Your website isn’t just another way to let people know where you are. It is the bridging point between your online and offline worlds, it is your businesses major mouthpiece, it is your leading marketing tool.
Once upon a time a laissez-faire approach to Internet marketing would have been understandable, if slightly unadvisable. However, today an Internet presence is a must for any business. Those who have worked hard to establish themselves online a reaping the rewards, whilst those who haven’t are having to work even harder to catch up.
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By following some straightforward Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) fundamentals, you can be sure that your site is ready to be indexed by the search engines and all set to meet your objectives.
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Those kind people at Wordtracker have just released a free service “Keyword Questions“.
We’ve used a combination of our keyword research and various software applications in the past to uncover the questions that searchers ask online. Why? Answering questions in the form of an article or blog post is a great way to give your site a boost in terms of increased visitor numbers. The search engines love to see fresh content that helps searchers to find the information they went online to research.
Wordtracker have done us all a favour by making this research available to all. Below is a screenshot from a question I asked about questions!
Wordtracker Keyword Questions
The data is from the US database so not perfect for UK online marketers but should still be a useful resource.
Thank you Wordtracker!
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 recording business website statistics, 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.
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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. So to highlight exactly how they compare to one another, at least in terms of search volume, we’ve taken a look at the top search engine share.
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, website content development differs greatly from other media as it has to satisfy a much greater audience. Website 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 content 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.
