Faced with those continual adjustments by the search engines, marketers need to rely less on programming tricks and more on the kind of common sense they apply elsewhere in their business, Laycock said.
Marketers sometimes complain that Google isn’t giving their new site its proper ranking in search results; this often is called getting trapped in the “Google sandbox.” But Laycock said those complaints usually ignore the business judgment behind those rankings. Search engines have raised the entry bar for new Web sites, but a unique site with interesting content and offerings can still get included quickly and move up the ranking.
“If you’re launching a mortgage site, there are already 5.5 million mortgage sites listed on Google,” Laycock said. “Why is Google suddenly going to put your site in the top 10? They’re not, because there’s already plenty of information filling that need.” Marketers in competitive categories have to invest time and effort to prove their Internet value, rather than blaming some imaginary penalty for newness.
The best rule organic search rule that small businesses can apply, she said, is to understand the search buying cycle and build sites around it. If you want to reach searchers early in the cycle, put up content that talks broadly and usefully about your product or category, to make it more likely that users will find your site when simply searching for general information about “muscle cars,” for example.
To hold users’ interest once they start researching and comparing models, design Web pages around that phase of the cycle as well: “fastest muscle cars.” That will put your name in their mind when they get ready to purchase and start searching for “muscle car dealerships.”
With paid search ad campaigns, the most essential rule is to do effective tracking on your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, Laycock said. Too many small businesses simply open a Google or Yahoo! account, toss a PPC campaign onto some keywords and assume it’s working. That’s like launching a TV campaign, a direct mail effort and a Yellow Pages listing all on the same day and not tracking which customers came through which medium.
“It’s not about buying clicks, it’s about buying customers,” she said. “You’ve got to get in and tie those clicks to actions on your site, so you can make smart decisions about where to spend your money rather than simply continuing to spend because you’re afraid the traffic’s going to dry up.”
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