SEM is the solution for all on-line promotions. Therefore we must address this issue. It's not rocket science that businesses should be on the web. It's not enough just to be online though. If nobody can find you, you might just as well not be there!
Look at it this way - imagine a retail enterprise with new premises: Stock has been bought, and the overhead is high. The staff are all poised - And discover they're in a tiny backstreet, 3 miles out of the city centre on the 4th floor, and the road outside is closed due to a diversion. Worse still, no thought has gone into promoting where they are. Can you see a fundamental flaw? And so it is for most websites.
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.
Web marketing needs a whole new approach. Traditional marketers would say your site is an advertisement of your products or services. And so to get people to visit the site, they'll promote it in the press and media, and on TV and radio. Basically keeping it within their frame of reference. They produce the pretty brochure and then market every possible avenue to generate enquiries to send that brochure to. However, this process illustrates an absolute misunderstanding of website marketing.
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!
Search Engines have sorted all this. But in doing so, they've radically changed the face of marketing forever. Because now, if you want to be found in the vast sea that is the internet, you have to be indexed in the Search Engines. Even that isn't enough though. Statistics reveal that almost no-one looks 'below the fold' on the 1st page.
But Search Engines are interested in making money - so to overcome high rating difficulties, paid advertising was introduced. You Pay Per Click, so you're only charged for your ad when someone clicks on it. How refreshing was that? Because now you didn't have to spend anything until an interested person looked at your web page. Advertising in this way requires well informed judgement, but if handled properly it can be very worthwhile.
But Pay-Per-Click is heavily over-subscribed now in most sectors. Costs per click have been heavily driven up, mostly by inexperienced marketers bidding too highly. We're now experiencing some costs per click that make profits unattainable. Especially where large volumes of clicks are required to make a sale. And so the alternative approach of optimising sites to organically move them up to the front page is now more interesting to many companies.
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?
It's possible you've already done some advertising in the paid listings - and maybe you've had some results. Are you managing your campaign well though? Are the returns you're getting good enough? Do you know what the most successful areas are - with accurate statistics to track and measure the quality of your campaigns? With PPC, testing and diagnostics are critical. You'll never get the best results without correct figures.
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.
Look at it this way - imagine a retail enterprise with new premises: Stock has been bought, and the overhead is high. The staff are all poised - And discover they're in a tiny backstreet, 3 miles out of the city centre on the 4th floor, and the road outside is closed due to a diversion. Worse still, no thought has gone into promoting where they are. Can you see a fundamental flaw? And so it is for most websites.
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.
Web marketing needs a whole new approach. Traditional marketers would say your site is an advertisement of your products or services. And so to get people to visit the site, they'll promote it in the press and media, and on TV and radio. Basically keeping it within their frame of reference. They produce the pretty brochure and then market every possible avenue to generate enquiries to send that brochure to. However, this process illustrates an absolute misunderstanding of website marketing.
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!
Search Engines have sorted all this. But in doing so, they've radically changed the face of marketing forever. Because now, if you want to be found in the vast sea that is the internet, you have to be indexed in the Search Engines. Even that isn't enough though. Statistics reveal that almost no-one looks 'below the fold' on the 1st page.
But Search Engines are interested in making money - so to overcome high rating difficulties, paid advertising was introduced. You Pay Per Click, so you're only charged for your ad when someone clicks on it. How refreshing was that? Because now you didn't have to spend anything until an interested person looked at your web page. Advertising in this way requires well informed judgement, but if handled properly it can be very worthwhile.
But Pay-Per-Click is heavily over-subscribed now in most sectors. Costs per click have been heavily driven up, mostly by inexperienced marketers bidding too highly. We're now experiencing some costs per click that make profits unattainable. Especially where large volumes of clicks are required to make a sale. And so the alternative approach of optimising sites to organically move them up to the front page is now more interesting to many companies.
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?
It's possible you've already done some advertising in the paid listings - and maybe you've had some results. Are you managing your campaign well though? Are the returns you're getting good enough? Do you know what the most successful areas are - with accurate statistics to track and measure the quality of your campaigns? With PPC, testing and diagnostics are critical. You'll never get the best results without correct figures.
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. Look at EvolveSEM.co.uk for in-depth business advice on SEM Consultants.
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