Search-Engine Marketing
Will Boost Your
Business
By JAMES A. AMBROSIO
One of the challenges for a new business is to stand out in a
crowded market. The problem can be acute on the Web, where there
might be hundreds of similar sites. Since many people turn to
Internet search engines to find what they are looking for, it's a
good strategy to focus at least part of your online marketing
efforts on making sure your site turns up in the first couple pages
of their results.
"It's just like having a store," says Carlene Viboch of San
Diego-based Hot
Spring Spa of North County. "People think that you can just put
out a sign that says you are open, and customers will come. It
doesn't work that way. You have to let people know that you are
there."
Ms. Viboch speaks from experience. She launched her family's pool
and spa store's first Web site six years ago and has overseen its
growth from a few pages of basic information with links to
manufacturer's Web sites, to one with dozens of pages and virtually
no outbound links. Direct sales from the site comprise nearly 25% of
the company's total business at a time when the company's in-store
sales have continued to grow, Ms. Viboch says. "That's business we
wouldn't have without the Internet."
How does Ms. Viboch do it? In part by focusing on where her site
appears when people search for information about pools, hot tubs,
spas, steam rooms or related products. For starters, she submits
updates about the site to search engines to keep it near the top of
search results for her products' keywords. If she didn't, the site
likely would fall to the bottom of the results list or be dropped
altogether. Most search engines favor new listings to provide users
with links to active sites with up-to-date information. She gets
help from SiteLab
International, a San Diego-based Web-marketing firm.
Pay-Per-Click Ads
Ms. Viboch also participates in so-called pay-per-click
advertising programs offered by the search engines. The results
appear as "sponsored links," usually at the top of the results
retrieved from most search engines. (Google runs them in the
upper-right portion of its search-result pages.)
Ms. Viboch spends an average of $200 to $500 a month on different
pay-per-click advertising programs for "sponsored links." In a
pay-per-click program, advertisers bid on keywords: The more popular
the keyword, the more expensive it is. Prices can range from a few
pennies a word to a dollar or more. Ms. Viboch's favorite keywords
include "portable pool," "above-ground pool," "sauna" and "portable
spa."
Under most programs, advertisers aren't charged until a user
clicks on the ad, hence the name pay-per-click. Overture.com,
based in Pasadena, Calif., pioneered the concept. Overture
distributes paid links to its search-engine partners, which include
Yahoo Inc., AltaVista, Lycos, MSN and others. Google runs its own
paid-link distribution program, called AdWords Select.
To be successful, you must buy the right keywords and keep tabs
on your competitors, because they can top your bid at any time. Ms.
Viboch adjusts her bids at least once a day, sometimes more
frequently. She considers the programs to be "absolutely essential"
to her business. "You can have a fantastic Web site, but if no one
can find it, you're wasting your time," she says.
Ms. Viboch is following a basic principle SiteLab emphasizes to
its clients, says Dana Todd, a SiteLab founder. "It's all about
product, price, placement and promotion," Ms. Todd explains. "The
search engines are the retail channel for Web sites. If you can't
achieve a top-shelf position, then you're limiting your audience."
But not all start-up businesses can afford to spend several
hundred dollars a month on Web advertising and promotion. In those
cases, Ms. Todd recommends making manual submissions to search
engines every two weeks or so. The submissions are done manually
because the search engines frequently block software that
automatically submits pages to them, Ms. Todd says. Otherwise, they
might be flooded with submissions.
"The major search engines generally prefer you to take some time
and fill out their questionnaires to better help them make decisions
about the cataloging of your site," she explained. "That is
especially true with human-powered directories such as Yahoo and
Open Directory. They appreciate you taking the time to really think
it through. A little elbow grease goes a long way."
Another fundamental is to ensure that your site is "search-engine
friendly," Ms. Todd says. Simply changing the copy on the page can
help. "Using the word 'dog' won't necessarily get you people looking
for German shepherds if that's what you're selling," she says. "The
search engines are very literal," she notes. "People put in the
plural form of a word and assume the search engines will assign the
same weight to the singular," she says. Both forms need to be
included in the text.
It's also important to not overuse fancy features. "If you design
an HTML page that has a Flash element in it, such as a rotating logo
or other cool eye-candy on the page, it's fine as long as there is
real searchable text on the page," Ms. Todd says. But a site done
entirely in Flash -- which can be visually striking -- won't be read
by the search engines. The same is true for copy enclosed in
graphics. "If you can't highlight the text, then the search engines
can't read it," she says. Frames are also problematic, as are online
catalogs that use pull-down menus to list products or categories,
because the search engines can't read what's in the pull-downs.
There are workarounds for these issues, Ms. Todd says, but as a site
operator you need to be aware of them. "Don't defeat your
search-ability."
Optimizing Your Site
Another option is to have someone "optimize" your Web site for
search-engine results. Search-engine optimization firms will analyze
your site and write relevant "meta tags." Meta tags are codes that
describe the contents of a Web page. Search engines use meta tags to
index a page so that it's easy to find. Anthony Muller, a New York
City-based search-engine optimization specialist (http://www.zenhits.com/), says optimizing a Web
site can produce significant improvement in its positioning for a
fraction of the cost of pay-per-click ad programs.
"Optimization is the most cost-effective way to improve your
search-engine position," Mr. Muller says. He contends that site
operators that use search-engine optimization effectively will spend
between four and eight times less than they would for a
pay-per-click program. A good search-engine-optimization (SEO)
company will focus on making your site readable to the search
engines by building in keyword tags that are relevant to your
business, without resorting to techniques the search engines
dislike. Those include creating numerous "mirror" sites, or numerous
extra pages within a domain name, both of which have no purpose
beyond repeating keywords to generate more hits on search-engine
results. Repeating the same keywords, or writing hidden words in the
same color as the site's background, also is considered taboo.
If you're thinking of hiring an SEO company, Mr. Muller suggests
getting proposals from several and asking each to provide two to
three references. He advises staying away from companies that "offer
'guarantees' or submissions to 300,000 search engines." Those are
"no more likely to bring high rankings than sticking your tongue in
an electrical socket," he says.
The Judith James Salon in Huntington Point, N.Y., has seen the
improvement optimization can yield. After spending approximately
$8,000 on a Web site (http://www.judithjamessalon.com/) two years ago,
the owners had little to show for their investment, according to
Renee Newham, the salon's business manager.
"It didn't even have a shopping cart, just a list of the products
we sell," Ms. Newham says. Mr. Muller offered to redesign and
optimize the site, saying the salon's owners could pay him if they
liked the results. His new version gave the site a professional
appearance. He eliminated several large graphic images that made the
site slow to download and streamlined its navigation. He wrote
clearer meta tags, revised some of the site's copy and made proper
submissions to the search engines. An online store and shopping cart
on a secure link also was added. The salon's owners paid him $8,000
to $10,000 over the course of a year, but they're pleased with the
results.
"We figured we had nothing to lose. Our product sales online have
since doubled and tripled," Ms. Newham says. "I don't know what he
does, but it brings in traffic."
-- Mr. Ambrosio is
contributing editor of Small Business Web Update, a publication of
Tramp Steamer
Media, a publishing company based in Trenton, N.J.
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