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By Anna Curnow, Internet Strategist

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) encompasses a range of different activities that have traditionally been perceived as a particular brand of witchcraft available only to geeks. Somehow, those who have the aura that computers understand can edge a website to the top of the pile of 26,543,789 results for your search.

It seems an impossible task. But in reality, just like real witchcraft, it's just a selection of activities taken from a range of options, brought together to achieve a desired effect. Bring the right combination together at the right time and you attain the magical heights of the "Top 10 Placement". No hocus pocus or crystal balls, just subtle changes and persistence required.

So what are the ingredients that sit in the Search Engine Marketers basket?

Paid Listings
This is one way of guaranteeing a placement higher up the results. Depending on the search engine used, your ad will either show separately on the page from the 'organic' listings (eg: Google), or included in the main listings (eg: MSN). You can have either paid inclusion or pay per click models. Paid inclusion is where you pay to feature in a particular spot and pay per click is where you pay for the traffic that comes through to your site.

Paid Listings should be considered as part of the overall Search Engine Marketing package - and not a standalone option!

Optimisation
This is a fancy word for making your site more attractive to search engines. The more attractive they find it, the better your placement will be. Unfortunately search engines are not human so gorgeous sites full of great graphics won't do anything for you here. The search engines generally prefer the 'plain janes' of the internet.

Step One - Copy
Search engines love copy, rich relevant copy. They like it on homepages with links through to the rest of the site. They like it to contain all the keyphrases that people are searching for. But they are very wise to trickery, so keep it honest and upfront.

Step Two - Structural
Some things trip search engines up when they come to visit. A fancy flash homepage with the navigation embedded in the animation is the equivalent to a brick wall to a search engine. Sites that use frames can also cause problems as the search engine wanders into one of the frames and find it has nowhere to go. Some database driven sites can load the page URL's with strange characters like ? marks and % signs. In some cases this can throw the Search Engines right off the scent.

So a Search Engine Marketer will look at copy and structure when creating a love potion to attract some serious Search Engine attention.

Submission Tactics
Submission is where you actively escort your website to the Search Engines and offer it up for inclusion. There are two types of submission:

Directories
These are basically huge databases of websites maintained by human beings. When you submit a site to a directory you will need to be very aware of the requirements of the directory. You will need to know what copy you want the directory to display about your site. You also need to be aware that most directory editors are a tad sensitive to overtly commercial copy. As was said before, they are looking for relevance not hype!

Search Engine Crawlers
It is possible with some Search Engines to submit your site. This is no guarantee of a listing, simple an invitation for the Search Engines to send their 'crawlers' to visit your site and take a look around.

Linking strategies
One of the things that Search Engines like best of all is links from other sites coming to yours and from yours outwards. They consider it to be a sign that your site is popular with other web-users. Some will even rank your site on the popularity of the sites that link to yours. So, it's worth doing a bit of networking. After all, you're only as popular as your friends!

Patience Patience
This is perhaps the greatest asset to a Search Engine Marketer. It can take four weeks for a Search Engine to re-index its directory, so your hard efforts may not take effect quickly. And as the rules are constantly changing, what worked last month, may not be right this month. It is a process of testing, refining, reporting and adjusting.

So there you have it, Search Engine Marketing demystified, if not fully explained (that would take a much bigger article and be out of date before it was finished)!

If you would like help with your Search Engine Marketing efforts, WEBENZ can produce a detailed report outlining our recommendations for how to improve your ranking. We promise to keep it clear and simple - no hocus pocus!