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Search
engines are arguably the most efficient, most
cost-effective, form of marketing and advertising on the
Internet.
An NPD Group study demonstrated that search engine listings
result in six times more sales on average than an
equivalent number of visitors from banners ads.
That means visitor to visitor, you'll make six times more
money on search engine listings than on banners.
Why do search engines yield so much higher conversion
rates (converting visitors to purchasers)?
It’s as simple as it is beautiful. By the time a visitor
reaches your site through a search engine, she’s already
made four critical decisions.
1. To use the Internet to do her research
2. To use a search engine
3. To use a particular set of keywords
4. To choose from among millions of offered search results
This is the ideal visitor, the ultimate target prospect, the
summit of qualified buyers – ready to buy, knows what she
wants, typed in the search term she wanted – but how do you
get her to your site to complete this very motivated
transaction?
Search Engine Optimization (a.k.a. “SEO”):
• is less expensive than any form of effective marketing –
aside from thorny email campaigns that can make even opt-in
customers feel spammed
• reaches far more people
• increases web site traffic more than any other thing you
can do
• brings far more targeted, qualified customers to your site
– ready to buy
• yields higher conversion rates (rate of visits to
purchases) than any other form of marketing
• is critical brand-name maintenance for entrenched products
– or market-share acquisition by new entrants
• you can’t afford not to – on the order of 90% of consumers with
web access
use the Internet in deciding to make purchases, and up to
85% of consumers use search engines to find solutions and
vendors.
Cost and Yield of SEO versus Other Marketing
|
Marketing
Method |
Consumers Who
Reach Websites Via Method |
Cost |
Conversion
Rate |
Duration of Increased Visibility |
|
SEO |
77-85% |
Variable, but highest ROI.
|
12.5% |
From many months to even longer
|
|
Email Campaign |
22% |
Spam damaging
reputation. $9 per visitor in third-party campaign. |
2% |
Length of campaign only |
|
Banners |
3% |
Revenue-share or costly PPC.
$3.66 per visitor. |
1-2% |
Duration of PPC payment only |
|
Keyword
Purchases, Overture and Google |
N/a |
You pay
for every click (PPC) from a customer, even if they
don't stay or buy nothing |
7.5% |
Duration
of keyword purchase |
|
TV |
29% including
radio and print |
You can’t
afford it |
Extremely low
due to broad and off-line audience |
Duration of
broadcast and a few days afterward |
|
Radio |
See above |
$200 to $1,000
for a 60-second spot |
See above |
See above |
|
Print |
See above |
See above |
See above |
See above |
Sources: iProspect, OneUpWeb, Georgia Institute of
Technology
Independent studies show that effective search engine
optimization and positioning provides longer-lasting traffic
and revenue increases than most other forms of online
advertising.
But
don’t just take our word for it, or logic; see for yourself:
Source: NPD Group, Overture
Source: NPD Group, Overture
Superior Branding Awareness
A recent study showed that 56% of online consumers online
actually expect to find the top name brands in the top
listings of search engines, and more than 33% of consumers
actually assume that the brands that do appear at the top of
the listings are the top brands in the category. In other
words, an up-and-coming brand has a tremendous opportunity
in exploiting SEO, while a leading brand can give up massive
mindshare by ignoring SEO. Companies of all stages of
maturity, from start-up to market leader, cannot afford to
ignore SEO.
The top three search engine listings generate a
significantly higher degree of aided and unaided brand
awareness compared to banner ads:
Source: NPD Group, Overture
What’s more, consumers view search engines as untainted by
commerce and advertising. This is one reason that
pay-for-placement on Google or Overture is less effective;
most people know they didn’t earn their spots at the top and
trust them less than a site that was so relevant that it
did. Accordingly, consumers who find a website through a
search engine are much more likely to have a favorable
opinion of that site:
Source: NPD Group, Overture
Many SEO customers report that SEO services were so
successful in convincing site visitors of the site’s
relevance that the visitors bookmarked the site – and kept coming back!
So you think you’re already doing Search Engine
Optimization?
“Intentionally launching a Web site that could not be found
in any of the major search engines would be a lot like
opening a mail-order business and not publishing your phone
number.” --- iProspect.com
It’s not likely. Try your own test. If you pass it, contact
us for some much more pertinent tests.
Type the type of product or service you sell (not the brand
name) into all the major search engines. Does your website
come up in the top 5? Top 30? (i.e., the first three pages
on Google).
Now try your brand names – is your site among the top spots,
or do you see only trademark infringers, or even your own
affiliates, outmaneuvering you?
If you're not listed within the first 2-3 pages of search
results (the top 10 to 30 results), you’re out of luck.
Studies show most search engine users have neither the
patience nor the time to wait for more than 3 pages of
search results. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that after the
first 3 search results, the likelihood of drawing visitors
falls dramatically. And did you know that many web site
developers use technologies that may prevent search engine
spiders from indexing them? Is yours?
Moreover, are you updating your SEO at least monthly? Too
many companies think SEO is something you do once and forget
about, even though SEO requires frequent and consistent
tracking, analysis, and assessment. Why? Because search
engines change their algorithms constantly – you could start
out #1 and fall prey to obsolescence very quickly; your
website will undergo changes, necessitating adjustment to
your SEO strategy; customers will change the way they query
or the terms they use, or search for new features; new
products and services will arrive; and speaking to customers
in new foreign languages may become critical to your
company’s expansion.
Contact us
to learn more about Internet
business coaching.
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If you're not
optimized, you're losing customers, clients, readers.