Search Engine Marketing is vital today. So we now need to look carefully at where the commercial market-place is going. Any service or product related company must have a website - that's a given. But a web presence by itself won't bring results. Purchasers won't necessarily be able to find you.
Let's compare it to a new store opening up... A lot of money has gone into setting it up. They open for business... And see where they are - in the middle of nowhere, down some side-alley. And no-one has given any thought to advertising their location. Is anyone likely to buy from them? This is exactly the scenario for 99% of ALL commercial websites in existence.
The World Wide Web has caused a paradigm shift in marketing. Around the time of the millennium, it was thought that having a website was everything. Vast amounts of money were spent on all singing/dancing web sites. This trend was cheerfully encouraged by on-line design companies, who relished the business! But just the existence of the site didn't bring in the customers. They'd thought that simply having a site on the web meant customers could see them. In fact, this wasn't the case at all.
Modern internet marketing requires a fundamental shift in thinking from traditional marketing. People used to established marketing techniques would say your web site is simply an advertisement of your company and its products. As a result, they'll try to get you to promote the site on radio, TV or in the press. Essentially they're working in the same way as they've always done. They start with a flashy sales site, and then try lots of 'off-line' avenues to get people to look at it. Completely missing the point of the web environment!
The internet itself is not just a viewing portal. It is a completely interactive place where billions of people can research, examine, discuss and choose services and products in the comfort of their own home. And because of Search Engines like Google & Bing/MSN, there are huge indexes of sites that can be easily found (from the customers perspective at least) to perform these tasks. Off-line Business Pages would be useless if they weren't properly structured: It could take hours of our time!
The Search Engines solve this dilemma. And so marketing is forced to move on. If you want customers to find you on the internet, indexation by Google etc. is paramount. Yet if you only show up a few pages in, you might as well forget it. By the time you get to page 5, you can forget it, unless you've got a very detail-oriented and persistent customer!
So to give all companies a chance to be on the first pages, the Search Engines came up with a new form of paid advertising. You only pay when someone actually chooses your advert - hence the name 'Pay-Per-Click'. This caused quite a storm when it happened. Basically, the only time you now paid was when someone who was already interested asked to look at your site. This is an incredibly targeted way of advertising, and done properly, can yield some exceptional results.
Unfortunately, PPC advertising has now become literally swamped with adverts in most fields. New online marketers have forced up the price per click, largely through over-the-top bidding. So it's often the case now that many are priced out of the market. In particular, where a sale requires a large number of clicks. Consequently we're seeing a renewed interest in SEO. This means websites are optimised in ways that naturally push them up the search pages.
Have a go at this - Go to Google or Bing RIGHT NOW and type in a few product or service keywords. Can you see your website on the 1st three pages? It's very doubtful. So you might as well not be there at all! If it is there, would clients really use those keywords?
You may have some successful experience of PPC advertising. Can you be sure you're working it as efficiently as possible? Is your ROI satisfactory? Have you got an eye on the stats that measure your results? It's important to split test your campaigns - are you doing this? If you don't know what your stats are, then guaranteed you're not getting the best results for your money.
Both in Britain and around the world, statistics show that commercial advertising and selling is experiencing a seismic shift towards the internet. It's no longer an option. Embrace the web economy, and maximise its potential.
Let's compare it to a new store opening up... A lot of money has gone into setting it up. They open for business... And see where they are - in the middle of nowhere, down some side-alley. And no-one has given any thought to advertising their location. Is anyone likely to buy from them? This is exactly the scenario for 99% of ALL commercial websites in existence.
The World Wide Web has caused a paradigm shift in marketing. Around the time of the millennium, it was thought that having a website was everything. Vast amounts of money were spent on all singing/dancing web sites. This trend was cheerfully encouraged by on-line design companies, who relished the business! But just the existence of the site didn't bring in the customers. They'd thought that simply having a site on the web meant customers could see them. In fact, this wasn't the case at all.
Modern internet marketing requires a fundamental shift in thinking from traditional marketing. People used to established marketing techniques would say your web site is simply an advertisement of your company and its products. As a result, they'll try to get you to promote the site on radio, TV or in the press. Essentially they're working in the same way as they've always done. They start with a flashy sales site, and then try lots of 'off-line' avenues to get people to look at it. Completely missing the point of the web environment!
The internet itself is not just a viewing portal. It is a completely interactive place where billions of people can research, examine, discuss and choose services and products in the comfort of their own home. And because of Search Engines like Google & Bing/MSN, there are huge indexes of sites that can be easily found (from the customers perspective at least) to perform these tasks. Off-line Business Pages would be useless if they weren't properly structured: It could take hours of our time!
The Search Engines solve this dilemma. And so marketing is forced to move on. If you want customers to find you on the internet, indexation by Google etc. is paramount. Yet if you only show up a few pages in, you might as well forget it. By the time you get to page 5, you can forget it, unless you've got a very detail-oriented and persistent customer!
So to give all companies a chance to be on the first pages, the Search Engines came up with a new form of paid advertising. You only pay when someone actually chooses your advert - hence the name 'Pay-Per-Click'. This caused quite a storm when it happened. Basically, the only time you now paid was when someone who was already interested asked to look at your site. This is an incredibly targeted way of advertising, and done properly, can yield some exceptional results.
Unfortunately, PPC advertising has now become literally swamped with adverts in most fields. New online marketers have forced up the price per click, largely through over-the-top bidding. So it's often the case now that many are priced out of the market. In particular, where a sale requires a large number of clicks. Consequently we're seeing a renewed interest in SEO. This means websites are optimised in ways that naturally push them up the search pages.
Have a go at this - Go to Google or Bing RIGHT NOW and type in a few product or service keywords. Can you see your website on the 1st three pages? It's very doubtful. So you might as well not be there at all! If it is there, would clients really use those keywords?
You may have some successful experience of PPC advertising. Can you be sure you're working it as efficiently as possible? Is your ROI satisfactory? Have you got an eye on the stats that measure your results? It's important to split test your campaigns - are you doing this? If you don't know what your stats are, then guaranteed you're not getting the best results for your money.
Both in Britain and around the world, statistics show that commercial advertising and selling is experiencing a seismic shift towards the internet. It's no longer an option. Embrace the web economy, and maximise its potential.
About the Author:
(C) Jason Kendall SEM. Look at EvolveSEM.co.uk for great information on SEM Experts.
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