The focus of this blog is to provide education for search marketing. That said, you can’t discuss search marketing without discussing the goals of your site. There are plenty of sites that get page 1 placement on Google and are not making money. There are plenty of sites that can’t be found at all through natural search and are quite profitable. It’s our job to provide our customers with natural search placement and to help create a user experience that achieves your business goals. That said, one of the biggest mistakes I see small companies make when creating or re-designing a site is not being clear on the goal or objective of the site. Why do we have a site? To sell stuff. Okay, fair enough, but how does that happen? For many online transactions, visitors don’t do what you want them to do, buy stuff, on their very first visit. They want to get to know you, how long have you been in business, what have you done for your customer, do you have a product guarantee, what can you offer me that I can’t get somewhere else? When you’re planning to build your site, remember your customer needs first, not yours. Tell them what you do better than anyone else. One of the best statements I’ve seen from a customer is this “Copper West isn’t about Hood River Real Estate sales as much as it’s about being a trusted negotiator, and local ‘expert-advisor’ to the process.” So simple, yet it’s a very strong value proposition. You need to sell stuff, but what do your customers need before they make that decision? For some sites that’s education, product information, product reviews, testimonials, for others that can be a technical white paper or even a sample of the product. So next time you’re ready to create a new site or re-design the one you have, put yourself in the place of your customer what do they need from you? Once you’ve answered that question you’re on your way to getting them to do what you want them to do. The best way to learn about creating on online user experience that helps you achieve your online goals, is by asking your customers. Sit down with customers and potential customers and ask them what they need, a mini focus group if you will, this is a great way to begin understanding your customers needs so you can start achieving your online goals. Ask us for consultation if you’d like help with this process.

Paid Search (PPC-Pay Per Click) is a great way to stick your toe into search marketing. If planned correctly, it’s cost effective, it’s simple to implement and very trackable. Whether you use Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing or MSN AdCenter, your first step is doing some keyword research. Go to Wordtracker and download the free trial, test the words you think your customers are using to find you and also get some other recommendations. Then create ad group campaigns based on your business objectives. Do you want people to purchase a product? Create an ad group using keywords for that product, take them to a page that best explains the product (the closer to the end of the sales cycle the better). You’ll need to plan which keywords to attach to which ad groups, utilizing not just broad matching, but exact matching and negative matching as well. Make sure that your ad group has a call to action. If your visitors don’t traditionally purchase or take the action you want them to take on the first visit, take them to a page that allows you to acquire an email address to begin communicating with your potential new customer (sign up for email, download a white paper, etc.) Since you’re paying dearly for that click, make sure that you’re creating a process within your Paid Search Campaign to support your business objectives. Tip: If you create an ad group that is initiated with a keyword regarding a particular product, take the click to a page that gets them the closest to that product (not your home page!) Also, remember that a paid search visit starts with a search query using the words “buy yellow widgets” take them to a landing page with the words “buy yellow widgets”, you’ll want to carry the “scent” of the originating search query throughout the process so you don’t lose your potential new customer. Look for our post June 15th when we’ll discuss creating landing pages for your paid search campaigns and improving ROI by testing creative on landing pages. Check out this great tool in beta for testing creative at Google Web Optimizer. (Next time: Defining online business goals). Hope you’ll join me!

As these posts evolve you’ll find I’m a huge fan of Google. Not just because they rule the universe I work in, but because they are fair. They provide a lot of great tools for free and, though they won’t share their algorithm, they share lots of great information about how to use design and content guidelines that help you get search placement in their engine. Though I’ve worked in the internet space for 10 years, I’ve been involved with search marketing for just five years. The stakes for winning at search engine optimization and marketing are high so it’s no wonder that there are a lot of black hat seo techniques put to use by less-than-scruplous developers and web marketers. Google is crystal clear about what spam is and, though there really is no excuse, many companies participate in spam. Google’s content guidelines read very specifically, “Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.” Trying to get search ranking by creating duplicate content across multiple sites is bad for everybody, it’s bad for the engines because now they’re serving multiple duplicate results for a search inquiry. It’s bad for customers because they have to wade through the duplicate sites, it’s bad for the site owners because eventually, they will be blocked from the index. Last piece of advise, make pages for users, not for search engines. If you’re not sure, ask yourself when you’re creating more content for your site or another subdomain, is this helpful to my customers? If it’s not, don’t do it. Period.

One of the coolest parts of my job is working with the team members of a company. You learn so much about other industries and I’m always amazed at the level of talent and enthusiasm. As I recently worked with my client, Avery Print and Mail Center and their fulfillment vendor, Modern Postcard, to launch the new site, I was constantly impressed with the level of commitment by all the teams coordinating to complete the project and offer value through their individual efforts. A sales person had great insight into site metrics, the CIO kept track of coordinating efforts that weren’t always within her job description, a designer gave fresh perspective on some important marketing collateral. It takes a lot of time, energy and talent to run a business effectively. In smaller companies, individuals are tasked with wearing many hats. Do you know the talent on your internal team? There may be a gifted writer in your midst, explore ways that the writer on your team can evaluate your website and offer ideas and generate content for your site. Get to know your team, you never know what you might be missing. As we launched the new site last week, I realized how much I had learned about areas of the business that don’t have much to do with search marketing, postal guidelines for example, that improve my ability to help market the website. Fostering a work environment that encourages open thought and sharing may not only help your marketing efforts, it may improve your bottom line.

Welcome to Search Marketing 101 and hello from Hood River, Oregon. If there were a heaven on earth, it might look a little something like this. Nestled between Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood on the Columbia River, on any given day you may meet a world class athlete, entrepreneur, musician, artist or world traveler. We all have many reasons for living here, the endless parade of outdoor pursuits, the beauty, the peaceful quality of this place, the forward-thinking of its’ community members. But at the end of the day, we’re all looking for the same thing, to find ourselves, to find our voice and people that share that voice.
Search marketing is much the same, whether we’re looking to generate leads, sell something or share information-we’re trying to be found online, trying to find the people who have a need we can fulfill.
Let’s ponder a couple of questions. Why do you have a website? When I ask this question to different departments of the same company, I always get different answers, which is okay as long as you are creating an objective that you can fulfill. How do you know if your website is successful, if you haven’t agreed upon why you have one?
What do you want people to do once they’re there? I’m always surprised at how little this topic is discussed during web development, but it’s the most essential question you can ask…and answer. Do you want people to pick up the phone and call you, then don’t bury your phone number 3 clicks into your site. Do you want people to learn about your widget, then give them educational material
When potential customers “meet” your web site, what is their first impression? Just like meeting a person, your site is going to have a lot more to offer people than what they see in the first 6 seconds (all the time we have to make an impression in today’s fast paced web world). You have to give then something to make an impression, before you become best friends. Don’t be afraid to share a little something about yourself. If you’re a kayaker, tell me about the region, share your favorite kayaking spots, offer me something, get to know me. Chances are if I’m buying a new kakak and researching kayak shops I’ll give you a chance because you’ve made a good impression. It takes time to create a relationship, in life and in business. Ask a few people, friends or better yet customers, what they think they’re supposed to do on the home page of your site. If they’re not sure, you have some work to do.
Email me at lisa@mediafortemarketing if you’d like to share your results.