Engine Marketing

Today, companies constantly clamor for attention at every parking bench, in every religious magazine, and on every shirt. As Rance Crain, editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, stated: "Advertisers will not be satisfied until their put their mark on every blade of grass." Successful companies and entrepreneurs must make their name known; they must participate in search engine marketing.

Why Is Search Engine Marketing Important?

AOL© is right. America is online. According to 2004 Nielson NetRatings, approximately three-quarters of Americans have internet home access. A 2008 Cone Business study found that 60% of Americans use social media, and that 93% of those users believe a company should have an online presence. As evidenced by the prevalence of popular search engines, companies cannot afford to ignore the online market.

Search Engine Optimization

In order to display relevant listings to consumers, search engines create algorithms, such as Google's PageRank, to classify web pages. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tried-and-true method for escaping the pits of fifth-tier listings and rocketing onto the front page. It is affordable, and properly used, has an impressive ROI (Return on Investment). While specifics are unknown, SEO researchers have pinpointed the primary factors for SEO success.

1) Keywords. Keywords are search terms. When selecting keywords, eliminate broad-based keywords; rather, use pertinent terms. For quite specific results, use long-tail (4 plus words) keyword phrases. Primary keywords should appear with the first paragraph of an article, and secondary keywords, within the first 100 words. Keywords should also appear in the title, headers and subheaders.

2) Links. Links are how web crawlers find and rank web pages. There are three types of links: reciprocal, which pair two web pages; multi-way, which partner three or more; and one-way, which sends one web page to many others - and may be costly. To obtain links, craft relationships with other online businesses, and consider affiliate marketing.

Paid Search Listings

Sites such as Google© and Amazon.com© sponsor paid search listings, where corporations can buy advertisement space and pay the hosts using one of two methods: PPC (pay per click)/CPC (cost per click), or CPA (cost per action), which only requires clients to pay if website visitors commit a certain action (e.g. buy a product). Using PPC/CPC advertisements may increase website traffic, but CPA advertisements lead to higher conversion rates and reduce non-buying visitors.

Customer-Centric Website Building

Customer-centric website building constructs a website with the consumer in mind. Color themes, font choices, site navigability, customer service options and purchasing interfaces all affect the customer experience. Stoney deGeyter, in "Seven Steps to Improving Conversion Rates," instructs, "Don't try to be all things to all people, but instead ... meet the vast majority of your visitor's needs."

Web personalization is the hottest new trend in consumer-centric marketing. It uses visitor demographic information keys (gender, age, interests) to alter website features by visitor. Web personalization has been shown to increase the traffic-conversion rate from an average 2.8% by 70%!

Ditch the magazines, shirts and park benches. Start search engine marketing.