Search Marketing
What is search? Throughout history we have archived information; be it in a library, a database, or in a search engine. However, how do we search it?
Search engine are able to bring together all relevant websites related to a search query. Each search engine ranks the relevance of each website in a different way, therefore each search engines results are different for the same search query. This has lead to some search engines becoming more popular than others.
The beauty of search on the internet is that you know that someone is looking for something. What's more, the type of search term determines the thinking behind the search. For example, a search for 'tottenham hotspur' is a very generic search. Someone searching for this could be looking for anything from buying a shirt to information on when the club was established. However a search for 'buy tottenham hotspur shirt' is very specific and the searcher is very likely to be carrying out this action should they find the right result. It is for this reason that search marketing has become a dominant player within the marketing arena in the 21st century.
The buying process
Through the above to searchers we can add a percentage chance of buying from doing that search. For example, a searcher searching for 'tottenham hotspur' is only 20% likely to purchase. Whereas 'buy tottenham hotspur shirt', the end user is over 80% likely to make a purchase. Understanding this can maximise your business potential. What search terms do I want to appear high for to maximise the sales that come through my site? This is clever search marketing, however there are other factors which affect the sales.
84% of the buying cycle is emotional (or irrational); the only rational step is the price. Therefore, the text in the link in the natural listings, the text in the adverts on the search engines, the colour of the website, website layout, website usability, and website categorisation for example, are all factors in the sales or enquiries coming from the website. This are important factors to analyse whilst search marketing. There are two solutions to maximise search marketing; PPC and SEO.
How to maximise the buying process
Search Marketing is defined as using search engine results to market a product. There will be certain search terms, or keywords, that companies may want to use to maximise the traffic coming through to the site to maximise sales. Through PPC marketing, prominence and instant visibility is achievable through all the search engines within minutes.
PPC
Search Marketing through PPC is a quick and effective method of driving sales and leads to high ROI. The trick to this search marketing technique is selecting the correct keywords initially to get you the best results on search before putting the adverts live. Otherwise, you will be paying for every click on your advert for keywords or search terms that will not necessarily result in good sales. Therefore, search marketing research to determine the best search terms is crucial and can be done easily through the API links into Google, Yahoo and MSN. These three search engines cover 99% of all online searches made in the UK.
Once the search terms are selected, it is important that advertisers determine areas of negative search. These negative search terms are terms for which you don't want to appear. For example, a marketer may want to advertise under 'used books', however all of them are high value. Therefore, this marketer would use 'cheap' as a negative search term. This improves the targeting of the search marketing and is a way of reducing marketing spend and also a way to maximise the sales or enquiries that come through in relation to the spend.
The third way of maximise search marketing through PPC is to look at advert texts. These are the adverts which are going to entice the searcher to click on your advert so need to be clear and concise. A good marketing technique is to incorporate USPs or a call to action which gives a reason to buy or enquire once they have clicked on the advert. For example, 10% off today is a great way to encourage people to both click on the advert but also to take action today.
There are other ways of maximise search marketing through PPC effective which include CPC management and statistical optimisation to improve ROI, however the research is initially the most important.
Along side PPC it is possible to be within the natural results given by the search engines. These are known as the SERPs or Search Engine Results Pages. The way each search engine ranks these results is down to the algorithm used. For example, the algorithm used by Google is different to that used by Yahoo and again different to MSNs. For each unique search query, the search engine will give natural results back according to the relevance of the website. Therefore, the more relevant the website, the higher up the search results they are.
Traffic that comes to the website from the natural search results is free traffic and would be great if marketers can get to the top of the listings for highly searched terms. There is a way to increase position on these terms and it is down to the manipulation of the website in order to get better approval from the individual search engine algorithms. This is done through SEO.
SEO
There are many different techniques and methods that are involved with search engine optimisation. In order to manipulate the search results to market a website better can be split into two categories; on-page and off-page.
On page work includes development of content on the site which is more related to the search query. The search engine spiders read this content and can then say that the content is more relevant to that search query.
Off page work helps to expand on the visibility across the internet. Links to other websites and feeds from peoples' desktop computers helps to maximise the exposure and also the traffic that comes through to the site. In addition to this, the search engine spiders notice that there are more links to other sites and deem this as important votes from people meaning that you are relevant. Therefore, an increase in relevance means overall higher search listings.
There are other techniques including article submission and website structures which helps the search engine spiders make a better decision to relevance. The benefit of search marketing through SEO as opposed to PPC means that you can drive a considerable amount more traffic than you can on PPC, and with the amount of traffic being free it is a beneficial technique to apply for high volume search terms.
For Further information, why don't you Contact Us about PPC.
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