Search marketing and your Web site

Studies have shown that the majority of internet traffic comes from search engines, so it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the principles of search marketing.

Most internet users visit search engines more than once a day and for many a search engine is the first point of call when seeking information about a product or service. Making sure your site is visible to people searching for topics related to your business is critical. 90% of internet users rarely go beyond the first three pages of search results and the majority prefer and trust 'organic' search results over paid advertisements and 'sponsored' search results.

The content of your website is critical both for enticing customers to the site and influencing the customer to buy. The content of your site, the quality of the writing and the usefulness and relevance of the information contained on each page will also be the difference between being ranked by a search engine or ignored or relegated to the supplemental index.

Writing the content for your website is not like writing advertisements or other marketing communications. Search marketing satisfies a need - when an internet user wants something you must be ready and waiting to satisfy them with the right content and the solution they desire.

Having the right keywords is only part of the search marketing equation. Each search engine has developed an algorithm in order to calculate the relevance of the sites they find. These algorithms work with text so sites heavy with images and Flash animations that obscure text will usually end up with low rankings.

Matching keywords to terms that searchers actually use is an important part of the process, but so is the bigger picture. The combination of words, the pages on which they appear, the broader themes of the site as well as the site's architecture and navigation structure, page names and meta-tags are all factors that influence search marketing based on the final ranking of the site.

The optimisation of a website is an ongoing concern. As search engine algorithms and search marketing technologies change and consumer desires generate new niche markets, the content of your website needs to be adjusted accordingly.

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