Infinite possibilities – the power of search engine optimisation

THE internet is one of man’s greatest creations.

It may not save your life, fly you across oceans or land a man on the moon but its impact has transformed the lives, cultures, and habits of millions of people across the planet.

Today we think nothing of hopping onto our favourite search engine, tapping in a word, phrase of name and watching a window to the world open in seconds. It’s also changed the way we shop, whether it be for food, clothes, electronic goods, professional services, houses, cars, furniture, pets, or even find someone to share our lives with. It is without doubt the world’s biggest shopping mall.

Industry has been quick to realise its potential. It might not have replaced newspapers or TV just yet, but its changed the way companies reach their audiences significantly.

It’s not been a speedy revolution. E-commerce has only just reached adolescence since its tentative first steps in the early noughties. New technology and the roll out of broadband have accelerated its development, but it’s the growing sophistication of the current generation of search engines that has really accelerated change.

Internet marketing has become linchpin to achieving true commercial success. From viral e-marketing campaigns, to search engine optimisation, companies big and small are realising the benefits of virtual self-promotion.

According to Andrew Barke, who heads Google’s Manchester office, advertising on the internet has transformed how businesses have advertised, in particular small firms.

“If you look back five or 10 years ago small businesses usually just took an ad in the Yellow Pages. TV and radio was an expensive option. However adwords has created a level playing field.”

And in an medium where timing is essential, the internet beats its rivals says Barke.

“It takes six months to create a TV campaign, press two to three months, and radio a week. Online it’s eight hours.”

But it’s statistics like 60% of consumers research online before purchasing that are the real drivers for search engine marketing (SEM). Having a website these days simply isn’t enough.

Yet despite pay-for-click (or cost-per-click) becoming a familiar term in modern-day marketing strategies it’s still regarded by many as a black art.

The concept is relatively straightforward however. Companies bid for generic key words though search engine auctions in an effort to capture as many searches made by potential customers. Hyperlinks and the briefest of site descriptions are listed separately to those that have been collected by the search engines themselves under the heading “sponsored links”. A payment, collected from an allotted budget, is made each time someone clicks on the link – hence the term pay-for-click.

For small to medium sized businesses (SMBs), pay-for-click represents a unique opportunity to reach a national rather than a local audience. There’s even potential to attract international prospects thanks to language translation tools such as Google Translator.

Moreover, having the flexibility to manipulate campaigns quickly in a changing marketplace at relatively little cost makes pay-for-click an attractive proposition for retailers – and consumers.

It also other cunning features such as tracking and accountability enabling firms to measure their search engine optimisation success in hard cash.

“At Google we have a two adword systems,” explains Barke.

“One for SMBs, which is fairly basic, and one for bigger firms where you can choose to have reports and analysis.”

But although pay-for-click has spawned hundreds of specialise agencies set up to take the hassle out of bidding, tracking and analysing, it is only one element of SEM as Stephen Harvey-Franklin, founder of Huddersfield-based SEM specialist explains.

“Businesses can forget that a good website is as important as being able to drive people to it,” he says.

“There are a lot of different people out there offering to do websites and for many SMBs it’s important to get it done as cheap as possible.

“But it has to be easily navigable and for retailers especially work well or people will go to another site. It’s an essential part of SEM.”

Neither is pay-per-click as straightforward as it seems.

“If you’re paying to get people to your website then you want to know that it’s working,” says Harvey-Franklin.

“Often it can be linked to the terms used. For example, if you have the generic term overseas property but the houses you’re advertising are in Minorca. You need to find the customers who are looking for properties in that country.”

Another issue is cost and bidding for key words can be an expensive business particularly for smaller firms. There have been accusations of bidding spirals, where firms are locked in to a costly bidding cycle, ever changing algorithms, and competitors using automated click programmes to use up rivals budgets.

Which is why SEM agencies such as WSI encourage firms to also consider the longer game of rising through the search engine’s own rankings.

“It’s a more organic approach to search engine optimisation,” says Harvey-Franklin.

“But it requires effort such as getting tagged on blogs and social networking sites to help drive up your ranking.”

Harvey-Franklin also has some advice for smaller firms looking to step up their internet advertising.

“If it sounds too good to be true then it normally is,” he laughs.

But he remains convinced that SEM is a perfect advertising choice especially for smaller firms with tight marketing budgets.

“You can easily analyse the results, which you can’t with other mediums. There’s a great saying in marketing. I know that 50% of my marketing budget works but I don’t know which half. You don’t have that problem with SEM.”