AN EXPERIENCED WEB MARKETING FIRM

SEO Facts:

85%++ of website traffic comes from a search engine .
As much as 60% of all sites are not properly optimized to rank high in the search engines, so optimizing your site puts it ahead of your competitors who don’t .
The ROI for SEO is very good in comparison with other marketing methods such as direct mail or banner ads .
9 out of 10 web surfers visit a search engine, portal or community site each month. They also revisit frequently, nearly five times per month .
62% of search engine users click on a search engine result within the first page, and a full 90% of search engine users click on a result within the first three pages of search results .
There is still a segment of users who think “industry leadership” is a component of what search engines use to rank search engine results, online marketers can use this perception to their advantage .
Only 10% of search engine users click on results beyond the third page .
86% of search engine users report they feel organic listings are more relevant than paid listings .
86% of search engine users report that they trust organic search results over paid results.
references: Search Engine User Behavior Study

Marketing guru, Seth Godin, very succinctly outlined the ubiquity of search marketing in a 2007 post titled, “Permission, Junk and Spam.” The general premise of Godin’s observation was that consumers were becoming less patient with interruption marketing and much more interested in embracing marketers that met them online with relevant products and services as the result of a proactive search. In Godin’s own words, “Junk turns into spam when you show up at my doorstep, when your noise intercepts my quiet.” Organic search is dependent upon consumers taking action (i.e., conducting an online search). A solid blogging strategy ensures that the content (and consequently, the product or service) a consumer is seeking is available and waiting for them when they type those high-impact keywords into Google.

This permission marketing dynamic means corporate blogging is the most effective way to fully leverage the power of organic search. Because organic search results are heavily dependent on the amount and frequency of content updates as well as the number of relevant keywords in your blog content, blogging is the perfect medium to increase your company’s results. Ultimately,
SEO (search engine optimization) success is primarily a content-driven strategy. By identifying the keywords and phrases that drive your business – and incorporating them appropriately into blog content – your search engine success begins.

online marketers have largely embraced PPC (pay-per-click) as a part of their demand generation arsenal. But according to recent research ,organic search results in a 5.66 times higher conversion opportunity than that of paid search. The ultimate driver of organic search is unique, accessible, and high-quality content. And the easiest, most cost-effective way to create that content is through corporate blogging. Sound complex? It’s not. Think of it this way – budgeting belts may be tightening, marketing dollars might be stretched, but everyone is still using the internet to search. From finding the best deals on the latest technological gadgets to locating the closest restaurant, online search is approximately 80% of all web activity. In fact, the 2008 Pew Internet Project statistics indicate that internet search is one of the most frequently executed daily online activities – second only to email, and steadily outpacing news and weather checks.

Search Engine Watch notes, “People don’t go to web sites anymore. Web sites come to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to explain the impact of search on the online experience.” It’s time to stop trying to drive customers to your site, and instead, meet them where they already are – on Google (or Yahoo, or any other preferred search engine). Your customers are no longer necessarily focused on memorizing your name, your brand, or your website address. Instead, they’re interested in locating exactly what they need in as little time as possible.

The Internet has now surpassed the print yellow pages and newspapers as the primary local resource for consumers looking for services. This is not to say that print newspapers and yellow pages don’t have meaningful usage anymore, but it’s clear where the momentum is.

The Pew Internet and American Life study recently took a daily ‘snapshot’. Since 2002, the number of Internet users who search at least once a day has risen from approximately one-third, to almost half, or 49%. Overall, the amount of daily search users grew 69% between 2002 and 2008. While coming in a close second to email in this study, search beat out other daily Internet activities such as reading the news (39%), checking the weather (30%), researching a hobby (29%), surfing for fun (28%), and visiting a social networking site (13%). The two studies referenced above independently reflecting this shift in 2007 were from TMP Directional Marketing-comScore and WebVisibile-Nielsen. Both studies showed search and/or the Internet, generally as the medium with the greatest reach among U.S. consumers for local information.

What’s really interesting is that most experts believe yellow pages directories receive 90 percent of their traffic from search engines.

The idea is that most people search in the main search engines; they may find a directory and then are forced to repeat the search within the directory. This isn’t good for either the searcher or the marketer. Consequently, it’s not good for the search engine either. Google and the others want the searcher to find the answer they are looking for through Google, rather than send the searcher to a competing directory for a solution. This is a gigantic insight if you consider that; given the choice between you and a directory you might advertise in……Google wants you to win.

Prospects use search engines through out the buying cycle :

Research a problem or technology need
Understand the value of ROI for a specific solution
Learn about a vendors reputation
Discover new solution vendors I may not be aware of
Find peer discussions or reviews of products
Discover technology problems I wasn’t aware of
Find white papers, case studies or success stories
Find the price of a specific product or service
Explore specific brands of technology products
Find information on a particular service or vendor
Find product reviews
Understand a product’s features or specifications

Source: Google / Tech Target : How IT Pros Search Online During Purchase Process

* Some 62% of B2B marketers said their primary goal would be customer acquisition, 19% cited brand awareness and nearly 12% pointed to customer retention.
* Online will constitute more than one-third (nearly 34%) of marketing budgets in 2009, B2B marketers said; that’s up from the nearly 27% cited for 2007.
* Online areas that marketers plan to increase next year are website development (74% of marketers said so); email (70%); search engine marketing (64%); video (40%); webcasting (39%); banners (36%); sponsorships (30%); and social media (26%).
* Rating ad agency partners’ willingness and ability to adapt programs according to marketing goals, 54% of B2B marketers said “OK” and 41% said “excellent.”
* Rating trade-media partners’ willingness and ability to tailor programs to fit marketing goals, nearly 66% said “OK” and 28% said “excellent.”
* Nearly 20% of B2B marketers say they are using social media as part of the marketing mix: Among them, 40% use them for customer feedback, 31% for market research, 29% for advertising, 27% as a sales channel.

Three-fourths of marketers are planning to increase their outreach to social media in 2010, while roughly half intend to up their efforts in each of the following: SEO, email marketing, and virtual events/environments, according to recent research by Unisfair.

Other survey findings:

* Lead generation and customer retention/engagement are the most critical objectives for marketers today, with 60% and 48% respectively ranking them as very important on a scale of one to five.
* 26% of marketers (the highest percentage for any one method), say LinkedIn is the social networking tool proven to add the most marketing value. Facebook came in a close second with 23%.

Search Engine Marketing: an area of internet marketing that seeks to promote web sites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages. Search marketing includes Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): an on going process geared towards increasing website traffic from search engines via un-paid natural / organic left side search results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A form of Internet advertising, in which the ad sponsor only has to pay for actual traffic to the website. These 4 line PPC AD’s appear on top and on right side on search engine results pages on Google , Yahoo & Bing etc

For more explanation and information regarding proven professional execution of these strategies & tactics please contact us today