May 10, 2004
"Search engine marketing can be a very rewarding experience and bring an incredible R.O.I. for most companies as long as they are willing to put
forth a little effort on a regular basis nd 'keep up with the times'" comments Roland Girouard, Director of Maine Net Services & Consulting of Poland, Maine. "For companies who really care about their online presence and their performance in the search engines, the key is 'keeping up with the times' since search engines are constantly changing and competition waits for noone. "Most of our customers see over a 400% Return On Investment" reports Girouard who also added, "Search engine marketing gives companies statistics to analyze like no other advertising medium ever has. The information about your web site visitors and how your marketing efforts are paying off can now be statistically analyzed and used to tweek your efforts. Companies really need to focus on their web site reports which should give them detailed information about their web site use - statistics such as: how many users visited the web site and what key words and phrases users typed into what search engine to find the site. Other important information like web site errors and which pages were viewed how many times should also be provided and analyzed on regular basis."
WHO
Who Needs Search Engine Marketing ?
Most Companies can greatly benefit from some level of search engine marketing . Whether you sell bucket covers to a worldwide market or whether you rent tents in Maine it is imperative that your products and services get found on the Internet. After all, we all know that visibility is the 1st and most vital part of any marketing effort.
Did you know that there are over 170 million Internet Users in the USA alone and over 400 million worldwide? Did you also know that Search Engines are the #1 way users find products and services on the Internet or that searching for local products and services was one of the most frequent activities of searchers? Did you also know people with the highest income levels search for products and services most frequently? Give users the ability to find your site by promoting it on the search engines!
Search Engine Marketing allows your company the best visibility possible - the ability to be seen by potential buyers who are already looking for your product or service on the Internet.
The Bottom line is most all companies can benefit from Search Engine Marketing Services. Search Engine Marketing Services should regularly
monitor and report your results on all the major search engines and make changes to your web site when necessary.
WHAT
What is Search Engine Marketing?
Search Engine Marketing, or SEM is a process that increases your companies' presence on the Internet. Specifically, Search Engine Marketing is an effort to bring users to your web site through search engines. SEM is an ongoing process as search engines algorithms are always evolving. Search Engine Services must include a sense of marketing - i.e. realize that searchers search for solutions to their problems and your product and service could be that solution as long as the search engine relevancy barrier has been removed.
Everyone has heard about Search Engines Algorithms & Gurus Tricks to get top positions, along with numerous other phantasms. Search Engines are just another constraint. Knowing their intricacies obviously helps, but the key
point is still the prospect. The smartest way to bring visitors in is to answer the problems they are worried about while knowing that they use many
trivial words to represent the problems they have that you can provide a solution for.
The Bottom line is that bringing visitors to a web site is just the first step and search engine visibility the first requirement. A web site must be carefully designed to favor action near those prospects the company would like to convert to customers.
WHERE
Where are users finding web sites?
Other than email, search engines are the most popular activity on the web. Search Engines are also the number one way users find new web sites!
WHEN
When users search, what search engines do they use?
Google is currently the number one search results provider. Google's database feeds many other portal sites like iwon.com and cnn.com. Yahoo is
a close second with its recent purchase of Overture who also owns Alta Vista.com. MSN is a steady third with a $5 billion search product in
development. Get top positions on Google, Yahoo & MSN and you will have over 90% of the internet searches covered. The top search properties as of 3/14/04 were: Google -59 million users, Yahoo -46 million users, MSN -45 million users, AOL 23 Million, Ask Jeeves -13 Million. Source : Neilson Net Rankings
WHY
Why search engine marketing for your Maine Company?
Search engines send highly targeted prospects to your web site who are already looking for your products or services. Search engine marketing also has one of the highest returns on investment of any advertising medium. More than 55 percent of all Internet purchases begin with a search engine. It is VERY important, however, to be listed on the first (2) pages of results (commonly known as SERP's -search engine results pages) as 93% of all searchers do not look past these first two pages of results.
Summary
Don't let your Web Site get Lost in the crowded arena of search engines! Search engines are the primary traffic drivers to web sites and
search engine marketing is hands down the best return on investment for getting new potential customers to your web site.
About the Author:
Roland Girouard is founder of Maine Net Services & Consulting, a company focused on search engine marketing. Roland hails from Auburn, Maine and currently resides in Poland, Maine. Roland Girouard can be reached by phone at (207) 998-3215, on the web at http://www.MaineNetServices.com or via E-mail at Services@MaineNetServices.com.
