What's New In Marketing

Search engines - developing an effective strategy (Part 2)

Introduction

Following on from the first part of this article, published in last month's edition of WNIM, this second and concluding part will look at how to complete your search engine strategy by establishing which search engines should be submitted to, what options and models are available and how a strategy should be prepared around various budgetary constraints.

Submitting to Search Engines

Getting your site optimised is one thing and last months article demonstrated how to do this, but getting a good ranking in a search engine is another thing altogether. So far we have looked at optimising the content of your site so that it is visible to search technologies, however, getting these sites submitted is an intricate, timely and, depending upon your industry and time parameter, expensive proposition!

The faster you require your data to be indexed and ranked in a search engine, the more you can expect to spend. Submitting to a search engine for free is an easy process, however, the chances of those submissions being a) indexed within 3-6 months and b) ranked on the first page unless a company or brand name are slim to none. With this in mind marketers must be aware of the following techniques for driving traffic:

Paid For Inclusion Programs (PFI) - Search Engines such as Inktomi, AltaVista and Lycos and Directories such as Yahoo! and LookSmart all have paid for inclusion programs. The process involves the submission of URLs to their databases for a one off submissions charge; a cost per click or in many cases both. There is no guarantee of a high ranking with these submissions, however there is an assurance that the websites will be ranked and indexed within 48 hours to a week (depending upon Search Company).There are two methods for entering a site in a paid for inclusion program. If you are only submitting a small number of URLs, i.e. your homepage and a selection of other strategic pages, then you can pay for each URL to be added to the database at an average cost of £150. Once in the database, there is no further cost associated with the inclusion. If you have had your site optimised and you have a large number of URLs to submit then you can have them all submitted and you pay every time one of these addresses is clicked on by a searcher. This equates to an average cost per click of between 10 to 25 pence.This method of search works particularly well with sites that have been optimised using the methods listed above in section 3.
Paid For Placement Programs (PFP) - Some Search Engines offer organisations the opportunity to pay to have their site listed in whatever position they require, regardless of whether the site has been optimised, provided that person pays for the listings. Sites such as Overture, eSpotting or Mirago offer companies the ability to bid for number 1 to number 150 each for a different price against their competitors, the more competitive the phrase the higher the bid price and therefore the higher the organisation has to pay for a listing.The advantages of this type of service are two fold. On the one hand companies can get a number one position regardless of how search engine friendly their site is and secondly they can take advantage of the listings these engines get in other engines, such as eSpotting providing Lycos with their top 5 listings and Overture providing AltaVista with their top 3 results. The disadvantage of this type of service is in the dynamic nature of the bidding process. A company can bid for number one spot only to find that 3 other companies are also bidding, this increases the price and increases the maintenance required in keeping a site in the desired position. A site that uses Macromedia Flash on the introduction on their homepage and operates within a very competitive industry stands little or no chance of a high top 10 ranking in any search engine using any form of optimisation except for a paid for placement model as you can guarantee your placement regardless of the build of your site or the competitive nature of your industry.
Various Search Engine and Directory Specific Paid for Models - Some search engines have their own paid for models for providing companies with the chance to get their site listed. Examples of this are Google who have their Adwords and Sponsored Links and MSN has their Featured Sites, these are site that appear when a searcher types in a particular keyword and are presented above and alongside their returned results.
Free Search - Most of the search engines and directories will still allow sites to be submitted for free, however, to justify their paid for models most will not index and list these sites for up to 6-9months and then will not rank these as high as those sites that have been submitted on the paid for methods.

Developing a Search Engine Strategy

Now that search engines, directories and submissions processes have been identified the next step involves integrating them all together to create a successful search engine strategy.

The following methodology will allow you to determine which method to use at which time and allow you to work out how to spend your promotional budget wisely on search engines.

Large Budget (Immediate Results)

The fastest way to get your entire site in the search engines to recruit a search engine optimisation company to either optimise your website (site side) or adopt and implement optimisation technologies to promote your content.

At the same time research a list of the most important phrases associated with your business you think people will search on, for example, for an electronics retailer your should be looking for words such as 'digital cameras' or 'widescreen televisions'.

One this has happened the site should be submitted using the following engines to make sure that the quickest results can be achieved:

Main Site URL (One URL Submitted Only)

Yahoo! - Express Submission Service Within 7 Days
BTLookSmart - Express Submission Service Within 7 Days
Open Directory Project - Free Submission Within 3 Months
Ask Jeeves - Free Submission Within 3 Months

Optimised Site Submissions (As many URLs as required 100 to 100,000)

Inktomi - Index Connect or Search Submit Within 14 Days (including optimisation)
AltaVista - Paid submission service Within 14 Days (including optimisation)
Fast Alltheweb - Paid submission service Within 14 Days (including optimisation)

Paid For Placement Search Engines

Overture Within 5 Days
Espotting Within 5 Days
Mirago Within 5 Days
Google Adwords & Sponsored Links Within 7 Days
MSN Featured Sites Negotiable with MSN

Using these submission processes you can ensure that within the space of 2 weeks you can get a very large number of listings for your site.

NOTE: The reason that submissions to free directories such as Open Directory Project (ODP) are recommended, despite them taking up to three months to index and rank your site is because of the advantage their listings will bring your other search engine submissions. As described earlier, there is a large linkage network in which affiliations between search engines will bring better results, in this instance a ranking in ODP will bring better rankings in search engines powered by Inktomi as a listing will be cross checked against both for higher placement.

Limited Budget (Non Immediate Results)

If you have a limited budget it is possible to drive traffic to your website, however, it will take at least 3 months to get any search activity and your site must have some form of optimisation, in terms of meta tags or rich text, in order for any kind of ranking.

With these factors taken into consideration the following submission order should be considered.

1. Google                                               
2. ODP (dmoz.org)
3. Yahoo (non commercial submissions) 
4. FAST  Alltheweb
5. Inktomi (via Hotbot - non US UK sites)* 
6. AltaVista
7. Ask Jeeves 8. LookSmart (yearly submission)
                 
* As of March 2002 it is not possible to submit to Inktomi via Hotbot using the UK or US versions of the site

Search Engine Submission Considerations

Submitting your site to search engines and directories is not a once off process and should be managed carefully to ensure that the most can be made from your site regardless of the budget you have at your disposal. With this in mind the following needs to be considered:

Segmentation and targeting of the search audience

When submitting your site, make sure that the keywords, phrases or optimised tactics represent what you are actually offering on your site. Follow this example for a UK based transactional flight website.

Proposed search term 'flights'

Optimising the keyword 'flights' will not necessarily drive searchers who are looking to buy a ticket. Instead you could receive traffic from people wanting to know a range of possible enquiries such as flight times, flight arrivals, flight destinations not just purchasable flight tickets.

The term 'flights' is one of the most expensive cost per click terms available and based upon the variables mentioned above may not necessarily yield the most lucrative return on investment from the received click through amount.

Targeted search term 'online flight tickets uk'

Optimising the keyphrase 'online flight tickets UK' will not drive nearly as much traffic as the example of 'flights' given above, however, this phrase targets individuals looking for flight tickets online and has segmented the search market by using the UK suffix. Therefore, despite the traffic levels being lower your average cost per click will be less and those who do click are better qualified searchers actually wanting to buy tickets online.

Seasonality and on/offline promotional integration

It is important to match your online promotions with your offline promotions where best possible as a harmonised strategy will yield more interested and informed visitors to your site.

Following on from that it is essential to make sure that you target the right searchers at the right time of year to coincide with the seasonal variances with your industry. A retail company should make sure that, for example, Christmas and winter / summer sales are targeted at the right time of year, where as a sporting company should cover the major sporting events at the right time of year taking into account the run up to event interest period and the post event information gather period.

Concluding Comments

Search engine optimisation is not a one off task which when completed will serve a website with continual qualified traffic that converts into qualified visitors.

Whether you opt to submit on a paid for process or try your hand at free search without careful planning and accurate measurement are essential to make your website found. It is advisable to take advice or consultation in your strategic preparation to maximise your efforts and make the most of your optimisation.

Additional Links

Have a look at the following websites for more information on search engine strategies and techniques:

News Sites

Search Engine Watch - This site provides up to date commentary and critique of the latest updates and changes in the search engine environment (www.searchenginewatch.com)

Search Engine News - This site also provides up to date commentary and critique of the latest updates and changes in the search engine environment

Company Sites

Inceptor Ltd - Inceptor are the category leaders in Online Conversion Marketing and offer a range of services which range from increasing your visibility online, through their partnerships with the leading search providers, such as Inktomi, FAST, Google, AltaVista, eSpotting, Overture and LookSmart, to tracking your entire online activity to maximise your ROI from your online media mix.

Sitelynx - Sitelynx are one of Europe's largest search engine marketing and navigation companies, providing services and consultancy to improve visibility across all digital network media platforms.

Overture - Overture, formerly known as GoTo, is the world's leader in Pay for Performance search on the Internet.

eSpotting - eSpotting is Europe's No.1 performance based advertising medium, where you only pay for the highly targeted traffic you receive.

About the Author

James is an Account Manager for Inceptor Limited providing strategic management of online marketing strategies through the Inceptor product Excedia. James is also a lecturer at South Bank University delivering the Chartered Institute of Marketing's eMarketing Award course.