Search Engine Marketing Blog

Although an AdWords Search Query Report can give you some idea of what search queries are triggering broad and phrase match keywords much of the useful data is hidden under ‘….other unique queries’ entries.

This data is an absolute gold mine for identifying new keyterms and negative keywords.

So how do we find out what some of those hidden terms were?

By using Google Analytics thats how. By following the simple instructions shown at www.semvironment.com you can easily start to use this vital data.

When it comes to tracking and analysing statistics for a website, you will find that most web hosts will provide some kind of statistical package as part of your hosting arrangement.

However, these vary in quality and very often only give a superficial level of detail. If you’re a small business and serious with your Internet marketing efforts, be it search engine optimisation or pay per click, then you will want (need) to have a professional analytics package. There are many solutions out there, such as the brilliant Clicktracks Analyzer, but these solutions are often out of the reach for many small business owners.

So what to do? Well, at Impact Media we always recommend our search marketing clients use Google Analytics. Despite being totally free, this is no lightweight solution. Once you set-up your Analytics account, you’ll be provided some code that you simply add to every page of your site. From this point on, your site will be tracked, and not just for Google. You’ll be able to see stats for total visitors, for all search engines as well as direct traffic and pay per click. In particular, if you’re using Google AdWords, you’ll benefit from enhanced reporting capabilities.

From a single account you can manage multiple sites and even share data with other users. Reports can be exported and your data can be ’sliced and diced’ in many different ways.

All in all, Google has provided individuals and businesses of all sizes, a great way to get the most out of their website statistics and we definitely recommend it!

At Impact Media we believe the most important search engines are the ones that deliver the most traffic and this changes from country to country but for the UK and USA the big 3 are the same.

Google, Yahoo and MSN are the big 3 in question and control one big slice of the internet traffic, approximately 91% of all UK and 93.4% of the USA search engine traffic.

UK Search Engine Share:

USA Search Engine Share:

At Impact Media we offer the real deal and optimise website’s for the main 3 search engines so that you get quality relevant traffic to your website.

Bottom line, if your not in the top 3 search engines you are missing out on nearly all natural search enquires.

(Statistics from may 2006 Source: Hitwise)

At Impact Media we know how important it is to have effective and unique content on your website.

Contrary to beliefs writing content for the web differs greatly from other mediums as it has to satisfy a much greater audience. Content development is more complex than people give it credit as in today’s world your copy has to achieve all of the following or it will not succeed in its job to convert:

• Be unique and optimised so that the search engines will index it
• Be visually appealing to create interest
• Compel people to read it and then want it
• Contain the right mix to convey message and benefits
• Be well structured to gain maximum conversion

We believe good website copy is of the utmost importance as it will define the difference between great conversions and next to no conversions.

Simply put:

Great Content = Great conversions + High ROI

The content of your website will be the initial compelling factor encouraging people to buy your product and/or service. Therefore it is of utmost importance that the content is structured correctly to receive maximum impact and a high conversion rate.

When you are creating or having content created for your website keep the following top tips in mind:

• Talk in Benefits
• Use the keywords you want to rank for in the website copy
• Don’t waffle be specific
• Use illustrations if possible to add clarity and visual aids
• Include a call to action (tell them what you want them to do next)

Why is Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising so important?

• The search engines are the web surfers first point of contact when it comes to finding what they want online and statistics show that over 90% go on to make a purchase / conversion. It would be a grave mistake to miss out on this amount of highly converting targeted traffic.

• If your website isn’t optimised for your specific keywords then you are practically invisible to your online target audience.

• Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! Search and Ask Jeeves between them powered 81% of all search traffic in the UK during September 2006.

• Having an effective and useful website will provide you with a 24 hour online sales representative that will be consistently available to prospective clients. If you produce relevant quality content that effectively sells your products then part of your sales pitch is already done for you and hasn’t taken up any of your time!

• Appearing in the search engine’s natural listings is completely free of charge making search engine optimisation extremely cost effective producing a fantastic ROI.

• An effectively managed Pay Per Click campaign can provide large quantities of pre-qualified leads within hours. The ad can be easily set up within minutes gaining you top placements in the major search engines and instantly bringing in highly converting traffic.

• You are in complete control of the budget and campaign meaning that you can determine your own daily, weekly or monthly budget, keywords and keywords phrases you want to appear for and how long you want to run the ad for.

If you have a business and are serious about getting the maximum exposure possible then you cannot overlook the power of the search engines.