eMergent Marketing of Cleveland, Ohio is a bright, young search engine optimization company emerging in an industry surrounded by hype and cynicism. eMergent Marketing has expanded its SEO arsenal by offering Web site usability testing and conversion services to its clients, in order to improve the likelihood that their Internet marketing efforts have the greatest impact on consumers.

eMergent Marketing of Cleveland, Ohio is a bright, young search engine optimization company emerging in an industry surrounded by hype and cynicism. eMergent Marketing has expanded its SEO arsenal by offering Web site usability testing and conversion services to its clients, in order to improve the likelihood that their Internet marketing efforts have the greatest impact on consumers.

eMergent Marketing represents a whole new way of thinking about Internet marketing and eCommerce strategy.  It's no longer good enough to just focus on driving Web site traffic. With growing competition and increasingly savvy online consumers, it has become critically important to attract the right site visitors in the most cost-effective manner.  By offering a more complete service than most traditional search engine optimization (SEO) firms, eMergent Marketing delivers more value to its clients by leveraging the in-house usability expertise as part of the search engine optimization and search engine marketing processes.

            The eMarketing experts at eMergent Marketing have been studying and practicing search engine optimization since the late 1990's. Their proven optimization methodology has helped countless companies improve their search engine visibility in the natural search engine listings and attract potential customers to their sites. 

While eMergent Marketing continues to experience rapid growth, they remain focused on providing the highest levels of customer service and communications.  According to Paul Elliott, President of eMergent Marketing, "The search engine optimization industry has historically been plagued by unethical providers and those who simply do not understand the complexities of search marketing.  At eMergent Marketing, we go the extra mile to ensure our optimization clients know exactly what we are doing, when we are doing it, and the results our services will produce.  While no ethical search engine optimization firm can guarantee first place rankings, eMergent Marketing has achieved outstanding results for all of our organic optimization clients – a fact our clients will be happy to share with you."   

If you are currently looking for an SEO company that provides leading edge results and customer service, eMergent Marketing is the logical choice.  Their combination of experienced Internet marketing professionals with Web site usability and conversion experts creates the new standard for the web marketing industry.  Contact eMergent Marketing today to learn more about the Search and Conversion Methodology for improving the return on investment (ROI) from your site. 

About the Author

Brett S. Lane is an Internet Marketing Specialist for eMergent Marketing, located in Cleveland, Ohio.
Website Conversion & Usability Testing Professionals

To achieve any goal, you first need to know everything there is to know about your goal and its influencing environment. That way you can formulate a plan of attack that will work, and avoid time-wasting activities that will not. This applies to everything: running a business, waging a war, winning a race, and of course, marketing your web site. Information is power.

Here, we will focus on some interesting facts on search engines and the Web. We shall see how we can use these facts to promote our sites through the search engines more effectively. Of course, there are many more ways you can market your web site, but the most effective both in results and in costs is getting included in the search engines and getting a good rank in searches for your products or services. That's because getting listed in a search engine is free, but if you are placed well, the traffic from an engine is literally what will feed you. Search engines are the most popular tools that web users use to find new information on the Net.

- General Facts

Forrester Research estimates that there are 500 to 600 million pages on the Internet. That number is growing fast. However, the largest search engine, AltaVista, only has about 150 million pages indexed (about 27% of the whole Web), with Excite and Lycos at only about 50 million indexed (about 10% of the whole Web)! From September 1996 until September 1997, none of the search engines increased size significantly, despite the fact that the web continued to grow! To a webmaster, these are shocking statistics! The two main reasons why relatively few pages are indexed are (1) the Web is growing faster than the engines can keep up with, and (2) many webmasters do not know how to design and submit their pages correctly. Getting and staying indexed well in a search engine needs a little more work than most people assume it does. You need a four-step approach.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that all your web pages can be reached from your home page within three clicks. Most engines will only crawl to three levels deep when indexing your site. Also, make sure all your pages have TITLE tags and META description and keyword tags as most engines now use these. It is also highly advisable to have META category, language, and robot revisit tags, and ALT tags on all your images. Don't just slap these into your pages. Put some thought into them. For example, the text in the TITLE tag for a particular page should start with a word that summarizes the entire page (a keyword). Say you have a page that mostly has information on vacations in Cancun, Mexico. Your TITLE tag should read something like 'Cancun vacations, tours, and travels in Mexico. Packages include diving…' The word 'Cancun' starts the sentence, and the rest of the sentence is made up of keywords that are related to the content of the page. This goes a long way in getting you better rankings. Same thing with the META tag text. If you use frames on your site, make sure you use good NOFRAMES tags since not all major engines support frames. If you don't, your pages simply will not be indexed by those engines. If you use image maps, make sure you have a text links navigation bar somewhere on the same page too as not all major engines support image maps either. Quick note: the TITLE tag text should be only up to 200 characters long, with the first 80 characters being the most important as these are the ones most engines focus on in ranking and results display. Do not simply repeat keywords in the title tag. Make some grammatical sense out of the sentences but ensure that the keywords feature early and are not diluted by too many 'junk' words.

The second thing to do is to submit only your home page and perhaps one other major page and let the engines crawl your site. I will explain this in depth below. The only exception is Infoseek. Infoseek does not crawl so you must submit every page on your site to it manually.

Because the engines are so overwhelmed, you need a third step – you must monitor your submission and re-submit your home page every couple of weeks. The engine may have taken your submission but dropped it later (happens a lot with Excite), gone to your site and found it unavailable at the time, or just not indexed your site due to a technical error on their part. Resubmitting and checking on your submission every two weeks will ensure that you will eventually get in and stay in the index.

You also need to get as many people linking to your site as possible. Visit related sites and ask for a link to your site. There is a trend by the engines to increasingly use link popularity and traffic as an indicator of relevancy. What this means is that the more people link to your page relative to your competitors pages, the more you will rank highly on the engines. Not only will getting many incoming links get you a better rank on the engines, but it will also get you a lot of traffic (following links is the second most popular way people find new sites). Furthermore, on Excite, HotBot, and Lycos, link popularity also determines whether the engine will crawl deep into your site and index more pages or not. Do not ignore this fourth step, no matter how hard it sounds!

For the major engines, do not leave the submission process to automated programs and services. The major search engines are too important and the automated services sometimes do it wrong. You are only submitting the home page and one other major page to Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, Infoseek, Northern Light, and HotBot – that is not much work to do manually every two weeks!

- About Spamdexing

Because the search engines are so overwhelmed, they are coming up with more ways to make their job easier and weed out pages they feel are not worth indexing. One of the new developments is that most engines now insist or highly recommend that you only submit your home page to them and let the engine crawl through your site and index the pages it finds. If you decide to go against this recommendation and submit a whole bunch of pages through the online submission forms, you will risk being tagged as a "spamdexer" (index spammer). There is also an indication that engines like AltaVista give a higher ranking to crawled pages than submitted pages. So for your own interests, you want your pages crawled so that they have a higher score. Other engines like Excite will take the same amount of time to add your pages to their index whether you submit them manually or let it crawl to them from your home page. So not only will you be wasting your time submitting each and every page you have to Excite, but you will risk spamming that engine. Conclusion: submit only your home page and one other major page and let the engines crawl your site. The only exception is Infoseek. Infoseek does not crawl so you must submit every page on your site to it manually. You can make a list of URLs to your pages and email that to Infoseek if you have more than 50 pages you wish to submit (see their submission page for more details).

There are a few other things to watch out for to avoid having your pages excluded from the engines. The following are things that make an engine tag a particular page as spam and therefore not index it. Make sure that none of your pages has any of these.

1. Keyword stuffing. This is the repeated use of a word to increase its frequency on a page. Search engines have the ability to analyze a page and determine whether the frequency is above a "normal" level in proportion to the rest of the words in the document.

2. Invisible text. Some webmasters stuff keywords at the bottom of a page and make their text color the same as that of the page background. This is also detectable by the engines.

3. Tiny text. Same as invisible text but with tiny, illegible text.

4. Page redirects. Some engines, especially Infoseek, do not like pages that take the user to another page without his or her intervention, e.g. using META refresh tags, cgi scripts, Java, JavaScript, or server side techniques. If you use redirection, it should have a delay of about 7 seconds.

5. META tags stuffing. Do not repeat your keywords in the META tags more than 1 to 3 times, and do not use keywords that are unrelated to the content of your site.

6. Do not submit the same page more than once on the same day to the same search engine.

7. Do not submit virtually identical pages, i.e. do not simply duplicate a web page, give the copies different file names, and submit them all. That will be interpreted as an attempt to flood the engine.

Below are several useful facts and tips for each major search engine that you can use to improve your search engine marketing.

- AltaVista (www.altavista.com) Facts

Pages in index in millions: 150
Time it takes to index a submitted page: 1-2 days
Time it takes to index crawled pages (may take longer than indicated): 1 day to 1 month
How to check if your page is on the index: In the search box, type: '+url: yourcompany.com/yourpage.htm'.
How to check how many pages link to your site: In the search box, type: 'link:yourcompany.com'. You can narrow your search to a particular directory or page like: 'link:yourcompany.com/ourpage.htm'. To eliminate from the results all the pages within your own domain that link to each other, use the -url command like: 'link:yourcompany.com -url:yourcompany.com'
Supports frame pages: Yes
Supports image maps: Yes

- HotBot (www.hotbot.com) Facts

Pages in index in millions: 110
Time it takes to index a submitted page: 2 days to 2 weeks
Time it takes to index crawled pages (may take longer than indicated): About 2 weeks
How to check if your page is on the index: Select the advanced search options and enter your page's URL.
How to check how many pages link to your site: In the search box, type: 'linkdomain:yourcompany.com'. To eliminate from the results all the pages within your own domain that link to each other, use the -domain command like: 'linkdomain:yourcompany.com -domain:yourcompany.com'. These methods get you all the pages linking to your domain. To find the links to only a particular page, enter your URL into the search box, then choose the "links to this URL" option.
Supports frame pages: No
Supports image maps: No

- Infoseek (www.infoseek.com) Facts

Pages in index in millions: 75
Time it takes to index a submitted page: 1 day for pages submitted online, 7 days for email submissions.
Time it takes to index crawled pages (may take longer than indicated): Rarely spiders, if it does then 1 – 2 months
How to check if your page is on the index: In the search box, type: 'URL: http://www.yourcompany.com/page.htm'.
How to check how many pages link to your site: In the search box, type: 'link:yourcompany.com'. You can narrow your search to a particular directory or page like: 'link:yourcompany.com/ourpage.htm'. To eliminate from the results all the pages within your own domain that link to each other, use the -url command like: 'link:yourcompany.com -url:yourcompany.com'
Supports frame pages: No
Supports image maps: Yes

- Excite (www.excite.com) Facts

Pages in index in millions: 55
Time it takes to index a submitted page: About 2 weeks
Time it takes to index crawled pages (may take longer than indicated): Up to 6 weeks
How to check if your page is on the index: In the search box, type in the full URL of the page.
How to check how many pages link to your site: N/A
Supports frame pages: No
Supports image maps: No

- Lycos (www.lycos.com) Facts

Pages in index in millions: 50
Time it takes to index a submitted page: 2-4 weeks
Time it takes to index crawled pages (may take longer than indicated): 2-4 weeks
How to check if your page is on the index: Not available.
How to check how many pages link to your site: N/A
Supports frame pages: No (limited)
Supports image maps: No

- Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) Facts

Yahoo is the most popular directory on the web. Many people have problems getting their site listed. A rough estimate is that only 1 out of every 10 submissions gets listed, if that. Moreover, it takes an estimated 4 to 15 weeks to be listed for those who actually get listed! Those who got listed had to resubmit their site an estimated 4 times over several weeks or months before getting listed (resubmitting too often is spamming, by the way). One this is for sure – you must get into Yahoo! For some sites, Yahoo actually brings them over 50% of their business. By the way, Yahoo now has an express submission service whereby you pay $199 for a response to your submission within 7 weeks. It doesn't guarantee that you will be listed with them, but at least you get to know within 7 days whether you are in or if not, why. Here is a set of links that you need to visit to learn how to successfully get into Yahoo.

http://help.yahoo.com/help/search/url/
http://howto.yahoo.com/chapters/10/1.html
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/9903-yahoo.html

About the Author
Article by David Gikandi (support@searchpositioning.com), of Search Positioning.com.

When planning the placement and positioning of keywords and phrases in your web site you need to have a good understanding of the part these words play in search engine optimization. Search engines take keywords and phrases collected at the time they spider web sites, and use them in their algorithms that help determine how to rank pages for relevancy.

The two most important places to put keywords or phrases are in the title tags (<title> title text </title>), located at the top of Web pages, and in the text that is visible (i.e., between the <body> body text content </body> tags) on the pages. Text located between the <body> </body> tags that is bolded, in larger fonts, or found in headings, links, or toward the top of a page is weighted more heavily than it was in the past. A more detailed explanation follows;

Title Tags

Title tags (<title></title>) are HTML tags located at the top of a Web page, which contain information regarding the content of that specific page. Text placed between title tags appears in the source code of a Web page, at the top of a Web browser page, and in bookmark descriptions.

The title tag is currently the most heavily weighted text in terms of search engine ranking. When ranking search results, all search engines look at the text in title tags to determine the relevancy of a page's content to a given search. It is therefore critical to have well-chosen keywords and phrases that describe your firm and practice within your title tags.

Text in title tags also appears to Internet users in their search engine results, as highlighted, hyperlinks to Web pages. Well-chosen keywords and phrases in title tags provide clues for a user who is deciding whether or not to visit a web site that has appeared on a search engine's results page. Thus, the text in title tags not only helps a search engine rank a Web site in its index, but also serves as a "call to action" to a Web site's target audience.

It is important that title tag keywords and phrases also be placed between the <body></body> tags of a page. If specific words are found only in the title tag, some search engines will see this as "keyword-stuffing" (essentially spamming), will give little weight to the words in the title tags, and may not even index your page. In no case should you simply try to stuff keywords into your content for the benefit of search engine spiders.

If your Web site or pages are merely strings of keywords or random sentences made up of keywords, your site faces the risk of being removed from search engine indexes. There is no reason a law firm should need to do this; simply providing accurate, real content is more than enough to obtain a strong relevancy ranking relative to the needs of your potential clients.

Writing more effective Title Tags

Here are some general rules to follow when considering which and how many, keywords or phrases to place in your title tags:

• Try to place a maximum of 15 words between the <title></title> tags. The number of characters that are shown in search engine results varies by search engine, which means you should have your most important words and phrases at the beginning of the title tag.


• The total number of characters in a title tag should be limited to around 100, with most title tags being shorter, at approximately 60-80 characters. If possible, have your most important keywords as the first 3 or 4 words in your title tag. Try to place related keywords close together, because search engines also measure word proximity when considering a Web page's relevancy to the search terms entered.


• Remove any extraneous, filler words (e.g., a, the, that) – only your most important keywords and/or phrases should be placed in your title tags. Unless your domain or company name contains relevant keywords in it, or is very well-known, or you are trying to build the branding of your firm's name on the Internet, it is best not to place your company or domain name in the title tags.


• If you do want to place your company or domain name in a title tag, place it at the end, unless your branding is very strong, and you feel confident most people will look for your company by name. Depending on how you think your target audience will compose their search queries, you may want to include singular and plural versions of keywords in your title tags.


• Remember that the keywords and phrases in your title tags will be displayed in the browser title bar; you should craft a set of keywords that, when put together, create coherent rather than random phrases or word combinations. Your title should be interesting enough to get users to want to visit your Web site after seeing it listed. It does you no good to be ranked high in search result listings if people do not click on the link to visit your site.


• The title tag on your Web site's home page should reflect all of the content on your entire site. The title tags on internal pages should reflect the content on those pages or sections. Again, to realize fully the gains of optimizing your title tags, you should have the words in your title tags also appear in the body of the text for their respective pages.

Keywords in Body Text

The "body text" of a Web page is the text that is placed between the <body></body> tags, and is the content users see when reading the Web page. The area of text between the body tags is the only other place, aside from title tags, that search engines consistently spider. Search engines may or may not spider text in other tags (e.g.,<Meta> tags).

Thus, it is important always to include keywords and keyword phrases in the body text, or core content, of your Web pages. You should note the following when building keywords into the text between <body></body> tags:

When ranking Web pages, search engines give more weight to words located at the top of a page (with HTML this is content that appears "above the fold," i.e., on the initial screen view a user sees of a Web page). To get more unique content to the top of a Web page, you should consider using XHTML to place the navigational text lower in the XHTML source code. If you use HTML, try moving the navigational elements of the Web page from the top or left-hand side of the page to the bottom or right-hand side of the page. Navigation links that appear on the bottom and right side of a page will be at the bottom of the HTML code, and will not take up valuable space at the top of the page.

If you are going to use JavaScript or style sheets on your Web pages, place them in an external file rather than at the top of the Web page's HTML coding. As noted above, this will help you get more unique content at the top of your Web pages.

Words that are in heading tags <h1>, <h2> or in larger fonts are also given extra weight by search engines. Most search engines will compare the size of the text for a particular word to the size of the majority of text on a page. Thus, words that have font size=3 when the all of the other text is font size=1 are likely to be weighted more heavily, while words having font size=3 when the rest of the text is also font size=3 are not going to be given additional weight.

Words that are included in links (i.e., within tags) are also more heavily weighted by search engines. Thus, it is better to include descriptive terms in the internal links appearing on your web site. To increase the density of keywords on a Web page, you can include a statement on the bottom of every page that describes your Web site or gives the user information on how to contact you.

Toensure keyword prominence, try to include keywords in a heading or headline that summarizes the page's content, at the top of a page. The first lines of the first paragraph, or the first few descriptive sentences (if you aren't writing in paragraphs) below the heading of a Web page should also have keywords located within them, which summarize the main contents of the page.

Using Keywords in Image Alt Tags

Image Alt tags are used to describe graphic images on a Web page. These tags contain text, which appears when images are not loaded on the page and thus do not appear on screen. With some Web browsers, this text will also appear when the cursor is placed over an image. Search engine crawlers rely on Alt tags to ascertain what graphics you have on your page. Placing keywords in Alt tags, when they appropriately describe a specific graphic, can add to your search engine visibility and ranking.

Note: Alt tag text is also used by Web readers and other software programs for disabled users. Web readers help users with disabilities, such as those who are blind, easily read pages on the Internet by translating the contents of a Web page into Braille or speech. Because someone who is not loading graphics or who is seeing impaired cannot see the graphics on your page, the text within an Alt tag acts as a descriptor. For this reason, it is always a good idea to use Alt text for images on your Web pages.

Meta Tags

Meta tags (<Meta>) are HTML tags located between the <head> </head> tags at the top of a Web page, which contain information regarding the content of that page. One of the biggest misconceptions about Web site optimization is that Meta tags and the text you place in them hold the key to effective SEO. In fact, most search engines place little weight on words placed in Meta tags when creating their relevancy rankings. This does not mean that you should ignore thinking about the text you place in Meta tags, but you should be aware that they play only a small part in search engine optimization.

There are two types of Meta tags worth adding to your Web pages. The Meta description tag and the Meta keywords tag.

Meta Description Tag

The text in a Meta description tag should be a description of the content on a page, not a keyword list. As with the text in your title tags, you should avoid filler words in Meta tags. Also, it is best to limit your description to 50 words, making sure to include your four or five most important keywords at the beginning. Here are some other things to consider when writing your Meta tag descriptions:

• The text in your Meta tags should not be exactly the same as the text in your title tags. Search engine crawlers can detect this, and may consider you a spammer if those tags contain identical keywords.


• Place your most important keywords at the beginning of your Meta tag description.


• When appropriate, use singular and plural versions of your keywords in Meta tags.


• Keep the repetition of words to a minimum. Do not put the same words next to each other.


• Make sure your Meta tag descriptions contain long phrases or sentences.


• Always add a call to action at the end of your description. If/when a specific Meta tag description like that is listed in search engine results, it improves the chance that a user will click on to your site.


• Think carefully about using common misspellings of your keywords in your Meta tags. If the misspelled word doesn't appear within the text of a page, this is generally considered a waste of time.

Meta Keyword Tag

This tag is ignored by Google and is given little weight by the other search engines. Nonetheless, you still might want to consider including some terms describing your practice in this tag.

Meta Revisit and Meta Follow Tags

Certain Web pages contain "revisit" and "robots-follow" tags, which some people believe will instruct search engine spiders to revisit and index their Web pages within a specified time period. Using these tags in your Web pages (e.g., <Meta name="revisit-after" content="5 days"> or <Meta name="robots" content="index, follow"> ) will not impact search engine-indexing of your site in any way. A search engine will not determine when it will re-index your Web site based on a Meta tag in your Web site.

Note: Some search engines will not index a page that has <Meta name="robots" content="noindex"> but some will. If you do not want a page indexed, it is best to use the robots.txt file to exclude the page.

Additional <body></body> Page Elements

Image Maps

An image map is a graphic image that allows an Internet user to access different pages on a Web site by clicking on different parts of the image. Most search engines will not follow links placed in image maps. So, if you are going to use an image map, it is best to have text links to the different areas of your site on your Web pages as well. Ideally, all of the text links to your site's different areas would be included on the page containing the image map but, if desired from a design perspective; one text link could be placed at the bottom of that page, linking to a page with a list of text links to the different areas of your site. This will also help those users who are not loading graphics find the content they seek.

JavaScript Menus and Drop-Down Menus

Major search engines do not follow many links embedded in JavaScript, e.g., navigation menus, mouse overs, etc. Search engines also do not follow the links in drop-down menus. Therefore, just as with image maps, it is important to have text links that also list the drop-down choices, so that search engines will follow them and index your entire site.

At a minimum, you should have a single text link that takes users to a Web page that gives them the full set of choices in the JavaScript or drop-down, menu with direct text links.

Frames

Some search engines follow links in frames, others do not. For those search engines that do not use Meta-tag content or the <noframe> tag in determining relevancy, the only content a spider will detect on a framed page will be the title-tag text.

You should use the <noframe> tag when using frames. This will allow spiders to follow an alternate route through the Web site. But note that some search engines will not follow <noframe> tags because of their use in spamming. Therefore, if you do use frames on your site, it is important to also have navigation links in the main content frame and at the bottom of every page on your site.

We do not recommend that companies use frames in any circumstance.

Home Page Optimization: Re-Directs, Flash and Large Images

Redirects (i.e., links that are automatically re-directed to another URL) are bad from a search engine optimization perspective. A search engine may think that you are trying to spam it with a page that will never be seen. When at all possible, avoid using redirects. Redirects are sometimes done on the server side, and sometimes done with the Meta refresh tag.

Using a splash page with a Flash plug-in or a large image for your home page might look nice, but may have a detrimental impact on your site's search engine ranking. It is especially detrimental to have a home page that contains only Flash, or that has an image with an image map with no accompanying alt text. With a non-text splash page layout, you run the risk that nothing on your site will be indexed. In addition, flash and large images take quite a long time to download, and many users will not stay on your site long enough for this to happen. Studies show that most users will not wait for more than 10 seconds for a page to load before moving on to another site. Thus, if you use slow-loading plug-ins or images on your home page, you run the risk that your users will never see the content that is relevant to their search.

Your home page is the most important page of your site, and it should contain rich keyword content. All of your key product or services should be listed on the home page. Other important features and content should also be listed and linked.

If you want to have a large Flash presentation for a splash/home page, a possible workaround is to have a home page without Flash, but with a link to the Flash presentation for those users with high bandwidth and/or who have browsers that can easily load it.

The key to having Web pages well-indexed by search engines is rich, text-based content. Placing keywords that represent this content in the <title> tags and <body> of the pages themselves will help you achieve a stronger search engine results ranking.

About the Author

Andrew Allfrey is Business Devlopment Director and Senior Consultant at e-Prominence Limited a specialist ethical search engine optimization and pay per click services company based in Scotland, United Kingdom.

To discuss any of your search engine marketing requirements please visit www.e-prominence.co.uk or email us.

Search Engine Marketing at the keyword level but optimize at the campaign level.

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet Marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion. Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings with the goal of obtaining better free search listings.

Search Engine Marketing, also known as Paid Placement or Pay-Per-Click, is an excellent way to drive qualified traffic to your site – if the campaigns are expertly managed. It's easy to create a campaign, but there are few who know how to actively manage the search engine marketing campaign and optimize its performance.

That is, we conduct statistical analysis to predict keyword performance and then allocate spend across the campaigns to maximize overall conversions within your Cost per Acquisition goals. We then continue to make on-going adjustments to lower the average cost per click and to improve click to lead and click to sale rates.

Search engine marketing includes-

• search engine optimization (SEO)


• Search engine submissions


• Search engine maps


• Local Search


• Pay per click (PPC) search


• Pay per call


• Other search tools and keyword related advertising.

Search Engine Marketing strategy (by purchasing keywords), or an SEO strategy (to optimize their web site and communications), they enjoy one or all of the following benefits:

• Increased Brand Equity – Increased brand name citings, increase brand awareness, and brand equity.


• Increased Visibility – Marketer's products gain visibility when their name appears on first page of listings.


• Increased Web site Traffic – Web users select, and visit, Web sites they can easily find.


• Increase in Targeted leads – By understanding the keywords and segmentation of the target audience, establishing a dialogue with targets is more efficient, and more rewarding in quantity and quality.


• Sales - Drive high quality customers to your website. Increase sales leads from customers who are actively looking for your products and services. Consumers use search engines to locate and buy goods together with performing research prior to making their purchasing decision.


• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) – Measuring your marketing spend by tracking Internet users through your website. You can measure your exact return on ad spend and conversion rate, making your online marketing campaign 100% accountable.

For more details on Search Engine Marketing visit http://www.mobilex.in/ and

www.swaransoft.com

Special Offer:  Scheme Management System

About the Author

Sandeep kumar

SEO Executive

sandeep.srivastava@mobilex.in

It helps to know the insides of search engine marketing prior to launching a campaign. Read this article to discover what it's all about.

As the name suggests, search engine marketing involves the use of search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN, and Alta Vista etc for the purpose of advertising, promoting, or marketing a particular website.

Components of SEM

Some of the main components of this type of marketing are:

Ø       search engine optimization: This covers a set of various techniques and procedures that help maximize a websites search engine ranking, when an organic search is conducted.

Ø       Pay for Inclusion or PFI: Numerous web directories are available on the World Wide Web, apart from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Many of these directories are molded around certain topics. You can list your website in these directories and thus aid your search engine marketing efforts. Some directories offer free listing, while others offer paid listings.

Ø       Pay per Click Advertising: You bid an amount that you are willing to offer users who click on your banner ad that you place on search engines such as Google or Yahoo. The more your bid, the higher your search engine ranking.

Ø       Google Adwords: This is an extension of the Google Adwords program, wherein, Google ranks your advertisements on the basis of the importance given to your website.

Importance of the Marketing Process

Search engine marketing is only for those people who want to use the power of the internet to give their business a boost in the right direction. What this type of marketing does is that it gets traffic to your website. Pure and simple! This means that more people will look up the products and service on your site and the more your chance of selling them.

As aforementioned, there are various components that will help you in the process of search engine marketing. Take the case of search engine optimization. It increases your ranking in the search engine and thus in turn increases the number of hits on your website.

An important reason why people are increasingly veering towards this type of marketing is because it is cost effective and offers high returns in the process. You do not have to invest as much money, as you would in the traditional forms of marketing. It's ideally suited for small businesses that have to be cautious about their bottom line.

This method has allowed them to be more competitive and increase their sales speedily at a constant rate.

Measuring Efficacy

To measure the effectiveness of the search engine marketing strategy, you first need a clear set of objectives. If your basic intention was to increase the amount of traffic that visits your site, then you could easily determine this by putting in place a hits counter on your website.

On the other hand, if you want to know the in-depth worthiness of your marketing strategy; you can utilize some of the procedures and methodologies that are earmarked for this process.

In the end, it's a way of not only attracting visitors to a site, but also a method where you can increase the conversion rate of visitors turning into customers.

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