Search Advertising
Answer: Hi Nick, This is a question which must be on the lips of almost every business, the day they launch their website! A website is only the first step to effective online marketing. The next step is to attract some customers; they won’t just come automatically to your door. Search engines like Windows Live Search and Google are integral to helping customers find your site more readily. It’s getting more and more crowded out there in cyberspace though, so you need to make sure your website doesn’t get lost in the fray. How search engines work To present users with the right results, search engines assess the words in your website’s pages. They also check for metatags- words which are never displayed, but which explain to search engines what your site is about. Get these tags right (for example “plumber, Liverpool, drains, house repairs”) and there’s much more chance of reaching your audience.
You’d perhaps be surprised to know that not all of the keywords you think your customers are using are the ones they are actually using to find it. You will therefore need to ‘optimise’ your website with the keywords they use- rather than perhaps your first choices. Our plumber might actually find that “burst pipes” is an essential search term. Many search engines have an online tool which will suggest search terms for you. Getting right to the top requires a lot of time and effort, though, and is unlikely to happen by chance. If nothing else, it can take 12 months for your website to be assessed automatically by the search engines. The alternative is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It costs money, but it’s the best way to jump the queue. Pay-per-click Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the major component of the SEM package. It makes your business more visible, by placing a bespoke advertisement outside of the main search engine rankings - either at the top or on the sides of the search engine’s pages. You only pay when customers click on its link to your website, and you have total control over your budget. PPC can be relatively cheap compared to other forms of advertising. Spread out your investment across the search engines, and analyse which ones deliver the best results. Focus on those, and begin by setting up a low-budget campaign to asses which advertisements work best. Test your campaigns over the course of a month or so. You can then determine what needs to be optimised, and which wordings for your ad work best. In fact, why not start right now by doing a search and seeing what your competitors are up to? The key measures of success The key measure of success will almost certainly be new sales leads, and a clear return on your investment. At this moment, Google tends to deliver more traffic, but the conversion rate tends to be higher with Windows Live Search. You can analyse conversion rates and the quality of your keywords by using the tracking function in Microsoft adCenter. Being number one should not necessarily be the absolute goal. There’s no point in hitting the top spot if it doesn’t meet your expectations. SEM is not suitable for every business, and for some, the old trade directory will do just fine. For many others, appearing somewhere on the first page rather than the top spot will also do the job. If location is important to your business, you could profit from using adCenter’s geographical targeting; the aim being to maximise the quality of your sales leads, at a price that’s more effective than employing a scattergun approach. Our Liverpool plumber above, for example, doesn’t want to waste money on leads in Devon. The alternatives Organic search may be slow, but if your site has already been indexed, you can improve your chances of rising up the listings. Search engines regularly trawl for new website content; so regularly updating your website can improve your site’s rankings nicely. Also consider non-search marketing, for example, sending out an e-newsletter. Including your website’s address on your electronic and printed office stationery is an instant, free dose of marketing too. --Rich | ||||||||||||||||||
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Getting right to the top requires a lot of time and effort, though, and is unlikely to happen by chance...The alternative is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It costs money, but it’s the best way to jump the queue. 
