Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site [Paperback]

A new edition of this title is available, ISBN-10: 0136068685 ISBN-13: 9780136068686

PrefacePreface

Search marketing demands a curious mix of business, writing, and technical skills. No matter what skills you have, you probably have some of the skills needed to succeed, but not all of them. This book will fill the gaps.

If you possess marketing skills, or you have a sales or other business background, you will quickly see the ways that search marketing draws upon your previous experience, but you will also learn how it is different. Like any form of marketing, you will focus on the target markets you want to reach—in this case, searchers looking for certain words. You will segment those markets. You will realize that your Web pages are your marketing communications materials. You might see parallels to direct marketing as we relentlessly measure our success, or perhaps you will see the possibilities for search marketing to burnish your brand image. Regardless, like all marketing, you will learn to design your search marketing program to meet your company's larger goals. Unlike other forms of marketing, search marketing is not designed to interrupt people with an advertising message. Successful search marketing meets people at their point of need. When searchers want something, you must be ready to satisfy them with what they want, even if you would prefer to sell them something else.

As critical as marketers are to success, search marketing is, at its core, a writer's medium. Like direct marketing, a well-crafted message is critical to enticing a searcher to click your page. Once at your site, the words on your page also influence whether the prospective customer buys your product or abandons your site. But search marketing relies on skilled writing to an even greater extent, because the search engines choose the pages they show based on words. You will learn how to write the words that your customers and the search engines are looking for. If you are a writer, you will find search marketing a challenge like none you have ever seen, but one that can reward your company richly.

If you have technical skills, you are needed, too. Search marketing depends on your Web site's design and operation. Many commonly used Web technologies stop search marketing cold. You will find that search marketing is similar to other technical projects—you must understand the requirements so that you can develop the solution. You need to develop a business case to see the value so the work can be prioritized and funded for your busy IT team. You will need a project plan to execute on schedule. You will have standards and operational procedures that keep the system running smoothly. If you are a Webmaster, a Web developer, or any kind of technologist, your skills are vital to search marketing success.

If you are looking for a book about the secrets of search marketing, this book does have a few. However, they might be secrets of a surprising kind. Some people think of search marketing as an arcane pursuit where you need to know the "tricks" to get search engines to show your site. But those tricks are not the secrets of search marketing—you do not need tricks to succeed. What you really need is a firm understanding of how search marketing works, a methodology to plan your search marketing program, and the information required to execute it. The biggest secret of search marketing is that knowledge, hard work, and flawless execution are all you need. This book shows you how to get all three.

In Part 1, we cover the basics of search marketing. What is search marketing? Why is it so difficult? How do search engines and search marketing work? And what are searchers looking for anyway? Marketers and writers will learn more about search technology. Technologists will be exposed to the opportunity search marketing offers your company. You will all learn how to segment searchers based on their behavior, so you will know what they want from your site. Part 1 will teach you all the background you need to formulate a custom search marketing program for your company—which is what you will do in Part 2.

Part 2 takes you step by step through developing a proposal for your own search marketing program. You will learn how to identify the goals of your Web site and measure your current success in meeting them. You will learn how well you are doing at search marketing today and how much it is worth to do better. We show you how to estimate your costs, choose your strategy, and get your proposed program approved by your executives and by all the folks in your company who you need on your side. Because search marketing demands cooperation from so many people in your company, we show you proven ways to get each kind of person to work hard on your program.

Part 3 explores all the details you need to execute your program. Every Web site poses different challenges to a search marketing program. You will learn how to diagnose problems on your site and correct them. We teach you methodologies for every part of the search marketing process that you can apply to your own business. And we explain how to measure everything in your program so that you can improve the operation of your program every day.

Throughout the book, you will see icons that signify special material on two important subjects. The first, shown at right, is the spam alert icon, which warns you about overly clever tricks that pose a real danger to your search marketing campaign. You are probably familiar with e-mail spam, when you get unwanted messages in your inbox, but search marketing has its own meaning for spam—any technique that is designed mainly to fool the search sites to gain an untoward advantage. That is an overly broad definition, but we explain exactly where the ethical lines are drawn every time you see this icon. Spam can be hazardous to the health of your search marketing program, because search sites have rules to control search marketing behavior—when you break the rules, you will suffer the consequences. Whenever you see this icon, you will know that there is a line that you cross at your own peril.

You will also see, shown at right, the global tip icon, which alerts you about techniques that are especially relevant to international search marketing campaigns. Most of the advice in this book is pitched to an audience of U.S. companies and companies using Google, Yahoo! Search, and other English-language worldwide search sites. You will learn, however, that searchers in many countries use search sites specific to that country, and that your non-English content sometimes has special issues that must be addressed. We highlight those areas in the book for you. Whether your Web site serves international visitors now, or you are considering doing so in the future, these tips are important for you.

No matter what your background, you are already partially prepared to become a search marketer. In this book, you will learn why it is so important to form a team of skills outside your own. Marketers, writers, technologists, and folks from other fields must collaborate to make search marketing work. You will find out why it is that the larger your Web site, the harder that collaboration can be—but you will also learn how to pull it off. Your business can coordinate these diverse skills to create a successful search marketing program. You just need to know how.

Whether you have been turned off in the past by experts selling quick-fix voodoo or you have just found search marketing too complicated or too intimidating, put that behind you. This book explains everything you need to know in simple terms that you can understand no matter what your experience. If you can use a Web browser, you can learn search marketing.

Every day, more and more business is done on the Web. And, increasingly, people looking to do business start with a search. Remember, if they can't find you, they can't buy from you. Discover how your company can be found.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

"A very comprehensive, yet light-hearted guide for internet managers that demystifies search engine marketing and provides practical advice for success."

—Piers Dickinson, Global Internet Marketing Manager, BP

"Outlines every one of the major strategic steps to develop your search marketing initiatives. This book teaches Web marketers what to do from the beginning so they can implement a successful search marketing program—the strategic steps to define the scope and cost of your search marketing program, develop a team, create a proposal, get executive approval, manage, and measure your search marketing program. You have to read it to appreciate it!"

—Cynthia Donlevy, Web Marketing & Strategy, Cisco Systems, Inc.

"Getting your site indexed is the most fundamental, yet one of the most challenging, aspects to search engine marketing. Search Engine Marketing Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site is a detailed and comprehensive guide through the pitfalls and opportunities of this complicated subject. I started reading Chapter 10, "Get Your Site Indexed," and haven't really put it down since. It is a wonderfully well-written and detailed reference that you will come back to again and again to get more out of your SEO efforts. From price engines to paid placement, Chapter 14, "Optimize Your Paid Search Program," covers everything you need to know about paid search. I have yet to come across a more useful book for SEM pros. From budgeting to bid strategy and optimization, Mike and Bill take you through the steps to create successful paid search campaigns. Whether you are just starting out in paid search or are already a power player, you will learn something new from this book."

—David Cook, Search Marketing Manager, Buy.com

"This book has no silver bullets or snake-oil potions that will magically propel your site to the top of every search engine. What it offers instead, is the most comprehensive, well-thought-out, and well-motivated treatment to date of all aspects of search engine marketing, from planning to execution to measuring. If you are involved in any way in the economic aspects of Web search technology, you need this book on your shelf."

—Dr. Andrei Broder, IBM Distinguished Engineer & CTO, IBM Research Institute for Search and Text Analysis

"Mike Moran and Bill Hunt have delivered a masterpiece on enterprise search marketing. Both engaging and results-focused, Search Engine Marketing, Inc. guides the marketer through the basics of why search is important and how search engines work to the more challenging organizational tasks of selling a search marketing proposal to executives and executing on a search marketing plan.

Unlike many previous search engine optimization books that have treated search marketing as a guerilla approach disjointed from other organizational needs, Search Engine Marketing, Inc. shows how to incorporate search into the overall marketing mix in order to increase both customer value and business return-on-investment.

Full of real examples from other enterprise search marketing organizations and thoughtful treatment of the business issues surrounding search, this book is the reference volume for bringing a successful search marketing program to fruition in the organization."

—Jeff Watts, Search & Community Manager, National Instruments

"Search Engine Marketing, Inc. is the ultimate source on how to implement a search marketing campaign. The book provides actionable instructions on topics from how to get the finances within your organization to how to make your pages rank well in search engines. Beyond that, the book explains conversion metrics and projecting your success. For anyone within a large organization, looking to make a difference with the corporate Web site; the book is a 'no-brainer.' For any professional SEO or SEM, the book is a must read. The manner in which Bill Hunt and Mike Moran organized the book is both unique and smart. Both Bill and Mike are also extremely professional public speakers on the topic of Search Marketing. I have been to dozens of search marketing conferences and I can honestly say, I am as impressed with this book as I am with their top presentations."

—Barry Schwartz CEO, RustyBrick, Inc.

"Bill and Mike's book provides an excellent in-depth resource for companies examining their search marketing strategy. In addition to actionable SEO tips, this book outlines how to successfully develop a search strategy, determine what to outsource versus keep in house, and how to precisely outline the business case and 'sell' search to executive decision-makers. If your company is wondering how to enter the search space—or if you're revising your online strategy—read this book."

—Heather Lloyd-Martin, Author, Successful Search Engine Copywriting

"Required reading for anyone interested in how to apply leading-edge search marketing within large enterprises. With search marketing now of critical importance, the authors provide practical advice and approaches that are both sophisticated and invaluable."

—Rob Key, CEO, Converseon, Inc.

• Step-by-step guide to setting up and managing a search marketing program for your organization

• Best practices, tips, and cost-saving measures from two of the world's premier experts

Effective search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) is now crucial to the success of your business. But it's never been more challenging—especially if you're responsible for a large, complex site. Finally, there's a definitive source for reliable information for implementing an effective search engine optimization and marketing program for your business. In Search Engine Marketing, Inc., ibm.com's site architect and a world-leading enterprise SEO consultant present best practices, step-by-step techniques, and hard-won tips for driving maximum traffic at minimum cost.

The authors begin with an up-to-date introduction to the fundamentals: of how search engines have evolved, how search marketing works, and how searchers and site visitors really think when they're trying to find information. You'll walk step-by-step through every facet of creating an effective program: projecting business value, selling stakeholders and executives, building teams, choosing strategy, implementing metrics, and above all, execution. Drawing on their unsurpassed experience, the authors systematically address every issue you're likely to encounter, from enforcing search-engine friendly content standards through hiring consultants. You'lllearn how to:

• Handle the unique optimization and marketing challenges associated with large sites

• Create site standards that codify best SEO/SEM practices

• Align search marketing with your company's strategic and tactical goals

• Automate checking and reporting for every page on your site

• Create monthly scorecards and use them to drive improvement

• Provide effective guidance to content developers and designers, in language they'll understand

• Get your site indexed, choose target keywords, optimize content, and attract links

• Make the most of the leading search engines and specialized and local search

• Ensure that paid search efforts deliver optimal results, cost-effectively

• Measure site-wide success rates across multiple systems and technologies

• Hire the right SEO consultant—and avoid the wrong ones

Whether you're a marketing, Web, or IT professional, product manager, or content specialist, this book will help you define your SEO/SEM goals, craft a best-practices program for achieving them, and implement it flawlessly.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About the Authors

Mike Moran is an IBM Distinguished Engineer with more than 20 years experience in search technology working at IBM Research, Lotus, and other IBM software units. He led the product team that developed the first commercial linguistic search engine in 1989, and has been granted four patents in search and retrieval technology. He led the original search marketing strategy for ibm.com, as well as the integration of ibm.com's site search technologies.

Mike has worked on IBM's Web site for the past seven years and is currently the Manager of ibm.com Site Architecture. In addition to his search work, Mike has spearheaded ibm.com projects in Content Management, Personalization, and Web Metrics.

In addition to Mike's broad technical background, he also holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing, helping bridge the gap between technology and marketing concepts. Mike can be reached through his Web site (http://www.mikemoran.com).

Bill Hunt is the CEO and Founder of Global Strategies International (http://www.globalstrategies.com) and one of the pioneers of search engine marketing, getting his start in early 1994. Bill is an internationally recognized search marketing expert, conference speaker, and contributor to numerous marketing journals and books. Over the years, Bill has led numerous large search marketing projects for clients such as AT&T, IBM, Intel, The Hartford, and Zurich Financial.

GSI specializes in helping Fortune 500 companies develop, implement and manage their global enterprise search marketing programs. With offices in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, GSI has the experience to help companies execute their search marketing programs "from the inside out."

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.