search engine marketing info

"Many of the most successful online retailers are shifting their marketing spending to online efforts, particularly search engine marketing, says Heather Dougherty, senior analyst for research company Nielsen/NetRatings. 'We've seen a shift from traditional advertising to search and e-mail,' Dougherty says."from Internet Retailer News Story "Marketing Dollars are Shifting Online, Analyst Says"

"Nearly 100 million adults made purchases after doing online research last year, coming close to the number of adults who purchased through catalogs, direct-mail ads, and telemarketing calls combined.""Web Outshines Catalogs, Direct Marketing and Telemarketing, Study Says" from News Story August 3, 2004, Internet Retailer

"Next year, [Rashtchy] predicts search revenues to top $10 billion, and then hit $13.5 billion in 2007, $16.2 billion in 2008, $19.8 billion in 2009, and top $23 billion in 2010.""Rashtchy's Golden Search Turns Platinum" by Gord Hotchkiss

"New-customer lead generation is the top purpose of companies engaged in digital marketing.""Digital Marketing Becomes An Important Part of Marketing Mix" the Center For Media Research

"Online research changed opinions toward brands among three out of five shoppers who researched products online before purchasing.""Web Outshines Catalogs, Direct Marketing and Telemarketing, Study Says" from News Story August 3, 2004, Internet Retailer

"Seeing sponsored search listings and interacting with Web Sites have both been shown to deliver branding impact, especially for companies that primarily do business offline.""Breaking Through the Search Volume Wall" by Kevin Lee

"Driving a prospect or customer to a site and having them come back again and again is the Holy Grail of online marketing and advertising.""What's Loyalty Worth?" by Seana Mulcahy

WHAT IS SEM

SEM is search engine marketing, marketing your products and services on the internet through a search engine. With more than one in three Americans using a search engine last year according to Nielsen//NetRatings, it has become increasingly important to have good search engine positioning or ranking.

Search engines are databases containing links and short descriptions of web sites. These databases are built either by human editors or automatically created indexes. Many search engines use their own database as well as complimentary search engine databases.

According to comScore, "Americans conducted 7.3 billion searches online in March 2007, up 6 percent versus February and 14 percent versus March 2006. Google Sites led the pack with 3.5 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (2.0 billion), Microsoft Sites (798 million), Ask Network (379 million), and Time Warner Network (368 million)." Search Engine Watch showed the U.S. search market split as follows in July of 2006: back...

SPIDERS, ROBOTS, AND CRAWLERS

Spiders and robots are software programs that "crawl" the World Wide Web periodically to find and index web sites according to keyword phrases and incoming links. When a spider finds your website, it crawls the entire site visiting each link and reading each page, as it is able. Robots typically visit only the home page of a given domain. As spiders and robots read your page, they examine the text and determine how to best index your site.

Not all spiders and robots are good. Some robots are not there to index your site, rather some unscrupulous spiders visit your site to harvest email addresses, steal images and content, or survey for copyright violations. Besides being obnoxious, they chew up bandwidth, costing you money! These robots are bold enough to ignore robot exclude files, but there are techniques that can be used to prevent their visits. You can read more about blocking techniques here: diveintomark.org back...

INDEX VS. DIRECTORY

You can compare a search engine directory to a series of filing cabinets with each cabinet representing a category; the drawers represent sub-categories and individual files are subjects. The naming method used by a directory to file websites is called its taxonomy. For example search engine positioning services are found on Yahoo! in COMPUTERS & INTERNET > B2B > SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SERVICE.

When a website is submitted to a directory, a human editor reviews the site and determines whether or not the site belongs in the requested category. Sometimes the editor may create a short description of your site and sometimes the editor may use your supplied description.

An indexed search engine organizes its database like the index to a book. Websites are indexed according to keywords and keyword phrases. When a user types in a keyword, the engine searches its index to find a match on the keyword and then displays the closest matches. back...

WEB ANALYTICS

Web logs reside on the server where your website resides and web hosting companies use software to analyze the data from these logs and often offer detailed reports from these logs for their customers. The data supplied by these logs can show how visitors arrived on your site, through search engines, direct navigation, or links from other sites. They can also show which keywords are being used to find your site or how many visitors are visiting your site.

Search engine marketing professionals use this data combined with other measurements and metrics to measure the effectiveness of a search engine positioning campaign and adjust strategies when needed.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Ensuring search engines index your site involves search engine optimization, known as SEO. The first step of SEO is finding phrases targeted to your audience that are used by many web surfers but not used by many competing sites. Choose 2 or 3 phrases, each 2 to 4 words long, specific to your site's purpose. These targeted phrases are known as keyword phrases.

Write and organize plenty of informative, keyword-rich content for your visitors. Place the keywords strategically in headings, links, and meta tags. Sites that are usable and friendly to visitors are good food for search engine spiders.

Avoid "spamming" techniques, unnatural, excessive use of keywords, which cause search engines to block your site. Avoid using technologies or techniques that make it difficult for search engines to read and index your site. back...

WEB DESIGN AND SEM

Website development should focus on good-looking, easy to use, self-maintaining, search-engine-friendly design and architecture. Clean design, easy navigation, tight organization, and valuable content entice visitors to delve deeper and take action. Great copy can make the difference between a visitor and a customer, someone who stays on your site and purchases your goods or services. Your content should convey your image, message, mission and give visitors a reason to select you over competitors.

Easy to use, secure, administration pages allowing you to maintain dynamic content such as product inventory, pricing, customer lists or periodic news updates will save you time and money in the long run.

Plan the site architecture so the navigation is accessible from every page. Think about what the customer wants to see and do on your site. What action do you want the customer to take? Every element and all content should reinforce the purpose of your site. Identify the purpose of each page clearly in taglines, headers, titles and descriptions. Make it as easy as possible for visitors by staying close to universally accepted practices, such as an 'About Us' page, a contact form or e-mail link, your privacy policy, an FAQ page, and a site map.

Educate your customer. Distinguish yourself from your competitors. Include areas unique to your purpose, such as educational pages and articles about your products or services, product catalogs, shopping carts, terms and conditions, press releases, investor relations, and forums. back... more info...