Online search has become a daily part of life for almost all Internet users, whether using your mobile phone to look up a name you can’t remember or sitting down to research a big purchase. Search has replaced the giant phonebooks previously used to find a business address or a store’s number. It provides detailed information, broader options to explore, industry news and company reviews. But search is not random, which means that search results can be an enormous asset if a business optimizes its Web presence to be found through search, or a significant liability if the business can not be found easily.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) requires identifying strategic keywords, attention to detail and close monitoring of search results to ensure your company appears near the top of search results. There is a high correlation between placing keywords in titles, URLs and the body of a webpage and ranking in search results on the three main search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo!. Knowing how to do this effectively without a spamming effect is more complicated.
In April 2010, Americans used search 15.5 billion times, and as Inc.com’s Michael Mothner noted, the implications for businesses of picking the right keywords is enormous, especially when driving organic website traffic. Keywords are the most granular level of a business’ marketing strategy, and should reflect the value proposition of the company and its products or services. They should incorporate the desired reputation as well as the associations potential consumers have already made with the company. If a business sells cheap products that are not the highest quality, keywords should boast lowest prices and connect with consumers on the quality of price differentiation, using unique phrases their customers and potential consumers would search.
This customer-centric view of marketing is brought to a specialized level with directed keywords that require an understanding of search engine indexing as well as a company’s competitors’ use of them. The ROI derived from SEO marketing campaigns will be clear if a company commits to strategic use of company-specific phrases, repeated usage of important words in online content and creation of consistently valuable online material. SEO will drive online customer acquisition by connecting people who are searching with the content they want, and as the industry grows, the importance of SEO will accordingly. Getting on board now and actively optimizing search to direct Web searchers back to a company’s Web page is one of the most essential pieces of a marketing campaign, and it’s importance is only growing.
