Track your clicks. (see affiliate software) Whether you own or adopt an advanced web analytics tool or simply add an affiliate code to the URLs submitted to the engine, you must make ensure that you track click activity against your objectives.  This is such an important factor that even engines themselves are starting to offer this service recognizing that accounting for click to conversion is a sure way to measure success.
3. Choose the right search engine(s). Don't think that all search engines are the same. Ensure that you learn the distribution channels of your PPC partners as this will help with targeting.
4. Choose the right keywords. Use appropriate words, phrases and titles for the page or site you're promoting. This is key to ensuring you target correctly and get the ROI (return on investment) for your budget. Some 1 or 2 word phrases are out of the price range for many smaller site owners, but if you do your research, you can pick up some advertising bargains by selecting more specific phrases, e.g., instead of 'Internet Marketing' try 'free internet marketing advice'. Chances are people are searching for these extended phrases but the bids will be much lower.
5. Manage your bids. The biggest difference between paid for placement and any other type of search engine optimisation is that you have to bid for your position. The number of options available to you for managing bids is extensive; from do-it-yourself to buying a service to perform it for you. Try to match conversion with costs and placement; can you get a better ROI from averaging in position 3 rather than position 1?
6. Choose the most appropriate landing page. Don't direct every click through to your homepage. Just ask yourself the question when selecting the page, would you be happy if you'd searched for a product or service and then had to search for it a second time on the destination site?

Read more about Pay Per Click with my Google AdWords guide.