sem industry

Mike McDonald of Web Pro News spoke with Vanessa Fox, founder of Nine by Blue, and Avinash Kaushik, Google’s analytics evangelist at SMX West in Santa Clara. Both spoke about how real-time search and social search affects marketers.

What does this all mean for marketers?

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We’ve been hearing about personalized search since 2007. We’ve even seen some advancements from Google in 2008 with the launch of the SearchWiki. To make even more advancements with personalized search, earlier in December, 2009 Google announced that they made even more enhancements. Now, whether a searcher is signed in to Google or not, their search results will be “personalized” just for them based on their web history.

So what exactly does this mean for the website owner? Take your keyword rankings with a grain of salt. After all, what you see in search results may not be what searchers see (unless personalization is turned off). Instead, pay close attention to your analytic data to see how your website performs as a whole. The basics of search engine optimization still hold true. Keyword selection and optimized titles, meta descriptions, and website copy are still super important. But for total SEO success, website owners should also concentrate on:

1. Web design and usability.
   Create a website that uses clean, up-to-date code and easily sends your visitor to a call-to-action. If your website is old, or possibly new, but designed by an inexperienced web designer, it is in your best interest to invest in a new website.
2. Web page load times.
   Slow loading web pages could mean lower rankings all together. There are many factors that affect a page load time (too many images, large images, hosting bandwidth etc.). You should talk to your webmaster if you feel your webpages do load slowly.
3. Visitor bounce rates.
   If your bounce rate is above 50% for any given page, then look at the content of that page. Does your copy say too little, or is there too much copy on that page? What about the calls-to-action? Is your message clear? The longer a visitor stays on a website, the more apt they are to make a buying decision.
4. Fresh content.
   Is your content being updated on a regular basis? If not, your website will suffer. It’s been known for some time that Google wants to show the most relevant search results to the searcher. If your content is stagnant, well, then it’s not relevant. Keep it updated, fresh, and relevant.

In conclusion, stop fretting over that #1 spot on Google. Instead, work towards making your website the best it can be and let the visitor behavior on your site tell you if your SEO efforts are working.

I just read a blog post by my friends at Beaupre, a high-tech PR firm in Portsmouth, NH, that got me thinking. Mike McGrail wrote a post about the recent announcement that the Pulitzer Committee is now accepting submissions from online-only publications. This announcement is great news for the Search Marketing industry.

As a search marketing specialist, I read LOTS of online publications, some of which are Pulitzer Prize worthy – in my opinion anyway. I read through the 14 possible Pulitzer Prizes for online journalists. In the SEM industry, two categories in particular sound promising:

9. For distinguished commentary, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

10. For distinguished criticism, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

I’m sure we all can think of a few online journalists that would qualify for these categories. My favorites include Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal and Maki of DoshDosh.

Who do you think is Pulitzer Prize worthy? Leave me a comment with your votes.

Late on June 13th, Yahoo and Google announced that they have agreed to a “non-exclusive” agreement to display Google paid ads on the Yahoo network. Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the history of Yahoo, it goes a bit like this:

• Yahoo started as a school project in 1994 by two Standford University Electrical Engineering Ph.D. candidates, David Filo and Jerry Yang.
• In 1995, David and Jerry turned Yahoo into an actual company after receiving 1 million hits in a single day to their unofficial “guide to the internet”
• Yahoo then grew from an online directory to a search engine and an online directory.
• They did OK for a few years.
• In 2003 Yahoo acquired Overture, a pay-per-click advertising service
• Yahoo had a bright future….. or so it seemed
• In 2007 Panama – Yahoo’s version of Google AdWords – was born! It was a good day for Yahoo.
• Soon after it’s release, everyone in the search marketing world soon realized that Panama stunk (I mean, it was – and still is – awful)
• In 2008 Microsoft was pushing Yahoo into an acquisition … until Jerry Yang basically screwed it up. So what is poor little Yahoo to do….. join forces with Google of course. Is it me, or is Yahoo suffering from an identity crisis.

Before Panama, Yahoo was the 2nd largest search engine with 28% of the market share until 2007. Now, Google continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and all other major search engines continue to drop.

Today, Yahoo has 11.68% of the market share. Only time will tell if the recent “agreement” with Google will help Yahoo achieve the success they once thought was possible.

OK, I may not be Matt Cutts, Jill Whalen, or Danny Sullivan , but I do know a thing or two about SEO. One thing I know for sure is if you offer SEO services on your website, well than, maybe your website should be optimized for search engines.

I’ve been in the SEM industry for about 6 years now and have decided to start my own SEM business. While researching “competitors” in the area, I’m amazed by how many companies who offer SEO services haven’t even implemented the most basic of SEO tactics to their own websites. Really, they haven’t. These websites use the company name in the Title tag – on every page, have no Description tag (or a useless one), and poorly designed websites.

How these companies even sell SEO is beyond me. How do you even prove your worth as an SEO if you don’t practice what you preach? Well, considering that they aren’t showing up in searches for “SEO Services in [enter city here]”, it’s safe to say they probably aren’t selling SEO at all.

As organizations realize the true value of Search Engine Marketing they struggle with the idea of outsourcing SEM (paid search and organic) or bringing it in-house. The decision is a difficult one since every organization has different online goals. While there are pros and cons to each scenario, before making this vital decision, ask yourself these important questions.

Does your organization have the staff to cover search engine marketing?
Search Engine Marketing consists of many categories including paid search advertising, organic search, and link building. Each of these categories can (and sometimes are) full-time jobs in themselves depending on the size of your website(s) and your online goals. If you will rely on your Marketing and IT departments in fulfilling each SEM role, it is wise to first be sure they can handle the extra responsibilities.

A professional SEM firm has trained staff that is ready to tackle your projects. Also, by taking you on as a client, they are prepared to spend the time necessary on your campaigns.

Is your staff trained in Search Engine Marketing?
Let’s say your organization does have the staff to handle all aspects of SEM. The next step is to determine the depth of knowledge each individual has in SEM. Do you have an in-house marketer whom is versed in AdWords? Are they familiar with Search Engine Optimization and the correct way to optimize a website? Is your staff skilled in keyword research and copywriting? If not, is your company prepared to train these individuals? SEM, unfortunately, is not something you can just sit down and do. The learning curve may be extensive depending on the individual’s current knowledge of the industry.

While you have control over an SEM strategy with an in-house team, a professional agency has well-trained staff and resources at their fingertips. However, you will need to get the agency up to speed in your industry.

How will SEM success be tracked?
A whole other area to a successful search engine marketing campaign is ROI tracking and web analytics. After all, how will you know that your SEM campaigns are successful if you don’t track the results? First question to ask is what analytics package is right for you? Google Analytics is free, but may not be the best package if your company manages 40 websites. Omniture is a great web analytics package for larger websites, but is also costly. Before deciding which package to go with, you must first determine if you have the budget.

Once you determine which web analytics package will suite your needs, you must then determine which staff member will take on this responsibility. Web analytics and measuring ROI take a skill set that your current staff may not have. Again, will training be necessary? What costs are involved with training? Are you willing to wait the time necessary to get your staff up to speed?

Conclusion

Take your time to determine whether taking SEM in-house is the right decision for your organization. Consider your in-house resources and online goals and weigh the pros and cons. If your decision is to outsource, stay-tuned for a post which outlines the questions a potential Search Marketing agency should be asked.

Have you ever visited a website just to find yourself immediately going back to your search results? Maybe you couldn’t figure out what the company does. Or… maybe you were referred to this company and just wanted to get specs on a certain product, but instead you find yourself clicking around their website aimlessly and could not find the information you were looking for. If this has happened to you, you’ve been victim of poor usability.

There is blog post by Eric Enge on Search Engine Watch titled “Usability and SEO, Which comes First.” In his blog Eric stresses the usability and visitor experience are far more important than SEO. I whole heartedly agree with Mr. Enge. I’ve managed many website redesign projects where the company president wants their website to reflect their sales brochure. However, website visitors are looking for more robust information than what a sales brochure can offer. And many web developers (well, the inexperienced ones) are so eager to please the client that they produce flashy websites with lack luster content. The result is high bounce rates and dismal website conversions.

While SEO is very important, what is more important is to clearly define the purpose of your website. As with anything, if you do not have a clear plan, you can not achieve success. The same holds true with websites. Once you determine the purpose of your site, then you need to determine what it is you want visitors to do when they get to your site and then make it easy for the visitor to do so.

I encourage you to read Eric’s blog and pay special attention to the basic questions every website owner should ask before jumping head first into a website design project.