The Importance of Search Engine Marketing

by Ryan Allis

Ok, you have a web site. You've spent numerous hours designing to make it look just right, ensuring your navigation works properly, and adding all the content. Now you're ready to spread the word. An effective way to do just that is through search engines. Although many people give up on getting top rankings, claiming it's just too hard and takes too much time, I disagree. Search engines are the market makers of the Internet. They connect consumers with providers at the very instant of consumer interest and enable all of us to find everything we want, at the specific time we want it. Search engines bring great efficiency to the Internet and our lives.

Positioning, one of the four Ps of marketing, is a critical asset of the marketing mix. If you are not positioned to be where your customer is when your customer is ready to buy, you lose- plain and simple. The competitor who happens to be in that place at that time wins. The first goal of search engine optimization is to be located in the places where your customer is. The second goal is to be placed better than your competitors in these places. In the world of search engines, better means higher, and higher means a much greater probability that a consumer will click on your site link. While this figure varies by search engine, recent search data has shown that about 70% of users, if they click, will click on one of the first three site listings in a search engine.

In a survey conducted by Jupiter Media Matrix, 42% of respondents surveyed cited search engine listings as the most common way they search for products and vendors online. Here are the full results.

As you can see, it is critical to be positioned well in the search engines.

However, obtaining top rankings in the search engines is not an easy task, especially for some of the more competitive keywords. It will take dozens, perhaps hundreds of hours of your time, and you will have to wait two or more months to begin to see any results whatsoever. On the other hand, the payback for your invested time will be more than worth your efforts. The money you save by getting traffic at no charge instead of paying per click to receive traffic will by itself make your time well spent. The years of free prospects being sent your way without any further effort will just be money in the bank.

To make a search engine ranking campaign worthwhile, however, you must have the correct information and must execute your plan properly. While there is a lot of information available on the Internet, much of it is outdated and no longer effective. The dynamic nature of the Internet means that search engine technology, spidering capabilities, ranking criteria, and strategic alliances are all changing very fast. So how can you get up to date and accurate information and ensure you know the stratagies that are most effective? I have recently completed a thirty-three page guide to search engine positioning. In the guide I explain the current state of all the major search engines, how one can ensure that you are listed in each one, and most importantly, exact, step-by-step ways to get a number one ranking on each targeted keyword. You can learn more about The Guide to Obtaining a #1 Ranking in the Search Engines by clicking here. In the guide I show a case study of a former client of mine which I would like to share with you here to emphasize the importance, and opportunity, of being well ranked in the search engines.

In August of 2001 I began working with a client who had a product, but no marketing or distribution system and had no employees at that point. Sales were not as good as expected, perhaps a couple hundred dollars a week, when I came in. On October 26th of 2002, a little over fourteen months later, we hit the $1 million mark in sales for his product. As of December 16, 2002, the company has done $1.4 million in sales. The profit margin is 51%, and the company presently has three employees. The company continues to grow around 15% each and every month.

In accomplishing this, I employed numerous marketing strategies. Some of which were online and some offline. My work in positioning the company higher in the search engines was a significant component of the overall strategy. One highly competitive keyword alone is responsible for approximately $40,000 in sales each and every month.

How long did it take me to achieve the number one ranking? I would estimate it took me about one hundred working hours that spread out over a three week period. While this amount of time was numerous, do the math- I think you will see that it was a very smart investment.

Exactly what did I do to obtain this highly desirable position, across eight of the top ten search engines (the company is #2 on the other two engines)? I went through a methodical seven step process. I go into intricate detail on in my guide listed above. More information on the guide is available here.

My point is that although it took a lot of my time to begin to see the benefits of the investment, it surely was worth it. As such, if search engine marketing is not presently an integral part of your overall strategy, it should be. If you don't have the manhours to put forth, contact Virante to help you out.

If you are not there when John Doe is looking for your product, your competitor surely will be and will be glad to take the sale in your place. Search engines are a very effective way to obtain a continous stream of prospects at no charge to you besides your initial investment of time. It really is not very difficult to obtain top rankings. You simply have to have the right information, use the proper strategies, and be willing to invest some time now for recurring benefits later.