Website Marketing: Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click

A key phase in the development of most websites it making it visible to as many potential visitors as possible.

Offline and Online Marketing

Offline

Offline advertising – promoting your website address on printed material such as business stationary and leaflets as well as including it in ‘traditional’ advertising such as radio and press.

Online

In contrast to offline marketing, online marketing generally refers to getting your website highly placed in search engines for your subject of interest.

For example if your business sells wire-making machinery, you would want your website to be at the top set of results if somebody searched for ‘wire making machinery’ ‘wire manufacturing’ etc. These phrases that you would like your website to appear in the results for are called ‘keywords’.

Natural vs Paid For results

There are two types of search engine listing for your website: natural/organic and paid for (usually pay per click).

Natural Results

To be listed in the natural results of a search engine, you do not have to pay any money to the search engine company. In most major search engines, the natural results are given the greatest prominence. In the case of Google, the most popular search engine, natural results are given three quarters of the available screen space, starting at the top left.

Purpose of natural search engines

The purpose of a natural search engine such as Google is to return the most relevant list of websites based on the keywords that a user enters. By returning the most accurate results, a search engine builds its reputation and becomes the most popular with users. In order to achieve this high level of accuracy, search engines use complex techniques to ensure the ‘best’ websites are at the top.

How do they do this?

The exact techniques are a closely guarded secret and change all the time, but the two main elements are:

Keywords

How often and in what way are the keywords that a user has searched for included in the pages of your site? For example, a website selling antique jewellery based in Sussex would mention the words 'antique' and 'jewellery' frequently and so appear at the top of the results if someone searched for 'antique jewellery in Sussex'.

Constructing your site in a way that maximises use of relevant keywords and making it accessible to search engines is essential.

It is not however as simple as repeating the releveant keywords 100s of times. Google is wise to techniques such as this and can 'punish' sites caught using this techniques, possibly even removing them from its listings.

Link Popularity

Search engines such as Google judge the importance of a site by how many other sites link to it and what popularity those sites are.

This means that a large business such as BT, which has thousands of links to it would be listed higher than a smaller, independent organisation offering similar products and services.

Search Engine Optimisation

The process of adjusting a website to improve its search engine position is known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

How can we help?

There are a huge variety of methods available to make your listing higher on search engines. It is not however an exact science and no reputable offering will guarantee top positions on Google - it is just not possible.

What we will do is work closely with you to discover your keywords and build your visibility to the best level given your budget, market competition etc.

What Search Engine Optimisation Functions do we perform?

Keywords

• assess what keywords are relevant to you
• assess the completion
• assess these keywords that are most achievable given your completion
• look at more specific keywords where you can beat all the competition – e.g. add geographic info

Search Engine Friendly Website Design

• build your website in a search engine friendly way – for example using modern css, not multiple layers of tables.
• adjust website copy to reflect your keywords more fully
• write titles, headers and image alts for each page to optimise search engine position
• optimise internal link structure on your website

Links to your website

• develop a strategy of building incoming links to your site, based on your budget
• listing your site in relevant paid and free directories
• making use of 'local' listings such as Google Maps, Yell, etc
• publish articles
• issuing online press releases

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click advertising works on a relatively simple highest bid = highest position in result basis. You only pay when a user sees your advert displayed and clicks on it, taking them to your site.

In Google, Pay Per Click results are shown on the right hand side of the page. Pay per click can be extremely effective way to kick start large numbers of visitors to your site.

Types of Pay Per Click

Search Engine

• Google Adwords
• Yahoo Search Marketing (formally Overture)

Shopping Comparison sites

• Shopzilla
• Kelkoo
• etc

How can we help?

• Keyword analysis and research
• Competitor positioning
• Keyword specifics
• Ad copywriting
• Click through implications
• Detailed reports

See what we've got to say

Call us now on 08456 410 771 for an informal chat about your website marketing needs.