What is involved in Search Engine Marketing
To explain more what happens in our SEM packages, here is a description of the tasks. With the move from basic to advanced, more time is spent on each step, usualy by addressing more keywords.
Here are the steps involved in SEM
By reading this you will understand why SEM comes with no guarantees. It is an iterative process that must be built on.
Step One - Choosing Keywords
This is perhaps the most important step of the process as incorrectly
targeting phrases can result in traffic that is not interested in your
product. This involves the use of analytical tools and research time.
Step Two - Site Content
Content is king. Google attempts to find sites which have good and relevant content inrelation to a search, therefore creating some new content before starting the optimization process can be doubly helpful in that it can reveal potential additions to the website that you may not have considered (a forum or blog for example). This is atime to look at the site with new perspective.
Step Three - Site Structure
A solid site structure is very important. Creating a site that is easily spidered by the search engines yet attractive to visitors is crucial. To adequately structure your website we must "think like a spider" which is not as difficult as it may sound. A search engine spider reads your web page like you would read a book. It starts at the top left, reads across, and then moves down.
Priority must be given then, to what you place near the top of your page.
Step Four - Optimisation
Once we have your keyword targets, your content created and your site structure established you must now move on to the most obvious step, the optimisation of your content.
As noted above, a spider places importance on what it reads highest on
the page and so beginning with a sentence that includes your targeted phrase
only makes sense. That said, stuffing in keywords in hopes that it will
add weight to your page generally doesn't work. The term "keyword
density" refers to the percentage of your content that is made up
of your targeted keywords. There are optimum densities according to many
reputable SEO's though exactly what they are is debatable. Estimates seem
to range anywhere from 4 or 5% to 10 to 12% (quite a gap isn't it).
The heading has to be considered. At the beginning of the site content we have the opportunity to use the <h1> tag to specify the heading of your content. This tag is given extra weight and is also an indicator to the search engine of where your actual content starts. We make sure to use your keywords in the heading but also add additional words (though not too many).
Step Five - Internal Linking
To insure that your website gets fully indexed you have to make sure that the spiders have an easy path through your website. Text links make the best choice as the anchor text (the actual words used to link to a specific page) add relevancy to that page for the words used to link to it. For example, if I ran a website on motorbikes and had a repair and maintenance page I could link to it with an image, with text reading "Click for more information on chain tensioning" or simply "Chain maintenance". When a search engine spider hits an image it has no idea what the image is and, while it will follow the link, it will not give any weight to the page it hits. If you use text that does not contain the keywords you are targeting you are essentially supplying the engine with the same lack of relevancy as with an image, but if you use the phrase "Chain maintenance" to link to your page you are attaching relevancy to that page for those keywords.
There are two main ways to insure that your site gets well spidered AND that the relevancy is added. The first is to place text links on the bottom of your homepage to your main internal pages (not EVERY page, that just looks odd). The second is to create a sitemap to all your internal pages and link to it from your homepage. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages but that's a whole article unto itself.
Step Six - User Testing
Now the site is optimized and the navigation is in place. The next step
is to review all this from the perspective of a person who has not seen
it before. This highlights readability, and navigational problems and
shortfalls which then must be addressed.
Step Seven - Submissions
Simply having sites that are spidered by the major search engines linking to you will get your site found eventually, but its good practice to expedite this process by manaul asubmission to the main engines. This is the next step.
Step Eight - Link Building
All of the major search engines give credit to sites that have quality links pointing to them. How many is enough depends on your industry and targeted phrases. Running a search on Google for "link:www.yourcompetition.com" will reveal approximately how many links a competitor has.
The first place to seek links is with general and topic-specific directories. After that you may want to move into reciprocal link building. Reciprocal link building is the exchange of links between two websites. Some webmasters will simply link to any website that links back to them, however as we say above content is king, and irrelevant links are therefore to be avoided.
We find websites that you believe your site visitors would genuinely be interested in and you've probably found a good link partner. You want to find links from sites that are related to yours.
There are also many more methods to building links than directories and reciprocal link building.
Step Nine - Monitoring
We have to monitor the major search engines for your targeted phrases. Also, we need to review your stats to see where your traffic is coming from and what search terms are being used to find you.
If a month passes and we don't see any changes then more work needs to be done. A search engine positioning strategy involves constantly adding content, building links, and insuring that your visitors are getting the information they want to have and finding it as easily as possible.
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