The Strategy Behind the Firm – Search Engine Marketing Through the Eyes of a CEO

In the Beginning, there was the internet…

In 1997, the internet really began to take flight and with the invention of this information highway came the emergence of innovative business avenues. The internet became the primary means by which many companies marketed themselves. The Web meant more exposure on a global basis and it became the primary means for many companies to market themselves. But for many companies, success was not so easy and the biggest question was how to use this novel technology to grow an online business. From this new demand for online marketing sprouted the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) industry to tackle all the problems businesses faced by contributing their sites to billions like theirs on the Web. SEM got the little guy a voice and allowed companies to differentiate themselves from the pack.

What’s the problem with the search engine marketing industry?

Since Google’s famous IPO in 2004, everyone and their brother seems to have started an SEM firm. In fact, it has been such a lucrative industry that some large ad agencies are opening their own firms. Companies have shelled out millions to educate and train their employees on every aspect of optimization, pay per click, link building and internet marketing. Everyone is hungry and scrambling to get a piece of the million dollar pie.

The upside of this exponential growth is that search engine marketing is finally being accepted as a valuable marketing channel, but have the strategies and tactics used to build a successful and “white hat” adhering firm been sacrificed all in the name of money?

To delve into this question one first has to look at the basic structure of a good SEM campaign. There is so much research that goes into each campaign beginning with understanding the client’s company. Once an SEM firm knows how their client operates, they can create a unique campaign to decide whether to utilizing keyword selection, content creation and/or link building will convert visitors into customers and positively impact the ROI.

Unfortunately, some SEM firms lack the patience, knowledge or funding to correctly implement the fundamentals of a good campaign. To make up for their shortcomings in SEM expertise, some firms may throw out a presumptuous “guarantee” ensuring the number one spot in organic search for a website in order to seal the deal with clients. In SEM, however, there are no guarantees. Search engine algorithms change frequently, so the chances of one website dominating the number one spot for more than a few days can NEVER be guaranteed.

SEM firms cannot always be to blame, as software is also suspect. Software has undoubtedly eased the way most SEM firms approach construction of complex paid search campaigns, but some agencies aren’t looking at the data and making smart business decisions. Software cannot think strategically. In order to manage a successful paid search campaign, understanding the financial metrics of a client’s company and installing strategic business rules are crucial. It’s not enough to just do, firms must test and measure, then test and measure again. It’s important to think, analyze, test and strategize to ensure that the campaign is the best it can possibly be.

In “natural” or “organic” search, some SEM firms seem to lose sight of what they are really doing for their client. These firms will hide behind the complexity of SEO and keep clients in the dark, blaming the lack of results on “changes in the algorithms”.
Taking over accounts of clients who have previously been misguided by their former SEM firms is sometimes a depressing reality. It allows the new firm insight of what the former firm did incorrectly; whether it’s discovering that the wrong strategy had been employed or actual results were being construed, it’s embarrassing for “white hat” SEM firms to clean up the messes of malpractice.

So how can this all be remedied?

The key to having a successful SEM campaign means knowing basic terminology. Clients that are educated in good SEM practices can never be steered wrong.

There are three keys to optimizing a site properly to achieve top, natural search engine rankings – keyword selection, content development and link popularity.

Choosing good keywords comes from an SEM firm’s knowledge of what their client’s company does and wants to accomplish. Without this knowledge, choosing correct and targeted keywords proves difficult and could lead to a disastrous campaign. Take, for instance, a large site like AutoTrader.com with a Google PageRank of 7/10. They will be able to compete for the most competitive keyword phrases, such as ‘used car’ because their site is bigger with more content linking “used car” back to their site. However, for newer, smaller online businesses, targeting niche keyword phrases, like “Atlanta used car dealership” may prove more successful. Picking keywords that are most likely to convert into sales that have relevancy to the website are a vital part of a good campaign.

In natural search, content is king. To be found for 100 keywords, then write at least 100 pages of website content covering each target keyword phrase. This may mean bringing in a content writer to optimize each page so the target keywords and phrases will be found by Google and Yahoo; slapping on a page title and a META tag won’t do the trick.

Finally, link popularity is critical to top search engine rankings. A link from ‘site A’ to ‘site B’ is like a vote from ‘site A’ for ‘site B’. The more votes a site has from other sites, the higher it will rank in Google. The problem is, some SEO firms don’t do link building (or content development). They plug in some titles and tags and hope for the best without knowing what a great asset link building is for their clients. To achieve top search engine rankings, link building is incredibly useful.

The bottom line, to be successful in paid search and search engine optimization, start with the right strategy; before hiring a search engine marketing agency, do the homework. Ask a lot of questions and hold the SEM firm accountable for bottom line results. Remember that there are no guarantees in this business; there is only strategy, which if done right, will lead to great online successes.