Are You Ready for Search Engine Marketing?

Search engine marketing is the key to a successful on-line business. You can get search engine marketing training from e-books, on-line tutorials, or you can hire a search engine marketing specialist. Search engine marketing services have shown a growth of over 200% in the past two years (Top 5 Sites) .

All this excitement has triggered a rush of search engine marketing services, consultants and experts. But to succeed you must have a realistic search engine marketing strategy that understands this online advertising medium. It’s no secret that search engine marketing can drive significant amounts of very qualified traffic to a web site since 85% of Internet users utilize search engines to find goods and services. The problem for many companies is the difficulty they face sifting through conflicting information and hyperbole. Here is some information to help you decide if you are ready for Search Engine Marketing.

What’s the difference between Search Engine Marketing & Search Engine Optimization?

Briefly, Search Engine Optimization focuses on optimizing your website to attract the attention of search engines and improve your rankings. This specialty area is mainly concerned with “free” or "organic" search engine listings. A Search Engine Marketing company will also market a website via search engines, but usually through purchasing paid listings. The terms are somewhat interchangeable and most companies cover both areas.

Search engine ranking leads are not as good as those which originate from other forms of traditional marketing (print, direct mail, TV, etc.)

The truth is many advertising agencies don’t have a clue about search engine ranking, so they push their clients to ignore this form of advertising. They simply don’t want to recommend anything they don’t understand. This market utilizes an interactive marketing vehicle that requires a blend of very specialized technology and processes.

We’ve in fact found just the opposite when analyzing search engine traffic versus other types of leads. Search engine traffic can be much better, as it is comprised of individuals who are actively seeking info, not just people whose curiosity has been piqued by an eye-catching publication ad or press release. And, when we’ve analyzed the data by tracking leads via a landing page (on a web site) we’ve discovered that CPL (cost per lead) numbers can be much lower for search than other more traditional marketing methods.

Search marketing should be done in house.

This is rarely the case. The sheer complexity and online competition for rankings makes this extremely difficult for most companies. Based upon our analysis over 73% of corporate accounts don’t understand the basic fundamentals; i.e. how to properly use keywords, meta tags and titles and worse, don’t submit their web sites to top tier directories (Yahoo, LookSmart, OPD) and the hundreds of second tier directories.

Most companies delegate the search submissions to the webmaster or web site development staff and they just don’t have the time to understand the daunting complexities required to generate page one rankings or to stay abreast of the shifting submissions and ranking criteria standards, as modified monthly by top tier search engines. In many companies, the search ranking is added to the overworked webmaster’s tasks purely as an afterthought as opposed to being addressed formally by the marketing department, with dedicated personnel and a budget.

You can use off the shelf software to submit a site to thousands of search engines.

Nothing can be further from the truth – it takes a tremendous amount of labor and time to identify keyword sets (not just words), optimize the content for these keywords, submit the pages while obeying the rules of the road and then continually analyzing rankings and tweaking to maintain and drive rankings (web site visibility).

Software can certainly help to automate some facets of the process and be used for back end analysis, but you can’t expect any application to make the job easy, there is too much inherent complexity in the processes. And, competition for keyword sets is fierce since there are an estimated 10 million registered domains with 60,000 new domains being registered every day.

When to Hire a Professional SEM Firm?

According to a recent U.S. study, only 20% of all businesses outsource search engine optimization programs to professional SEM firms. The remaining 80% either do not conduct search engine optimization at all or they believe they have the resources and skills to do it in-house. Of this 80%, it is probable that 90% of these companies can’t be found on the web. In order to generate any amount of significant web visibility, your website must typically rank within the top 30 results.

From a business standpoint, it makes sense to try to leverage internal resources to maximize your company’s productivity and profitability whenever possible. However, there must be a line drawn in the sand between knowing what your organization’s capabilities are and what they are not.

As you can see, there is more to search engine marketing than meets the eye. In order to implement and maintain a SEM program, you must acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources. This can be done by hiring a professional search engine marketing firm. Professional SEM firms have dedicated resources and experience to support your company’s web marketing initiatives. By leveraging their experience and know-how, your company can quickly and more efficiently implement a successful search engine optimization program.

How to Pick a Search Engine Marketing Firm

When, shopping for a Search Engine Marketing/Optimization company or specialist, you need to be aware of a few things.

If someone offers you fast results they may be pulling your leg. If you aren’t currently listed on search engines, the average time to be index takes around 4 weeks. Someone offering submissions in less then that is conning you. Websites that are already listed and are just being updated will have a faster result.

A guarantee isn’t always reassurance. Just because a company states they can get you in the #1 spot doesn’t mean they can deliver. Most legitimate SEMs will tell you no one can guarantee a top stop on all keywords and phrases. Search engine optimization is not an exact science. Trial and error along with constant tweaking will help bring your site closer to your goal.

Most SEMs should give you some information on where your site stands currently. Your links, keywords, where you rank on major search engines etc. Or, do one yourself. Don’t go into any SEM work blindly. Know where you stand before and after.

Price is never an indication of how good a service is. More isn’t always better.

Shop around try to get the most for your money, but be realistic. If it seems too good to be true, then it may just be. Be prepared to shell out some cash. Search Engine Marketing is not cheap. You should think of SEM as advertising. It should be budgeted as should all of your advertising efforts.

Ask questions! Do not be afraid to ask what will be done to increase your ranking. Most SEMs will have no problem telling you what they will do. They may not want to reveal their whole operation, but they will give you some insight to what they will do. Talk to more then one SEM company. Compare what each has to say. Do some research on your own. Find out if these companies have been reported to the Better Business Bureau or if the company or persons have had any articles or reviews written about them. Try to have some idea of the company or persons creditability.

Is SEM there main business or is it a sideline to other businesses. SEM is a full time job, especially keeping up with the constant changes. Do they have a specialist? Do they outsource? How much do they really know?

What are there view points on link farms and doorway pages? Will they do anything to get you links and traffic? Even though search engines frown on those practices.

Can they explain to you clearly how their plan of action? Are they looking to take small steps with you? Or, are they trying to sell you the biggest SEM package possible?

Is the SEM contract for hourly, monthly or annual services? Get prices from a few other firms as well, but be aware that the scope of services may vary greatly from firm to firm. Insist that the firm you're interested in explain why it charges more for services, if that's the case.

Follow the outline above when you are searching for someone to optimize your site. In the end it will be worth it.