SOM Report

Holistic Search Marketing:

A business is only as good as its marketing strategy. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is essential for a business to thrive in the online environment. These indicators can be categorized into 'Online Indicators' and 'Offline Indicators.' A few online indicators can be:

1. Visits: A well structured and maintained website will be visited more often by potential customers. The rates of visits on the web page contribute to the success rate of the online endeavor.
2. Sales Leads: This is essentially the identity or the name of a client who would be interested in the services of the company of whose website the client is visiting. This can also be considered as the first step towards a successful sales process.

After the online work is accomplished, the offline KPI are:

1. Outgoing support e-mails
2. Outgoing support phone calls.
3. Sales Leads.

It is imperative to remember that no matter how intricately a website is designed, the content of the web page would also be the factor of the first and the last impression. The content will determine the fate of the website, whether it will achieve what it was designed for, or whether it would remain like any other website, forgotten and irrelevant. Content of a website is divided into two categories:

1. Internal Content: When a user visits a company page, what he gets to read there is the internal content of that web site. From the company name, to the disclaimer at the bottom of the page. Each and every word is subconsciously scrutinized by the user, and then creates an image of the enterprise, solely on the basis of this first impression. A creative and compelling content can turn an Internet visitor into a qualified sales lead and ultimately a paying client. Even more importantly, the internal context enables the search engine to make the website easily accessible to the search engine user.
2. External Content: Today website content extends beyond the actual site to many other locations. This content should also be managed and controlled as much as possible.  To enhance the link popularity of a website, the external content of that site should be given equal attention as given to the internal content. The external content increases the visibility of the website, as the search engine shows this site more often in their SERPs.

Link Popularity: Keeping in mind that the Internet is essentially an intricate web, we must focus on the importance of link popularity in the case of a commercial website. Link popularity can be defined as the quality and quantity of other web sites that link to a particular website. The advantages of linking a site to another or multiple quality websites are:

1. The visitors on the other websites will be repeatedly informed of the website that is linked with the current one. If the parent site is linked to a good quality web site, then the chances of visits by users are greatly enhanced. And again, a good link always increases the prospects of a visitor turning into a client.
2. Secondly, the search engines analyze and rate the websites on link popularity parameters. Where, a website with links to high rated web pages, will have chance of higher visibility on the search engines and will be highlighted in the search results more frequently.

Another effective method of successful search management is to keep track of the website statistics. In other words, a constant monitoring of the website is always recommended, due to the rapid changing Internet trends.

The process of monitoring has three crucial elements:

1. Page-Views: Keeps the website owner informed about the number of visitations on the website. This greatly helps in the progress analysis of the site. Furthermore, necessary changes can me amended as per the results shown to enhance the site performance and popularity.
2. Referral Keywords: It is essential to know what words or phrases were used by the user to search for the website. Once this information is obtained, the site owner can then make the necessary changes in the internal and external content of the website (if required). This would help in the ratings and popularity of the website.

Pay-Per Clicks (PPC):

The Pay per Click or PPC is considered to be as one of the most lucrative methods of earning via the Internet. As the name suggests, an advertiser gets paid every time a user clicks on the advertisement posted on any website. The PPC is based primarily on the basis of 'Keywords', where an advertiser bids on the keywords that a user might use on a search engine. When the user inputs the predicted keyword in his search, the page that has the relevant content would show the advertisement. This sort of advertisements is known as 'Sponsored Links'. The PPC methodology is one of the most prominent practices that benefit both the advertiser and the user alike. 

Advantages of the Pay per Click feature:

1. Cost Effective with instant results: Because the advertiser gets only when his banner is clicked, so he pays only when he earns. Unlike conventional advertising practices, a PPC campaign can be initiated with a small budget, and yet advertisers reap big profits from it. As soon as the campaign is commenced, the advertisements go online within a day or two and start reflecting on the web sites and the SERP. Thus, providing results and feedback almost instantaneously. It can also be turned on and off based on time of day and the company’s ability to deliver products.
2. Keyword Oriented: In order to reduce the amount of invalid or unnecessary clicks and reducing the cost incurred, the web site owner should use keywords and phrases relevant to his products or services. This helps tremendously in creating better-targeted advertisements, as the PPC is entirely keyword specific. Apart from the cost advantage, PPC also helps in boosting the page rank among the major search engines.
3. Analysis of Consumer Online Behavioral Patterns:  With the usage of PPC services an advertiser not only gains financial success, but also gets an insight into the mindset and the behavioral patterns of the online consumers. An entrepreneur, by the means of PPC can understand the needs of consumers or clients in a certain region. Also, with this new data, he then can analyze his business strategies, make appropriate changes (if need be) and reach out to more potential consumers/clients.
4. Generating Product/Service Awareness: PPC advertising is an excellent means of promoting new products and services. By sustained and targeted PPC campaigns, an advertiser can generate awareness and spread the word about the products and services that he is offering. Adding to this, he can also target specific regions reach out to those users, who would indeed be interested in the company’s services.
5. Developing Link Popularity: PPC also helps develop link popularity by letting other site owners know that your sites exists. They need to know about your site before they can link to it.

Therefore PPC provides an entrepreneur with monetary as well as strategic advantages and help him take his business to new heights. Earning more profits, with the least amount of investment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gerry Grant CEO/Founder Search-Optimization.com, an Orange County Internet Marketing Company, has been actively involved in search engine marketing since 1994. Gerry writes for SOMReport, My Entertainment News, DataGrant Venture Capital News and Buy a Car Review.