Search engine listings - from the bottom to the top!05 April 2005
'Meta tags', 'SEO', 'pay-per-click' - you've probably heard all of these terms before. In fact, they almost seem synonymous with search engines. But, aside from the jargon thrown at you, as a small business wanting to be part of the bigger picture you've got to ask the question - What can search engines do for you?
According to the Financial Times, the Internet has become the fastest-growing advertising medium in the country, accounting for nearly 5 per cent of spending. Search in particular equates to over 40 per cent of the UK's online advertising spend.
The way it works is that search engines pull in a list of websites that are relevant to the words or phrases being used to search - these are called natural listings. But there is also the paid-for listings which is where a host of advertising models come in to play.
So what can search engine marketing do for you? Generally, marketing through searches allows you to interact with customers. This interaction sparks a host of benefits.
- you can attract targeted traffic to your site
- you can increase online sales
- you can attract new customers to your site
- increase brand awareness
- maximise your return of investment (ROI) by analysing online activity and adapting your strategies accordingly
- reduce the costs of acquiring new customers
Once you've decided you want to go down this route - your next hurdle is the jargon around search engine marketing. Below are some of the common phrases and models you will encounter.
- Search engine optimisation: If you don't have the money to spend on paid-for placements on search engines, then try search engine optimisation. SEO is a web of tactics used to improve your chances of being featured in the natural search engine listings. But because the optimisation is down to you, there is no guarantee as to where you will be placed in the list of results.
- Paid-for placements (PFPs): Paid-for placements are often presented as 'sponsored links' when you run a search. Separated from the main results, the order of placements is decided by a bidding process, where advertisers will bid money for phrases or words that are relevant to their businesses.
- Paid inclusions or Pay per positioning (PPP): This model allows advertisers to pay for their sites to appear within the main results. However, there is no guaranteed placement and often you need to also rely on search engine optimisation to make sure your site appears at the top.
- Display advertising: If your logo and brand are important to drawing in customers, then the traditional model is best for you. With this model you pay more to have your logo appear next to your listing. Or you can just opt for the banner advertising on these pages.
- Cost per click (CPC) or Pay per click (PPC): These phrases are used to describe the charging model used by most search engines. They simply mean that you pay for the number of times people click on your site. However, remember that not all visits to your site will result in actual sales.
- Cost per thousand (CPT/CPM): This is a charging model based on the highly rated areas of a search engine's pages and is mainly used for display advertising.
For more tips and tricks on topping the search engine rankings visit the High Rankings advisor. Alternatively, visit the Search engine optimisation guide for a list of providers.
