Insight

Search engine optimization and marketing are the hottest buzz words in the digital agency space in 2008.  Why is this?  Marketing and IT professionals have been able to track website visitors and understand online customers for long enough to confirm that traffic is mainly driven from the major search engines using a combination of key words and phrases. What does that mean?

From the latest research figures provided by Forrester Research, companies are spending in excess of €4.5 billion. on search engine activities.  These activities and budgets are split between search engine optimization and search engine marketing (pay per click).  The delineation between optimization and marketing is one of the area’s which is most confusing to marketing and IT personnel.

Search engine marketing
Search engine marketing or “pay per click” advertising has been around for some time, but the sophistication level of various search engines now makes this a must-have for all marketing strategies on a global scale.  Professional services marketers have been using “paid for search” to provide top of ranking positioning for several years with varied success stories, often around the launch of a new service or product. 

Search engine marketing activities are usually treated as media spends and managed through an outside agency. They are labor intensive activities, and require monitoring throughout the day to check on key word auction prices and time-of-day placements.  Specialist agencies are equipped to manage and monitor these activities for clients with clear instructions on when to start and stop transactions on their client’s behalf.

These activities are successful for short term actions but not sustainable for long term marketing activities. Paid placement on search engines should be treated as promotional placement.

Different approaches
There are several approaches to search engine marketing activities, but one thing is constant.  Natural failure is part of the process, as is learning from mistakes. No one likes to fail at marketing activities, but when approaching the structure of a campaign there are some basics that must be adopted in setting goals and success metrics.  failing initially is an integral part of the path to ultimate success.  Trial and learning from failures are a basic building block for more successful future campaigns.

Before beginning, it is best to use traditional marketing techniques and ask questions of different teams within the organization. Ask them how they would describe their area of expertise and which key words people would use when searching online for their services. Review the website(s) to learn details about specific practice areas and “dream clients”, view the source code and pick out keyword phrases (such as specific laws or popular legal actions), and discover their uses. This information will form the basis of the campaign on which to build. For example, if it's a firm that specializes in tax law, there are a number of related terms that may be relevant to the campaign such as corporate and securities, real estate, executive compensation, exempt organizations, international tax and individuals.

Testing is a cornerstone of any successful strategy.  The test matrix  should include variables (ie terms, time of day, price range) that can be reviewed after each campaign. Success can be measured based on the success criteria established at the earliest stages.  Many campaigns are based on assumptions,  which is why many fail to begin with. By acknowledging mistakes  avoiding those same mistakes going forward, momentum can continue with an honest   reassessment of plans..    Campaign standards should become increasingly sophisticated over time, so that more and more variables can be evaluated. It is crucial that the reporting tools enable an assessment of all the variables thanks to accurate reporting  For example, effective reporting tools should provide details as to how many visitors are exploring which parts of the site, how long they spend where, and the path they took to arrive at a specific page.

Planning a campaign
For search engine marketing, as for all other kinds of marketing, planning is the key to success.  Planning should include the following:

• Identify the right keywords and creative elements within the campaign.
• Use a tracking system, either a simple one such as Google Analytics, a free tracking solution provided by Google Business Solutions and available to anyone or any business that applied for an accountor a more sophisticated solution such as WebTrends which offers a deeper and richer detailed analysis of site visitors but for a licensing fee and annual contract.
• Use the tracking data to understand where visitors come from, which keywords they used to find the site, and their entry and exit points.
• Understand your customer journeys and adapt your planning according to where visitors are accessing information within your website.  By reviewing and understanding your website visitor’s journeys, you are able to present relevant information to them where it is applicable and appropriate.
• Adding key words to websites will increase natural search rankings. Natural search listings carry more weight with the audiences using search and have a much higher level of credibility than paid for search listings within the search engine portals. Natural search is where the listings appear within the search listings through content held within the site and the keywords people have used that are embedded into the structure of the site. 
• Paid for search or PPC activities are primarily to put a firm listing on the first page of the search results.  Pay per click search marketing uses an auction format where specialists go into the major search portals and bid on key words.  Certain key words are highly competitive and therefore more expensive, for instance mortgages and car insurance.
• Timing is important, activities can be managed and bid rates for the same key word can vary at different times of day.
• Develop a baseline by running a small campaign to set the overall benchmark for analysis and evaluation. If the basics are right at this stage, success is more likely and problems can be alleviated down the road during the campaign.  If the basics are wrong the campaign will never be completed to satisfaction.
• Analyze the results regularly and frequently. The launch phase of any campaign will hit a level where the results are not as robust as they were initially. This is where results need to be analyzed and it needs to be determined if they are sustainable in the near future.  This is where testing comes into play.  Test variables to see if results are changed based on the test matrix established.  If an appreciable increase in response rates has not been achieved, the strategy should be adjusted away from search engines.

Results are more than tracking
Overall campaign objectives for search engine marketing activities mean more than just tracking keyword costs, more than volume and conversions. It means collecting data to understand not only which individual keywords work, but also what types of words work, how the creative is working, and  how the account itself is doing. In order to get as many perspectives on the big picture as possible, data must be spliced in any way imaginable.

Collecting the right data and quantity of data to view trends will help avoid errors such as purchasing keywords at the wrong time of the week. Reviewing the current situation against where the campaign is heading provides powerful information.  By optimising efforts to maximize the key performance indicators, campaign objectives can be achieved.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Making sure a site supports the search engines is one of the main areas where many law firms need to increase their marketing spend.  Having a website that supports the search engines through sound architecture and coding enables the search engine spiders to find relevant information quickly and to register that the firm’s site has been updated. This will move the firm up in the natural search rankings.  It is also important to keepcontent fresh and include the right content key words throughout the site; and to encourage content contributors to think about these words as they are writing their copy.

Key word density
Key word density is a tactic that is being used by many professional service marketers to increase page hits from the different search engines.  In addition to the individual pages within the website, it is crucial to review the naming protocols that are in place for white papers, PDF’s and other downloadable documents.  These naming protocols need to support how the search engines find information within the site.  If there is a a standard naming protocol with dashes and other non-numeric characters, for example, this may be creating a barrier preventing search engines from finding the firm’s public facing documentation and information.

Inward links
Another way to increase earch engine rankings is to encourage clients or business partners to link into your website where appropriate. These links will assist the firm in moving upwards in the natural rankings and encourage visitors to visit the site for additional information. With a strong call to action’ for example inviting visitors to join an informational mailing list, this can encourage a deeper interaction with the firm.

A sustained approach
In summary, a sustained approach is recommended and should be maintained over a long period of time to see the best result for natural rankings and quick wins with pay per click sponsorships.  Be prepared to invest in these activities as they represent the vital first stage of the purchase process. 

 
By Dwain Thomas