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SEO Corner: The Search Engine Marketing Cycle - Part 2
By Shari Thurow
Expert Author
Article Date: 2003-07-02
Reader Question: We are not opposed to paying a reasonable monthly fee, but we need a (search engine marketing) company who will actually be concerned about long-term results without us having to think about it and remind them.
Answer: In Part 1 of my answer to this reader question, I went over the first two stages of the search engine marketing and Web design cycle, which is Analysis and Optimization. For Part 2, I will go over the next two stages: Submission and Monitoring.
Stage 3: Submission
After you have finished optimizing your site, or at least part of your site, then you can begin submitting pages to the major search engines and directories. We usually begin with the directories (Yahoo, Open Directory, and Business.com) so that that a new site receives initial, high-quality link popularity.
With free submit, we typically do not see high-quality, consistent, reliable numbers (from site statistics software) for at least three months. Inktomi and Teoma are usually quite slow at picking up new and updated pages. Google and FAST Search tend to be the quickest.
If you want a faster turnaround time than free submit, then you will have to participate in a pay-for-inclusion (PFI) or a pay-per click (PPC) programs, such as those available at Overture and AdWords.
Participating in these programs does not mean you will get results right away, either. With the URL Submit part of a paid inclusion program, there is typically a turnaround time of a week to ten days. With the Trusted Feed part of a paid inclusion program, the turnaround time depends on how fast you get the optimized data feed to the search engines.
Search engine advertising can have a few weeks' turnaround time as well. Search engine reps must approve both your ads and your destination pages. In fact, I just went through a rather lengthy approval process because the ad rep was hung up on a single word ("new") in an ad that he could not find on the destination page, even though a previous, approved ad used the word "new."
Furthermore, all advertising campaigns require testing. No one wants to see the same ad run week after week after week. Ad rotation is normal. Preparing a number ads and destination pages ahead of time can speed up the submission process.
Stage 4: Monitoring
We are firm believers in using quality site statistics software to monitor progress. In fact, we do not believe that anyone can have a successful online business without it. Our favorites are WebTrends (http://www.netiq.com/webtrends/default.asp), HitBox (http://www.websidestory.com) and ClickTracks (http://www.clicktracks.com).
You will be able to see the results of your search engine optimization and link development strategies in your site statistics software. With this software, you can determine the keyword phrases used to find your site, the URLs giving you the most referrals, clickstreams, the type of browsers used to view your site, the time of day your site is accessed, and so forth.
Conversion metrics will depend on the type of site you have. Commerce sites with shopping carts are going to have different conversion successes than a site that measures the number of downloads per month. Some businesses prefer that people place an order only after calling a customer service representative.
All data from site statistics software, paid inclusion programs, and pay-per-click advertising campaigns will give you a clearer profile of your site's visitors. Then, based on this data, you can tweak the HTML, graphics, and content to best suit your customers and target audience.
After you update your site based on site statistics data, you then begin the whole cycle all over again. Quite often, a properly optimized site will not need periodic tweaks.
Position checking software
We are probably the only search engine marketing firm that will come right out and say this - we do not use or endorse any position checking software. No position checking software company that I know of has received permission from the search engines to perform automated queries on their indices.
The main reasons search engine representatives state that they will not endorse position checking software are server load and advertisers.
Suppose you have a site with over 100 keyword phrases. You want to measure your site's search engine visibility. So you use some kind of position checking software to do the work for you. That's 100 queries per search engine. Let's assume you check 10 search engines. That's 1,000 queries.
Now, let's say 100 people are in the same situation you are in. That's 100 x 1,000 queries = 100,000 queries. And so on and so on. Imagine the server load for the thousands of people who use position checking software.
Search engines were not created for people to do position checking. They were created to provide relevant search results. The server load interferes with the search engines' ability to do their job. Search engine reps don't like that. Search engine users don't like that.
Furthermore, advertisers pay for space on the search engines. How are advertisers supposed to differentiate a query from software vs. a qualified visitor?
So, ethically, we cannot endorse position checking software. As soon as a search engine endorses one, we will endorse it, too.
About the Author:
Shari Thurow is Marketing Director at Grantastic Designs, Inc., a full-service search engine marketing, web and graphic design firm. This article is excerpted from her book, Search Engine Visibility (http://www.searchenginesbook.com) published in January 2003 by New Riders Publishing Co. Shari can be reached at shari@grantasticdesigns.com.
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