An Integrated Approach To Search Engine Marketing

With research suggesting that around 90% of all
e-commerce purchases coming as a result of a search engine
enquiry, the potential selling power that having a significant
presence on the main search engines can confer is slowly
beginning to dawn on those responsible for marketing and selling
everything from Alphabet soup to Zebra floor mats.

Search Engine Marketers have in recent times set up their tents
in one of two different camps.

One would have clients believe that the only value to be gained
from search engine marketing is the long term value that organic
search engine listings can achieve.

The camp on the opposite side of the river would have their
clients sold on the belief that Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)
from companies such as Google, Overture and Miva offered the
swiftest returns on investment and the quickest routes into the
lands of honey and gold.

The reality of the situation is that a truly successful Search
Engine Marketing campaign lies somewhere in-between.

The advent of the fabled Google "Sandbox" now means that for the
majority of new and redesigned websites an artificial time delay
of at least six months is now being imposed on their sites
making onto the pages returned for a relevant keyword search.

This is a consequence of Google's attempts to rid its index of
sites designed to manipulate the listings rather than to provide
real and valuable content.

The consequence of this action is that whilst new sites can
still (at the time of writing) quickly gain organic listings on
MSN and Yahoo through the optimisation of their websites, those
seeking to place their products or services in front of the
massive Goggle audience need to invest time and money in
establishing a brand presence on Google through the usage of PPC
advertising.

Recent research has shown that PPC click adverts are only
perceived to have been paid for by fewer than 40% of those using
search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Additionally having PPC
adverts that mention a brand name on page listings relating to a
particular subject or product actually increases brand awareness
in subsequent recall tests by over 25%, whether the advert was
clicked upon or not.

No-one can argue that over time organic listings represent the
greatest potential for Return On Investment (ROI).

However the fact that organic listings are increasingly becoming
harder to achieve, particularly for new websites, means that
integrated Search Engine Marketing solutions that take account
of organic and PPC listings represent the true and only means of
establishing a strong and profitable position on the main search
engines.

Please feel free to reproduce this article but please publish in
its entirety and with the resource box and all live links
included.

About the author:
Ivor Conway is the Managing Director of http://www.neuchi.co.uk,
a UK Search Engine Marketing and Optimisation company that
promotes the matching of client's products to interested and
ready to buy online customers.