Search
engine marketing success comes from good research. By applying research
to understand your competition and target audience, your optimization
efforts will succeed. Remember when homework from school often required
some research on your part to complete? It is much the same scenario
for search engine marketing: you need to apply yourself by researching
in order to understand your competition and target audience. Your
visitors need to relate to you and understand your message and what
you want them to do.
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You must spend time understanding the industry you are trying
to make a profit from. If you sell widgets, know everything you
can about widgets: where they come from, how they are typically
sold, why people need them, etc. You can learn a great deal from
your competitors. Research using industry communications such
as online magazines, forums, newsletters and blogs. Read articles
written by industry leaders and keep up on the latest news about
your industry. The more you know, the better your basis for building
an authoritative website.
What's Your Point?
Ok, so you've got this product you want to sell online. What
are you saying to your audience? Make sure you write in a clear,
concise way so your message does not get lost in the process.
Just because everyone in your company understands your message
doesn't mean the visitors to your site will. Have a few test scenarios
set up; ask a few objective readers what they understand from
your website and see just how much your message is getting across.
You'd be surprised that what may be obvious to you is not necessarily
obvious to your website visitors. If you are having trouble creating
a clear message for your website, consider hiring a copywriter
to convey what you want to say.
Know Your Target Audience
Who buys your product and why?
Who needs the information you have on your website? Who would
you like to have visit your website that isn't already there?
Who is visiting you? Are they professionals who understand your
technical terms or visitors of varying levels who all need the
same information from you? What do you offer that a certain market
would want from you? Take the time to get a good look at what
is out there and how your competitors are presenting their information
to online visitors. Use your log statistics reports to track who
comes to your website. Get familiar with the keyword terms they
are using in the search engines to find you. Research the domains
that most visit you. Find out why visitors are clicking away from
certain pages before going deeper into the content of your website.
Is it a lack of information? Too many choices to click on? Is
the language used or instructions given easy to understand? Don't
give your visitors a reason to leave before they understand your
message.
Know Your Competition
Take a good look at your top competition and see what they are
offering online. Even looking at websites that are not direct
competitors may give you an idea of what to offer your visitors.
Think of it this way: someone put effort into creating those websites.
Visit your competitor's website. Search in the major search engines
for your most important keyword phrases and see if your competitors
show up in the top thirty search engine results. Learn what you
can and see if what they are doing is something you should be
doing. It's always good to know if your competitors are using
SEO, Paid Inclusion, PPC, Link Building and other means to rank
well.
Make Your Website Accessible
There's nothing worse than muddling through a website looking
for what you want and clicking so much you finally give up. Use
easy navigation, make sure your information or products are easily
accessible to your visitors. Create written text that is easily
understood in order to get your message across readily. Give your
visitors plenty of written information. There's no such thing
as "too much text" when it comes to search engine robots "understanding"
your web pages. What's good for the visitor is often good for
the search engine robots.
Do The Work
Research is the cornerstone to your success. The more you know
about your subject, the better you will be able to inform your
visitors. By informing your visitors you build trust and interest
in learning more about your website. Do the math - get searching!
About the
Author
Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing
Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing (
http://www.searchinnovation.com), a Search Engine Promotion
company serving small businesses. She has specialized in search
engine optimization since 1998, including three years as the
Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly & Associates, a technical
book publishing company.
