March 2003
MARKETING ANGEL ™
Search engines are the phone books potential customers are using for Web sites
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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Of the 134 million people using the Web each month, 85 percent use a search engine. Of those 85 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal, three-quarters rely on Google or sites that use Google's search results. Even my math-impaired brain grasps the awesomeness of these numbers — Google's serving as an information clearinghouse to more than 85 million humans. To understand how a business can play to win the uber critical search-engine listings game, I asked Anne Kennedy, managing partner for Beyond Ink (www.beyondink.com) for an introduction to the search engine optimization (SEO) world. Beyond Ink, based in Portland and launched in 1997, provides Web site marketing, Internet advertising and public relations services.
Marketing Angel: Please explain, in practical terms, what search engine optimization means.
Anne Kennedy: Search engine optimization (SEO) is Internet public relations, in that highly-visible listings in search engines such as Google enhance credibility and increase brand awareness. The term itself refers to specific tactics employed to increase visibility for Web sites in search engine results. Search engines retrieve Web pages from their databases according to whether the text on the pages is relevant to their users' requests. [The search engines are] literal and highly overworked, so they take the path of least resistance to the exact search terms users asked for. Web sites with links to other sites with more information get bonus points, and sites with links to them from popular and relevant sites even more. SEO also refers to a professional who provides this niche marketing service.
It's also possible to pay for top position in search engines, through bidding for pay-per-click advertising, another effective way to get visibility on search engines. Together, these are called search engine marketing (SEM).
Marketing Angel: Why is it so important for a company to ensure its site is properly submitted to and listed in search engines? How often does the process need to be updated?
Anne Kennedy: About 134 million people use the Web each month, and of those, close to 85 million find sites by using search engines, which have indexed Web sites of interest in their databases. However, even the largest index lists little more than 20 percent of all the pages on the Web. Not being in that 20 percent is like not being in the phonebook. With more than three billion Web site pages in the largest index, proper submission helps make sure users looking for your site find it.
Once indexed, Web sites should be monitored and will probably need to be tweaked to maintain position, especially in competitive markets. Though sites never need resubmission, the SEO should be updated to reflect changes, such as new products.
Marketing Angel: If we agree that SEO results in a huge gain in Web visits, how does that translate into more sales?
Anne Kennedy: Converting visitors to customers depends on whether visitors find what they want, and how well they're motivated to buy. Good, targeted SEO makes Web sites visible to qualified customers looking for the specific products on them. Persuasive copy helps visitors reach their decisions to buy.
Marketing Angel: Google sells "AdWords," which results in a featured listing when a user plugs in certain search criteria. How effective is buying Google AdWords?
Anne Kennedy: Google AdWords, or any other pay-per-click, keyword-based advertising, is measurably more effective than general online advertising, because it responds directly to user searches--in effect they're pre-qualifying themselves to purchase. We've seen conversion rates of 20 percent or more, especially for sites that also have highly-visible natural listings in Google. Still, effectiveness depends on a variety of complex factors: keyword selection, ad copy, daily spending limits, continuous position management and monitoring sales revenue for each specific keyword purchase (ROI tracking).
An AdWords campaign is an excellent way to make a search engine audience tangible, and test various keywords at a reasonable cost. Unlike other forms of advertising, an AdWords campaign can be launched rapidly, modified on the fly and halted at a moment's notice.
Marketing Angel: People get excited by how many hits their site gets. But hits aren't terribly meaningful, right? What should site owners really be tracking?
Anne Kennedy: Hits never were truly meaningful to anyone other than hosting companies, because "hits", a.k.a. "requests," tote up how many times a single file is accessed by browsers from the server hosting a given Web site. Each Web page contains a number of files, and increased complexity in Web site functions and design has made that number grow.
Before tracking anything, Web site owners should determine how they'll measure success, and then identify the metrics for this. At the very least they'll look for number of visitors, and in some cases whether they were unique visitors or repeat. Tracking referring domains will help guide marketing decisions. Referring search engine data will help evaluate SEO effectiveness and pinpoint trouble spots. Comparing sales or leads to visitors will provide conversion rates. Page views and time spent on pages may be useful information. Tracking exit points and failed searches will tell a lot about what users are looking for but not finding. All tracking should focus on identifying trends, and using the data to make informed business decisions. Sophisticated e-tailers have raised tracking to a high art to obtain critical customer information and gain the competitive edge.
Marketing Angel: How important is a site's content to getting listed in search engines?
Anne Kennedy: At a very minimum, a Web site must have unique and original content to be listed at all in top search engines like Yahoo and Google.
For natural search listings, content is the single most important factor, the next being relevant and popular links. Search engines look for the words users tell them to, and they cannot read graphics or Flash files. It's a two-pronged approach: in order to gain visibility in search engine listings for given search terms, a Web site's content must have a sufficient density of those terms on pages. This works better if pages are devoted to single topics. At the same time, in order to attract the users who will buy, content better contain the search terms they actually use to search.
Text on the home page is critically important, as search engines weigh homepages more heavily. We have seen a number of clients who have built sites with all Flash homepages and navigation, which is the Web equivalent of putting up a billboard and then putting the message on the back where no one can see it.
There are sites that will need to depend on Google AdWords and other internet advertising to create and maintain visibility, but that can get expensive, depending on what competitive sites are doing.
Marketing Angel: Any last thoughts on the art of SEO?
Anne Kennedy: Professional search engine marketing is not cheap. The SEO learning curve is steep, and the landscape ever changing. Moreover, Web site owners should be prepared to pay for listings in key databases such as Yahoo, LookSmart and Inktomi, as these will materially affect rapid and continuing visibility in major search databases.
Companies should beware of vendors promoting guaranteed positions, or submission to hundreds or thousands of search engines, especially for low prices. The only way to guarantee specific search engine positions is to bid for them using pay-per-click advertising — vendors that promote this should identify it as such.
Submitting to "thousands" of search engines almost always involves a practice called "link farming," in which a company's site is put in a database and linked to every other site in it, whether relevant or not. This is ineffective at best, and could get a site banned from major search engine databases.
There are only a handful of search engines that account for almost all of the search activity on the Web, and the number is getting smaller due to partnerships and consolidations in the industry. The most popular, Google, alone accounts for nearly 75 percent of searches because its results appear also Yahoo! and AOL Search.
Smart site owners will educate themselves to keep from being snookered by some of the fast- buck artists who've seized opportunities in our still emerging industry. There are a number of excellent resources online, including SearchEngineWatch, the i-Search Discussion list, Webmaster World Forums, and our own SEONews.net industry digest.
Kimberly L. McCall (a.k.a. Marketing Angel™), is president of McCall Media & Marketing, Inc., a business communications and writing company in Freeport, Maine. McCall writes the monthly Sales Force column for Entrepreneur magazine and contributes to inc.com and The Wall Street Journal’s StartupJournal.com. Sign up for her free weekly bulletin at www.MarketingAngel.com or contact McCall at 207-865-0055.