Businesses big and small find it necessary to have at least a web site. Whether the site is a simple one-page sale letter or a complicated customer-oriented portal, business owners must consider the various online marketing methods to drive visitors to their web site and convert them into customers.
However, many web sites fail to capitalize on the marketing and branding opportunities available to all online marketers. If yours is an online business it is absolutely critical and can determine its growth and success.
Is Top Search Ranking Important to Your Online Business?
You may also know the importance of having your web site rank highly in search engines for the search terms that are appropriate to your business. But you may not know how to make that happen yourself.
Thanks to the growth of search engine marketing or search marketing industry, you don't need to. A professional search marketing company can help put your web site back into the search engine result pages, or get it in for the very first time.
What is Search Engine Marketing?
The phrase "search engine marketing" or "search marketing" encompasses all efforts aimed at increasing your web site search engine visibility, including pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, natural or organic search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine related advertising programs.
There are a variety of results that search marketing will achieve for your organization as a professional search marketing company will have the knowledge, resources and customized software at their disposal to over the many challenges faced by most first-time web site owners.
Search Engine Optimization Begins With Keyword Research
The higher the search engine ranking the easier it is for your business to gain visibility and branding presence on the Internet.
Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of making your web site search engine friendly. It typically involves making changes to the web site itself.
One of the services that many SEO companies provide is to assist in identifying keywords for you to ensure that your ranking goes up in the organic listings.
Base on the result of comprehensive keyword research, changes can then be made to your web pages to increase the targeted keyword prominence and improve the odds of getting to the top of the search engine result listing.
Search marketing companies also utilize their professional knowledge and expertise to evaluate your website and offer changes where necessary to optimize your website. Some of the changes they may recommend include in the branding and virtual presence of an organization.
There are a variety of results that search marketing will achieve for your organization as a professional search marketing company will have the knowledge, resources and customized software at their disposal to over the many challenges faced by most first-time web site owners.
Some of the changes they may recommend include:
1. Changing the layout or design of your web site to make it more accessible to the search engine crawlers.
2. Updating the site architecture and linking structure for e.g. navigation menu, text links, site map and etc.
3. Rewriting and editing content to make the keywords more prominent and easily identified by the search engine algorithm.
4. Optimizing the HTML meta tags which are the hidden pieces of information in the code of your web site.
5. Link building which is the process of finding appropriate web sites and obtaining links from their sites to yours.
6. Search engine submission is a process of getting the search engine crawler to visit and index as many pages of your site.
7. Directory submission is a tested and proven method of building links and traffic to your site.
Paid Search Listing: Google Adwords & Yahoo Search Marketing
The most popular form of paid search listing is the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which offers you the chance to pay to have your ad appear when Internet users query for your chosen keywords in the Google or Yahoo Search.
In programs such as Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing, you bid on certain words or phrases and your advertisement appears when a search is made for those words or phrases - usually on the right side of the organic search engine result pages.
It's up to you to determine the goals and definition of success for your search marketing campaign. Perhaps it's nothing more than an increase in traffic to your site. Perhaps you wish to expand your mailing list subscriber base? Double last year's online sales in the holiday season?
Finding The Right Search Marketing Company
Choosing the right search marketing company is an important decision: the right choice can lead to tremendous initial growth in your company's online business and create the foundation for a satisfying business relationship that keeps this growth alive over the long-term.
During the initial meetings with the companies you're considering, you'll need to articulate your ultimate goals and whether they're short-term, long-term, or both. It will, however, be the search marketing specialist's job to help you calculate success with information and statistics about the project.
Search marketing is about branding and also about becoming part of your total marketing strategy. If done effectively, your business can reap impressive measurable results.
About the Author
Shi Hengcheong is with Finggle Pte Ltd, a search marketing training company based in Singapore. You may like to get a free copy of The SEO Report which offers a quick-start tutorial to teach webmaster a step-by-step system to effective search engine optimization.
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