4 Steps to Improving Your Search Engine Marketing Strategy

Search engine marketing can be a complex and scary topic. Endless opportunities to advertise and market, constantly changing trends and technologies, and overly complex solutions all come with the territory. So , what you don’t need when you’re evaluating or creating your search engine marketing strategy is lengthy explanations about how different techniques work. Instead, seek out advisors who can guide you with simple explanations and techniques based on real results. That’s exactly what following article is about. It’s a simple list of four things business owners can use in creating or evaluating their search engine marketing strategy.

1 . Establish Your Internet Marketing Strategy Goal

Many consultants will tell you to set goals about what you want to achieve with your website. Forget it. Those are distractions from the real question you need to ask yourself, which is

“What is THE purpose of my website? “

Once you answer that question, all other aspects of search engine marketing strategy can be leveraged to help you achieve that purpose. Typically, people use their website for many different purposes. Regardless, you still need to answer this question. The focus you will get from it will help you create a more effective strategy.

Here are the top three most common answers to the question “What is THE purpose of my website? “

1 . To sell things

2 . To generate leads for my sales team

1. To educate my target audience

It can be this simple! Just decide which of the three answers above suits you best (or create your own) and then move on to step 2.

2 . Establish a Search Engine Marketing Plan

There’s a reason why search engine marketing is so hot. It works. It consistent generates leads, sales, etc . at a lower cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale than traditional mediums like TV or direct mail advertising. It makes sense when you think about it: when people want to find something online, they go to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc . and search for it.

Search engine marketing is all about SHOWING UP when people search for what you sell, offer, or have on your website. There is a growing body of knowledge (books, articles, etc . ) on how to do this. And like anything else, it has become over analyzed and too complex. To further complicate things, some search engine marketing techniques are ethical and legitimate, while some are not. The best approach is to create a search engine marketing plan that focuses on two aspects:

1 . Search engine optimization – showing up in the “free” area of the search engine’s results

2 . Pay-per click advertising – showing up in the “paid” area of the search engine’s results

For search engine optimization, first realize there is no “silver bullet. ” There just isn’t a way to easily get ranked consistently high in the search engines. It is a combination of factors that always come down to one underlying truth: build your website according to web standards, with a focus on accessibility for all.

Just like search engine optimization, there is no “silver bullet” for pay-per click advertising, either. Instead, the formula for PPC success is in well-placed bids (what you will pay to have your ad show up) combined with meaningful landing pages (where people go when they click on your ad).

1. Conduct Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The goal of search engine optimization is to make changes to your website to get higher rankings in search engines. Yet, search engine optimization is a confusing sector. On one hand, there are “snake oil salesmen” ready to get you a #1 ranking with their latest trick. On the other hand, the things that actually do work are very simple, and frankly, just not very “sexy. “

The best strategy to take is a common-sense approach to SEO: develop standards for your website that ALL pages must adhere to. If you do this, and enforce it, you can then branch out to some of the other “niche” aspects of SEO.

Here’s a sample list of SEO standards to enforce on your website:

1 . Write descriptive HTML page titles that really describe the page it is on (in 255 characters or less)

2 . Write a summary sentence that really describes the page it is on (in 255 characters or less)

1. Write page content that is focused on
2. Write descriptive ALT text for all images that describes the concept the image illustrates and never use images for text
3. Build all pages to comply with current web standards observed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Only once your web pages comply with the above standards should you start more advanced SEO techniques, including keyword targeting, 301 redirects, link building (getting more links to your site), RSS news feeds, blogs, and SEO-specific metrics and tracking.

four. Leverage Pay-Per Click Marketing

Pay-per click marketing helps you get more traffic through search engines through advertising searching engine results. You pick conditions that people search on. You bet a price per click on your advertisement that you are willing to pay. You advertisement shows up when someone queries on that term, as well as, if you’re lucky, they click your ad and arrived at your website.

So , pay-per click on advertising really boils down to three components:

1 . Picking key phrases to advertise on (i. electronic. target keywords)

2 . Identifying what to bid for those focus on keywords

1. Writing duplicate for the ads that appear when people search

Picking key phrases is all about knowing what conditions your customers, clients, etc . might use when searching for your service or product. There are several tools to help you produce ideas. The best tools additionally check to see how many searches-per-month your own target keywords receive. A person typically want to find key phrases that generate a lot of queries every month, but are focused sufficient for your business. For example , an organization that sells Keen high-end outdoor sandals probably would become best served bidding upon “keen sandals” versus “sandals” which could include searches for the actual all-inclusive resort, Sandals.

Identifying what to bid for your key phrases can be a highly-scientific process, occasionally managed by complex software program and several key metrics. To maintain it simple, let a device like Google Adwords Traffic Estimator recommend to you what to bet at first. Start there, and begin small. Your best bet is to lock-in a low daily budget restrict until you are comfortable with the actual impressions your ads are becoming, the flow of visitors from the ads to your website, and what those people do once they reach your website.

Writing ad duplicate comes down to writing a heading that people will click on, as well as creating compelling copy beneath that headline/link that will obtain people to click.

Headlines best created by following what mag covers do: focus on obtaining attention through eye-catching, brief phrases. Using words such as best (i. e. “Best Tips for a Summer Barbeque”), ultimate (i. e. “Ultimate National Park Vacations”) as well as number-based lists (i. electronic. “Top 5 Hybrid Vehicles for 2006”) have all shown to work.

Writing effective advertisement copy below the title/link is actually about reinforcing the term(s) search for. This means using the key phrases in the ad copy, as well as starting the copy having an action verb.

By following the actual approach above, you can produce or evaluate your search motor marketing strategy, focus on what matters most whenever executing your plans, and much more effectively achieve your goals.