“If you build it, they will come” might be a great tag line for a movie, but it’s a lousy strategy for attracting customers to your website. According to the Sensis e-Business Report, 57 per cent of Australian businesses now have their own website, but merely being online isn’t enough.
To attract customers – especially new ones – you need to make use of two key tactics: search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), also sometimes referred to as search engine advertising (SEA).
SEO aims to make sure that your site appears prominently whenever people use a search engine such as Google. For instance, if you were a plumber in Adelaide, SEO techniques would make sure that your site was among the first results returned when someone searched for ‘Adelaide plumber’. (These are sometimes referred to as ‘natural’ results.)
While it can attract large audiences – how often do you look beyond the first screen of results when you’re looking for something on the internet? – getting prominent placement using SEO is a difficult task, because search engines such as Google constantly change the ranking systems they use. Factors including the content of the page, the domain name used and how many other web pages link to the site can change its ranking. And the people who run search engines want to ensure that their results are useful, so they have been known to remove sites from their indexes if they suspect that they’re being manipulated purely to appear more prominently in search results.
Because of this, many businesses instead rely heavily on search engine marketing. SEM is the system used to produce the small advertisements that appear on search engine results pages, but they’re paid for using a system that’s quite different to conventional advertising.
Businesses bid a fixed amount for a given keyword or phrase (like ‘Adelaide plumber’). The price can range from a few cents to several dollars, depending on how much competition there is for the term. The top bidders will then have their advertisements appear on results pages when people search for that keyword. If someone clicks on the link for the advertisement, the business pays the bid amount (which is why this system is often referred to as pay-per-click). Businesses can also set a monthly budget; after that’s been spent, their advertisement will no longer appear.
“The huge attraction of online marketing is the fact that it’s so measurable,” says Jason Davey, Managing Director of digital marketing agency Bullseye. “You can get exact metrics around when somebody saw your [advertisement].”
USING SEARCH MARKETING
According to industry analyst Forrester Research, spending on search marketing will rise by 80 per cent over the next five years. Google (adwords.google.com.au) dominates the market, but most other search engine sites also offer similar schemes.
While it’s easy to set up a search marketing advertisement – all you need to do is choose a few keywords and set a budget – getting effective results takes more effort. Choosing the most suitable search terms can take time.
“You need to put your customer cap on and think like a customer,” Davey says.
Having a well-defined overall plan is also crucial. “Google has made it easy for anyone with a credit card to launch a paid search ad,” Forrester Research analyst Shar VanBoskirk notes in an advisory to customers. “But this ad hoc entry to search doesn’t mean that the medium should be forever managed as a guerilla tactic with no defined process. To make your search marketing efforts credible and profitable, establish a policy for how your firm will use search as a marketing medium.”
If it all sounds too complicated, there are plenty of specialist consultancies that will help you design an SEM strategy.
“There’s definitely some small businesses reaping the benefits, but because it’s a new area and not well understood by everybody, you probably need to seek some advice,” says Davey.
Expert assistance can definitely
be helpful, especially if you’re pressed
for time, but it isn’t essential. Research
by Forrester suggests that 61 per cent of all businesses using search marketing plan and manage their campaigns themselves, rather than relying on external specialists.
Secrets of search marketing success
- Constantly work on adapting and improving your plans
Search engines continuously update their ranking systems, so you need to constantly update your approach to your site.
“Not many campaigns run exactly as we plan,” says Bullseye’s Jason Davey. “They typically evolve and improve as we start to collect data.”
- Take time to choose suitable search keywords
Broad, generic terms like ‘holidays’ might attract lots of traffic, but they’ll cost more and may not deliver the best results. “Think of search terms that your particular audience would be using,” advises Davey. - Make sure your site is well designed and filled with relevant text content
That will help ensure high placement in natural search results and, consequently, good SEO outcomes.
