by Matt McGee
One World Telecommunications
Updated: August 18, 2005
(This article is also available on the SEMPO.org
web site.)
Mailing lists and message boards -- the online water coolers
of the web development and marketing industries -- are filled with
stories of businesses whose web sites have "fallen off the
map" of search engine success or never made it on the map
in the first place. In many cases, the resulting "Why?" discussions
lead to one of two conclusions: the web site was poorly optimized
for search engine success, or it wasn't optimized at all.
As a business owner, you may identify with those
stories. And you may know the importance of having
your web site rank highly in search engines for
the search words and phrases that are appropriate
to your business. But you may not know how to
make that happen yourself.
Thanks to the growth of search engine marketing
(SEM),
you don't need to. A professional SEM company
can help put your web site back on the map of
search engine success, or get it on the map for
the very first time.
(A note before we go any further: the term "search
engine marketing" includes all efforts aimed
at increasinf search visibility, including pay-per-click
(PPC) advertising, organic search engine optimization
(SEO),
and pay-for-inclusion (PFI) programs.)
Choosing an SEM company is an important decision:
the right choice can lead to tremendous initial
growth in your company's online business and create
the foundation for a satisfying business relationship
that keeps this growth alive over the long-term.
Trust
When selecting an SEM company, you are first and
foremost establishing a business relationship,
and successful relationships are built on trust.
You will be placing your online success in the
SEM company's hands. Most of us can tell pretty
quickly if someone deserves our trust. Follow
your gut instincts, but also consider these questions:
Does the company answer your questions honestly
and completely, or did it avoid certain topics
and give fuzzy answers to others? The SEM company
should have nothing to hide when it comes to describing
how they optimize sites, how they manage ad campaigns,
their track record, etc.
Does your SEM company have experience in the industry?
If you're hiring them to handle search engine
optimization on your web site, have someone experienced
with creating web sites look underneath the hood
of a couple sites the company has optimized, looking
for any unusual coding that may be hidden from
public view. If you're hiring the SEM company
to handle your PPC campaign, have they managed
campaigns successfully for clients of your size?
Do they have a list of references you can contact? Hearing
the first-hand experiences of past clients is a great way to
learn
about the company. (Note that some of the company's past clients
may have asked not to be included in a reference list, and
the company should honor those wishes.)
Does the SEM company pressure you with sales tactics
designed to force a decision before you're ready
to make one? Building a relationship isn't about
closing the deal; it's about doing what's best
for you, the client. You should be able to speak
with the individuals who will be doing the actual
work on your site, not just with a salesperson.
Which Services?
Search engine marketing includes a variety of methods
that can increase a web site's visibility in search
engines. Before choosing an SEM company, it's
imperative to know which one(s) you need.
Search
engine optimization (SEO) is the process of
making a web site search engine friendly. It typically
involves making changes to the web site itself
that are designed to help the site rank higher
in the organic (i.e. - free) search results.
Some search engines offer pay-for-inclusion (PFI)
services, which allow you to pay to have various
pages/URLs of your site crawled by the search
engine spider, often on a regular basis.
There's also pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which
offer you the chance to pay to have your ad appear
when searcher type your chosen keywords into the
search engine. In these programs, you bid on certain
words or phrases and your advertisement appears
when a search is made for those words or phrases
-- usually near, but not as part of the traditional
search results.
These are just a few of the SEM services a company
might offer. Some issues to consider:
Do you need SEO or PPC? Both? Something else?
Ask the companies you're considering for their
recommendation. Ask them to separate the time
and costs of each service when they give you a
cost proposal for your project so you can make
a more informed decision.
If you need PPC, will the company you're hiring
do that part of the project themselves? PPC advertising
is a specialty that not all SEO companies practice.
The ones that don't can often recommend companies
to handle that aspect of your project.
If PPC advertising is part of your project, how
long will the campaign last? How much will it
cost? Which search engines will you use? What
types of tools does the company use for managing
your bids? Is the company skilled at writing targeted
ad copy?
How will the company identify the best keywords
and phrases for your optimization project? Whether
you need SEO, PPC, or both, identifying the most
appropriate keywords and phrases to target will
be a key factor in the overall success of your
efforts. Make sure you have input into this process
since you, ultimately, know your business and
industry more than anyone. If you specialize in
and want to promote your blue, graphite widgets,
don't allow the SEM company to emphasize widgets
in general (not enough focus) or red, titanium
widgets specifically (wrong focus). The SEM company
should be able to provide general statistics indicating
how often your preferred keywords and phrases
are actually searched for on various search engines.
Know Your Risk Comfort Level
There are many ways to optimize a web site for
search engine success. Some methods are more aggressive
than others, and many search engines and industry
professionals (including all of us at OWT) frown
on these tactics as being too risky at best, and
unethical at worst. Many search engines go so
far as to warn the public about these methods,
perhaps none so strongly as Google on a page
it wrote for business owners:
"Many SEOs provide useful services
for website owners, from writing copy to giving
advice on site architecture and helping to
find relevant directories to which a site
can be submitted. However, a few unethical
SEOs who have given the industry a black eye
through their overly aggressive marketing
efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate
search engine results."
As a business owner, you have to determine how
much risk you're willing to take on. If you're
willing to try risky methods such as cloaking,
doorway pages, and keyword stuffing (among others),
you should also be aware of the potential consequences
(which include being penalized by search engines).
Make sure you and your SEM company are in complete
agreement over the methods to be used in your
optimization project, and have it clearly defined
in the contract.
Executing an SEO Plan
If organic search engine optimization is one of
your needs, you'll want to have a clear idea of
how the company you hire will execute the project.
The company should develop a plan based on your
needs and budget. As the client, you may not want
to know -- and may not understand -- every little
detail that the project entails. But there are
a number of topics you should discuss with the
company to gain a better understanding of the
big picture:
Will the company execute the hands-on aspects
of the optimization plan, or are they only providing
directions for your webmaster? There's no right
or wrong answer to this. Some firms are consultants
only; others offer consulting and hands-on optimization.
If you don't have a webmaster, and expect the
company to do the actual optimization work, ask
about their experience as programmers and make
sure they are as skilled at the hands-on work
as they are at consulting.
What changes need to be made to your web site to make
it more search engine friendly? In other words, what
does
the SEO company
consider
the full scope of work to optimize your web site? The
project may or may not include things such as:
- changing the layout or design of your site
- updating the site architecture -- the menus, navigation, etc.
- rewriting and editing content -- the visible words on your
web site
- improving HTML tags -- the hidden pieces of information in
the code of your web site
- link building -- finding appropriate web sites and obtaining
links from their site to yours (hint: avoid link farms and
FFA sites at all costs;
hint #2: the SEO company should not require a link from your site
to theirs as part
of the project)
- search engine submission
-- letting search engines know about your
site (hint: avoid automated tools; hint #2:
avoid any company promising to submit your
site to hundreds of search engines; hint #3:
search engine submission is essentially obsolete)
- directory submissions -- letting web directories know about
your site (hint: this is often more difficult than it sounds)
How soon will the company begin working on your
project, and how long do they expect to take to
complete it? It's unrealistic to expect your web
site to make the top ten search results within
a week after the project ends, so if you're aiming
to increase holiday sales make sure you start
(and the SEO company can finish) far enough ahead
of time to allow the project to succeed. Which
leads us right into...
Measuring Success
It's up to you to determine the goals and definition
of success for your SEM project. Perhaps it's
nothing more than an increase in traffic to your
site. Expansion of your mailing list subscriber
base? Doubling last year's online sales in the
holiday season? During the initial meetings with
the companies you're considering, you'll need
to articulate your ultimate goals and whether
they're short-term, long-term, or both.
It will, however, be the SEM's job to help you
calculate success with information and statistics
about the project. Things to consider:
Does the company make promises to acquire you
as a customer? Building trust involves setting
realistic expectations. No SEM company can promise
long-term top rankings in the organic search results
of any search engine because search engines are
constantly changing how they index and rank web
sites. (In the short-term, however, PPC advertising
might include a guarantee of visibility on the
first page of search results if you're bidding/paying
enough to be seen there.)
What kind of reports will the SEM company provide
to indicate your web site's ongoing ranking in
various search engines, or the success of your
PPC ad campaign? How often will you get those
reports, and can the company help you understand
them? Some companies may be able to provide sample
reports to give you an idea of what to expect.
How will you measure your ROI (return on investment)
and what role (if any) will the SEM company provide
in this process?
These are some of the issues and concerns any business should
address when considering which SEO/SEM company
to hire for marketing your
business online.
You might also
spend time using the variety of resources available
elsewhere on our web site to learn more about the value
of search
engine marketing
and
the industry
itself.
(But try to stay away from the water cooler --
hopefully now we won't be reading about your company there,
unless
it's the
story
of your
SEO/SEM success!)
Thanks to all the SEMPO members who helped in
one way or another with the development of
this article.
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