What’s the value of being top of the search results in Google, £thousands, £millions? Whatever the answer, it’s worth a lot. That’s why so many businesses invest heavily in Search Engine Marketing.

For most businesses there are 4 main ways to be found on the web.

1.       Paid advertising in the search engines

2.       Search Engine Optimisation

3.       Advertising on other websites

4.       Listings in targeted directories

To decide which one is going to work best for you is not always a straightforward question, but without a doubt as more and more people turn to the web to find their suppliers your web presence is increasingly important.

In the example below, we have a search using the keywords “uk hr consultant” and Google has produced the following results.

-          The areas highlighted in the red boxes are paid advertising or often referred to as Keyword Advertising – Google refers to results as Sponsored Listings. Google auctions keywords and presents the sponsored results in the order of the most relevancy to the keywords searched on and the price paid. Highest prices at the top of course. It is important to note the advertising is only paid for when somebody actually clicks on  your advert. 

-          The area highlighted in blue is called the “natural” search engine results. These are the websites Google deems the most important and relevant to the terms search upon. The position of these results cannot be purchased but a company’s position in the results can be influenced via a Search Engine Optimisation program.  

Keyword advertising campaigns appear to be quick and easy to implement, but in reality are very difficult and complex to run properly. Using sophisticated tracking and statistical analysis, the best performing keywords and bid amounts are selected, tracked and optimised on an on-going basis to generate the highest volume of relevant traffic for the lowest possible cost. Factors such as advert description and time of day can significantly affect the campaign performance and so techniques such as split testing are frequently used.

Because it is possible to track the terms people searched on and their actions on the website, it is possible to understand the return on investment by keyword. This means you can ramp up investment on keywords that generate a positive return and turn down investment on the poorer performing keywords.

Depending upon competition for the keywords, the price to appear high up in the paid advertising can vary from a few pence to several £'s.

Our recommendation is to make sure that any keyword advertising campaign you run is set up and managed by a Google Qualified Professional.

 

In a nutshell – Search Engine Optimisation is a program of activities to make sure that your website can be read well by the search engines and that its importance and relevance to specific keywords is ranked above your competitors. 

It is important to note that a program of “unethical” SEO techniques such as hidden text link, cloaking or the use of link farms can have a negative effect on search engine performance.

The following methodology is typical of many an SEO program. 

Situation Analysis

A comprehensive analysis of current website performance. Identifying metrics for benchmarking SEO performance and establish benchmark performance against competitors 

A Technical Review of Website

Ensuring the technical aspects of the website do not prevent proper indexing by the search engines, so all relevant pages, contents and labels are ready correctly. Typical changes made to the website include :

- URL spiderability improvements

- Improvements to internal link structure and format

- Improvement to html code structure

Search Term Profiling

An exercise to define major keyword terms and keyword phrases with high traffic and low competition.

Content Gap Analysis

Detailed page content analysis for all key pages of the website. It is critically important to ensure that the website content:

-          Reflects the most important keyword terms

-          Is going to be valued by the search engines

Website marketing program

Develop a comprehensive set of activities to market your website on the Internet, that results in high quality links from other websites.

 On-going monitoring and reporting framework

Develop an on-going reporting framework to track the impact of the SEO work and measure the performance against the objectives set. Monitor relevant keyword phrases across all main search engines and use advanced analytics to help focus the activities. This will also include the websites performance on major keyword terms against main competitors.

Advertising on other websites

There are a wide number of ways to advertise on other websites. You can run your advert on 1000’s of relevant websites using specialised services or buy space on specific website. It all depends upon the objectives, your budget and nature of the customers you’re trying to reach.

Promotion in directories

The beauty of website directories is that all members get to benefit from the power of a larger web presence. This means even the smallest of companies can be found on the Internet. Many directories are free so there’s nothing to lose, but be aware of those directories that charge a fee and make sure there is some good statistical evidence that you’ll get a positive return on your investment.  

 

 

1.       Using the analytical tools that are available today means the different ways to promote yourself on the web can be compared and logical data-driven decision on where to spend your advertising budget can be made.

 

2.       Web marketing should be a logical and well thought through campaign with short medium and long term objectives. For example, you may start with a keyword advertising and an SEO program, and gradually scale down the investment in keyword advertising as your natural performance in the search engines improves.

 

3.       Take advantage of the free directories.

 

4.       As more and more customers look to the Internet for their suppliers, get on board now and begin to promote yourself on the web.