Search Is Where The Gold-Rush Is
If you haven?t heard it already, there is a buzz in the Indian marketing circles about Search Marketing. Until recently, many marketers dismissed search as a non-entity in India. So why the sudden buzz? To begin with, estimates indicate that search engines will add as much as 2.16 million unique Indian users this year. Given that there are 24.2 million people on the web and millions of others accessing the web from other devices, marketers can no longer afford to ignore Search in their marketing plans. However, it is not Reach that makes search so special. When a consumer searches on the Web, they are in ?hunt mode.? This mode is unique because it indicates that the person is looking for information, usually of a direct or indirect commercial value. Marketers understand that this ?hunt mode? means that the searcher may very well be somewhere in the buying cycle, researching a product or service to try and satisfy an immediate need or future need. That makes search engine results some of the best sources of targeted traffic, whether that traffic originates from "organic" unpaid search listings or paid advertising listings. In Search marketing there are no wasted marketing monies. This is because each visitor is pre-qualified having demonstrated interest by searching for a specifically relevant keyword or phrase. Since this is a two part newsletter, we will cover how to best manage a Search Marketing program in the next part. However, it would be well worth the while to explain few basic terms involved in Search Marketing. Basis certain algorithms, search engines throw up relevant websites for a particular keyword search. Due to the amount of data available on the web the search engine may throw up hundreds of links. Search engines index pages on the web depending on the keywords present on them. There are three methods of marketing on Search Engines. Natural Listings Paid Inclusions Paid Listings Natural Listings are results thrown up by the search engine when the user types in a keyword. They are not paid for by any marketer and the Search engine company has no obligation to even list any particular site. However, there are experts that understand the Search Engine Algorithm. They can hence help marketers tweak the content on their website so that it is indexed by the Search Engine. However, no expert can assure a rank for a particular website in Natural Listings. Paid Inclusions on the other hand is a type of advertising program where pages are guaranteed to be included in a search engine's index in exchange for payment, though no guarantee of ranking well is typically given. For example, a search network may list pages and sites, not based on position but based on relevance. Marketers pay to be included in this network on a CPC basis or per-URL fee basis with no guarantee of specific placement. Not all search engines offer paid Inclusions. Paid Placement: are advertising programs where listings are guaranteed to appear in response to particular search terms, with higher ranking typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers. Paid placement listings can be purchased from a portal or a search network. Search networks are often set up in an auction environment where keywords and phrases are associated with a cost-per-click (CPC) fee. Having said this, Search Marketing is a highly evolved technique that requires extensive knowledge of search engine technology. Given that only 75% of people ever go beyond the first page and over 90% of the users drop out at the second page it is important that marketers place their precious marketing monies only in the hands of the best Internet marketing firms. About the Author: http://www.mediaturf.com/mediaturf/searchengine_marketing.htm Source: www.isnare.com |