Integrated Search Engine Marketing

September 28, 2005 – 3:00 am

Integrating your search engine marketing campaigns will get you up and running fast and will give you escalating long term results. Using a combination of campaigns in your strategy will ensure that your costs are contained and that you achieve the optimum return on investment.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the science of making a website ‘search engine friendly.’ The objective of SEO is to increase web site visibility and qualified traffic by ranking highly within organic search engine results for keyword phrases relating to your site content.

Organic search is a critical part of any search engine marketing campaign and accounts for 60% of all clicks.

The basic steps of SEO involve getting all your site pages indexed by the search engines, figuring out what search terms or keywords searchers are using and then optimizing the content of your site to match these keywords.

SEO is undertaken to get highly qualified traffic to visit your site. This type of visitor is much more likely to convert into a customer. By conversion we mean to achieve the goal of your website whether that is online sales, offline sales, sales leads, branding, or to inform or persuade.

The drawback of SEO is the high initial cost and the fact that it takes time to see results. It is not an overnight process and can take anywhere from 2 – 6 months to begin seeing results. However once it begins to perform then a steady stream of qualified traffic is acquired for a relatively low cost. One major advantage is that searchers trust natural results to a greater degree resulting in more searchers using the natural results. You do however need to continually maintain and revise the program as search engines continually evolve and refine their algorithms and technology.

Paid Search

Paid placement takes the form of an advertising program where listings are guaranteed to appear in response to particular search terms or keywords, with higher ranking typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers. In other words you bid against your competitors for high rankings. Costs can quickly change so you have to devote some time to managing your campaign otherwise your costs can escalate dramatically.

There is no high upfront cost for paid search advertising. You can also get a campaign up and running quickly and begin to see immediate results. And you do have control over your listings and how much you want to spend. The major drawback is the high, long-term cost.

There is currently around $3 billion spent on paid placement in the United States and spending is increasing at a dramatic rate. Therefore it is going to become more and more expensive to get listed using paid placement.

Online Public Relations

One of the exciting new developments in the field of search engine marketing is the ability to use the internet to release news and information about your company in the form of online press releases. This offers you a way to increase your company’s presence on the web and be found by customers for an expanded range of keywords.

Press releases were traditionally aimed at media types such as journalists and editors. Today they have an additional audience – your target market. Online press releases are now steadily being found under searches. Potential customers can access your information directly from your press releases. Optimizing your press releases can help more people find your web site and product information. This enables you to get your news and brand name out to a larger audience, increase your search engine visibility, increase sales leads, and increase quality links to your site.

Other online public relations tactics incorporate online media relations, optimized articles and corporate communications, branded blogs, and search engine crisis and reputation management.

Bringing it All Together

For optimum results you should consider a combination of these strategies to increase your online business. For example to get a quick start a combination of paid search and online public relations will begin to get qualified leads to your site and start to build your brand and links to your site. Then when your SEO campaign starts to give your rankings a boost you can cut back on your other campaigns to ensure a continual stream of quality traffic that keeps your costs to a minimum. It also gives you contingency options if a problem occurs with your organic listings, e.g. an algorithm change, you can resume your paid search activity until your natural rankings improve.

Related posts:

1. Understanding Search Engine Marketing The use of search engines to help surf the...
2. Beginning Search Engine Marketing The use of search engines to help surf the...
3. Paid Search Engine Placement and Search Engine Optimization By James Peggie Paid search engine placement can be...
4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) vs. Search Engine Optimization (SEO * SEO is the process of making changes to...
5. Increase Your Search Engine Exposure – Optimize Your Press Releases One of the exciting new developments in the field...