Search Engine Marketing - For & Against
There are 3 different routes a visitor can take to reach your
site:
- Direct, by typing the URL in the browser
- Through a link or referral in another site
- Via a Search Engine or directory
A new site will find the first route not really effective
until the passage of time and marketing resources have built an awareness of the
value of the site. By that point you are talking to people who are already
'warm' prospects rather than increasing the total numbers of your contacts.
A hyperlink from another site is the online equivalent of a
referral from a friend. Just as in the real world, you make a judgement yourself
on how reliable you think the information is likely to be, based on your
knowledge of the source. If you respect the source, you are very likely to
at least examine the information. Linking strategies therefore play a
crucial role in web marketing; but, as in the real world, it takes time and
effort to establish credible links.
Hence the importance of search engine marketing to the new
website. For most people this will prove to be the fastest, cheapest route
to finding potential customers. If you design a site that is optimised for
search engines, some visitors will find you. How many, will be a function of the
quality of your site and the size of the market you are in.
Most site owners want to grow faster than site optimisation
allows. Once you have invested in an effective site, you want to attract the
maximum number of potential customers NOW!
First stop is cost per click advertising. This will bring you
immediate visitors. But you must control carefully the cost involved. Then
many people find that this promotion too has clear limitations. There is a
finite number of searchers for your products at any one time. This is not
a medium that generates new levels of interest; on the contrary, its power is in
appealing only to those who have already shown interest through the words put
into the search engine.
Choosing a wider range of keywords results in a loss of focus
shown by falling click through rates compounded by restrictions imposed by the
CPC providers to ensure the adverts they show are relevant to the searcher.
Overture editors will not allow adverts they judge not relevant. Google has an
automated system that measures results and delists those not satisfactory.
So you may not be able to spend the budget you intended.
The conclusion is: the web provides immediate results BUT,
for real growth, you must apply a longer term strategy
You must plan a consistent linking strategy and steadily
improve site content so that more visitors will want to see it and other site
owners will want to link to it.
Developing that strategy, and implementing it, is my
speciality. Ask here for my
assistance.
Regards
Stephen Orr
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