Search Engine Marketing 101

Search Engine Marketing Overview
Keyword Research
Natural Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”)
Paid Search Engine Advertising (“PPC”)
Website Analytics
Website Conversion Optimization

Search Engine Marketing Overview

Search Engine Marketing (“SEM”) is a form of online marketing that strives to drive traffic to your website by having your website rank at or near the top of the search engine results on sites like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask. 

Each month, consumers conduct over 6 billion searches on the Internet. In order to connect relevant searches to your website, we identify the keywords for your products or services and guide your website to the top search engine results.

Although there are intricacies that are beyond the scope of this overview, traditional search engine marketing consists of two different techniques: natural search engine optimization and pay per click advertising. Both of those techniques are Findability strategies. Clixo adds a another dimension to search engine marketing that we call Clickability.

Keyword Research

Before you can begin any search engine marketing program, we determine the keywords on which we will focus our efforts. Keyword research is the process of identifying the keywords and phrases that your potential customers are using to search for your products and services.

For example, if you owned a law firm in Denver, Colorado that specialized in divorce and child custody cases, you would want your website to show up in Google for terms like “Denver divorce attorney” or “Colorado child custody lawyer.”

The goal is to develop a list of keywords grouped by categories that are highly relevant to what you offer and also have a high level of search volume. This keyword list is used to develop your overall strategy. Using our example, if there were significantly more searches for phrases using the word “divorce” as opposed to the phrase "child custody," we would want to focus more of our efforts on divorce related keywords and develop your website to offer more information about that service.

The best scenario is to have a keyword list that receives a significant amount of searches across a large range of keywords or a smaller list with very high search volume and relatively low competition.

Natural Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”)

Search Engine Optimization is a set of processes and techniques that make your website more popular in the eyes of the major search engines in the hopes that they will rank your website higher than your competitors. The ultimate goal is to rank number one on Google and Yahoo for the keywords most relevant to your business offerings.

Google and most other search engines send robots and spiders out to read your website code. As they read your code and scour the Internet, their systems are performing complex mathematical equations to determine which site should be number one, number two, and all the way down the list.

Some of the elements they take into consideration are the number of times you use a particular keyword on your website and how many other websites have text links to your website. The search engine algorithms are in a constant state of flux, and the weight assigned to various elements is a mystery. Clixo’s search engine experts are constantly tweaking their techniques to keep up with the latest trends in search engine optimization.
Click here for more detailed information about natural search engine optimization.

Click here for more detailed information about natural search engine optimization.

Paid Search Advertising or Pay Per Click("PPC")

Paid search advertising, often called Pay Per Click("PPC"), is also designed to have your website rank on the first page of the major search engines and drive traffic to your website. Unlike natural search engine optimization which is free, you pay a fee(often between $.10 - $3.00) every time someone clicks on your advertisement and visits your website.

You have probably seen pay per click ads on Google or Yahoo. They are the little ads across the top and down the right side of the search results page. You may have also seen these ads on general interest websites that have dedicated space on their pages for these ads in exchange for a percentage of the click fees.

While some consumers never click on the sponsored links, others do. If you have ever wondered how Google makes all their money, it is from the click fees from these ads. But Google and the other search engines are not the only ones benefiting. Pay per click advertising, when done correctly, can increase your leads and direct sales with an impressive return on investment. In fact, it is far less costly than direct mail or TV or any of the traditional methods of advertising your business.

Click here for more detailed information about paid search advertising.

Website Analytics

Most website hosting programs offer basic or standard website statistics. Many of these programs show you the number of unique visits to your site, the pages they viewed, and many other statistics. At Clixo, we employ advanced analytics software, which is fancy name for “better statistics.”

Advanced analytics, when hooked up to your website, provide valuable information about the individuals visiting your website. What keywords did they use to find you? How long are they spending on your site? What is the most popular click path from your home page to your shopping cart? What pages give them trouble and cause them to abandon your site. As you can imagine, looking at this data provides opportunities to improve the effectiveness of your search engine marketing campaigns as well as your website’s Clickability, which is our next topic.

Website Conversion Optimization (“Clickability”)

Does it make sense to spend time and money sending consumers to a website that is poorly designed or hard to use?

Most search engine marketing professionals start and end their involvement at driving traffic to a client’s website. Their main goal is top rankings. At Clixo, we believe that website traffic that does not turn into sales or leads is a waste of time and money. For this reason, we have developed services to improve your website’s ability to convert traffic into revenue generating assets.

Said simply, we work with our clients to make their websites more user-friendly. By our creating logical navigation and informative content for your website, you will obtain far greater returns on your search engine marketing efforts. This process is Clickability, which should always come before Findability.

Click here for more detailed information about Clickability.

Find out if your website qualifies for search engine marketing services, or ask us a question.