Search engine marketing (search engine optimisation or SEO to give it its common name) has developed and grown in sophistication at a staggering rate throughout its short history.
Whereas not so long ago it seemed to be little more than a mad scramble to be No 1 on Google for a small number of obvious key words and phrases, companies quickly cottoned on to one fundamental problem - that the supply of these words is limited, while in many cases the demand for a top placement seems virtually unlimited - No 1 for “law firm” anyone?
The Arms Race
So inevitably the price of achieving these top spots rose and rose. More and more time and money was thrown into an SEO arms race with everyone scrambling to stay ahead not just of each other but also of Google as the company constantly refined its search technologies (the role of social media, Google +1 and geo-specific search (for example) in online success are all for another day and another article). New SEO techniques were constantly being tried, some transparent and legitimate (’white hat’) and some less so (’black hat’). The latter were quickly discounted by legitimate companies concerned not only by the reputational issues at stake but by the very real threat of being blacklisted by Google (see here for my all-time favourite ‘black hat backlash’ story).
Back to Basics
But for all that the history of SEO has featured the constant evolution of new techniques and technical tricks, the real breakthroughs have been based on some of the oldest principles of marketing theory - studying and understanding customer behaviour, and identifying gaps in markets.
How so? Well, breakthrough No 1 was the dawning realisation that potential customers using Google don’t just type in ‘law firm’. They type ‘lawyers Manchester’, ‘lawyers in Prestwich’, ‘I need a solicitor in Manchester’, ‘NW solicitors doing divorce cases’, and hundreds of other phrases beside. The so-called ‘long-tailed keyword’ was suddenly in vogue, and the keyword supply side magically opened up.
Alongside this came a growing ability to analyse the market for these phrases thanks to the introduction of keyword tools which could tell you which of these phrases attracted how many searches and, crucially, how much competition there was for each of them.
For the first time, marketers had the tools and the understanding to find gaps in the market; to find and target phrases which have the magic qualities of (relatively) high search volume and (relatively) low competition.
The Third Dimension
And yet this isn’t the whole story. Yes, good keyword identification and targeting is the most important part of any SEO campaign. And yes, search volumes and competition are two absolutely critical dimensions in that calculation. But there is a third dimension - one which is every bit as important as the other two but which our experience suggests is missing from a very high proportion of campaigns.
Convertibility or conversion potential is quite simply your ability to turn that keyword or phrase into business results. So that if someone does find you by searching for ‘Manchester lawyers who do divorces’, how likely are they to find what they want on your site, to go on to contact you and then to commission you to represent them in their forthcoming divorce? Well, quite likely if you are indeed a Manchester-based lawyer specialising in divorce. But probably a lot less likely if you are a Liverpool-based lawyer who simply noticed that the phrase ‘Manchester lawyers who do divorce’ had the magic qualities of high demand and low competition. Even less likely if your law firm doesn’t represent matrimonial cases at all. And yet it is staggering how often this basic mistake is still made in its various forms. Attracting enquiries about services you don’t offer is obviously an extreme form, but consider the convertability of the phrase ‘law firm’ if you are in Manchester and the searcher is in York, or worse still New York! Search terms which are too vague can be as useless as ones which are just plain wrong or mis-leading.
The temptation of high volumes of website traffic are obvious - particularly when traffic is set as the only objective of SEO in the first place. ‘Surely if we drive more traffic to the site, we’ll get more business, runs the argument. But unfortunately the maths often just doesn’t stack up, and it is conversion potential which throws the spanner in the works. If key phrase A only generates a quarter of the visitors that Key phrase B offers, A can still be the one to go for - if it is four or more times more likely to convert visitors into business.
There are many ways to assess conversion potential. Your SEO campaign should already have conversion-oriented targets beyond simply visitor numbers (messages via the contact form, 3+ pages visited, mention of ‘website’ in the ‘how did you find us’ question, and of course direct e-orders received are just some in common use). So use these. Which keywords drive the highest results? And you could always apply some subjectivity and good old common sense - if you were a newly arrived visitor to your website having typed that phrase into Google, how likely are you to stay, look around and ultimately place your business here?
Whether done through the application of analysis or instinct, applying this simple extra dimension to your SEO campaign might not increase your visitor traffic (it might even reduce it!). But it will increase the real returns you get from your online investments. As well as freeing your Liverpudlian legal practice from the (unprofitable) demands of maritally dis-satisfied Mancunians.
E-reading is the flavour of the month, with Amazon’s Kindle helping e-books knock paperbacks into 2nd place in the US, and the Apple iPad leading the charge for tablet computers with the potential to change for ever the way we read everything from newspapers to business documents.
Leader's e-brochures are fully iPad and iPhone compatible
In this context, Apple’s refusal to accommodate Flash on the iPad (and indeed the iPhone) has caused a particular headache to anyone offering animated (and generally Flash-based) e-brochures and booklets.
For that reason were delighted to confirm that our latest generation animated or ‘flipping’ e-brochures are indeed fully iPad and iPhone compatible, well as working on a full range of desktop and mobile browsers.
If you already have an e-brochure from Leader then contact us for your free upgrade. And if not, contact us on marketing@leader.co.uk to find out how e-brochures can help you get your message across in a creative and cost-effective way.
Posted by Marc on Apr 12, 2011 in
Leader News,
Marc Sanderson,
Marketing
From time to time we receive emails from one purported SEO specialist or another, usually claiming they can get us ‘a Guaranteed # 1 Google Ranking’ for £50 a month or less, or some such variation on a theme.
As it happens we are very familiar with these services, and over the years we’ve spent more than a little bit of time looking into them – after all, if we could maximise client returns from all the websites we are involved in for just £600 a year, why wouldn’t we be interested?
Unfortunately (and probably unsurprisingly), this kind of proposition isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Now, at this point the words “well they would say that, wouldn’t they” might be springing to your mind. After all, online marketing is part of our own range of services. Well, fair enough, perhaps you’ve got a point – and of course we’re happy to talk to anyone about the best way to manage the search engine marketing process for their website(s).
But the real point about these apparently amazing email offers is that however you choose to do your SEO, it is really worth thinking carefully before signing up with a service that claims results this good for prices this low (and without any impact on your own time). Here are five things you might want to consider before hitting that Reply button…
1. Calculate the true cost of a your SEO
£600 a year (or similar) might seem like great value, but if you’re missing out on business because the service is failing you, then that isn’t the true cost. With millions of business sourcing decisions every day start with Google, it is worth asking looking at your marketing spend and yourself whether £600 or thereabouts is an appropriate allocation of resources for this.
2. Good SEO depends not just on action, but on planning
Effective search engine marketing is based first and foremost on the quality of your keyword setting – on finding the words and phrases which deliver the right balance of relevance, achievability and conversion potential. Done properly it should involve your marketing function, your sales function, senior managers as well as any external consultants you are using. That’s not something you can just delegate to a supplier without some careful thought.
3. Websites aren’t just for search engines
Presumably you spent a long time planning the content of your website. You will probably have written it carefully, spent ages over the design and layout, and made sure that it presents your brand, your products and services properly. Unfortunately, anyone who is hell-bent only on getting you that all important ‘#1 Google Ranking’ isn’t going to be so considered – you’re more than likely going to see keywords crowbarred into odd places, sentences corrupted with strange grammar, random acts of emboldening and highlighting text – stuff that might work for the search engine but is going at best to confuse human visitors: and at worst it could leave a distinctly amateurish impression.
4. Online reputations are fragile
A golden rule of SEO is that if you play fair with search engines, search engines will generally play fair with you. Good content, appropriate linking and keeping things simple are the order of the day. Break those rules and you could be in a world of trouble (see here for a great example of search engine marketing going badly wrong).
Unfortunately your online reputation is as fragile as real your world reputation – a long time to make, no time at all to break, and a long, long time to recover. Outsourcing your SEO might look like a quick and easy low-cost decision, but do make absolutely sure you know what’s being done online on your behalf.
5. What’s in a promise?
And finally, ask yourself what anyone ‘guaranteeing’ a number one spot on Google actually means. After all, it’s a promise made by a stranger would doesn’t yet know what your online objectives are, what your optimum keywords might be, exactly how the famous Google algorithm works (whatever they say, no one does) or even whether SEO is a relevant or viable part of your marketing mix.
The good news is that there is a better way, and it needn’t cost the earth.
Good SEO isn’t difficult, but it also isn’t something to be done at arms length by an anonymous room full of SEO ‘specialists’. It’s something to be treated seriously, and if outside help is required then it should be as a partnership between you and your support team.
Good planning, good site optimising, careful link building and tailored content development by a team that understands your business might take a little time, and might cost a little more than £50 a month. But if Google and the other search engines matter to your business, it’s almost certainly worth it.
Leader’s Virtual Marketing team has been delighted to be working on a major rebranding project with leading executive recruitment and development specialists Artemis Executive Consulting.
Having been approached to help establish a new visual and brand identity to better reflect the company’s recent growth and diversification, we have worked closely with the Artemis team to put into place the new company name (from Artemis Solutions Group), new messages for the market and the various tools needed to deliver those messages.
The new brand visualisation has been based around high quality portrait photography, emphasising the importance of people and personal relationships in what is very much a ‘people business’. As well as projecting this through corporate literature, presentations and a new website (at www.artemisexecutive.co.uk), social marketing has taken centre stage in the whole process – with each sector team being encouraged to use a combination of Linked In, Twitter and Artemis’ own blog to communicate ideas and establish new market contacts.
The result has been a complete corporate branding service that within weeks is helping open doors to new blue chips clients across the UK.
