Search Engine Optimisation & Pay Per Click – FAQ

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

SEO is the art and science of increasing your website’s visibility to search engines for those important keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business. By optimising your website, your business will appear prominently in the “natural” search results. This is a longer-term traffic generation strategy focusing on the analysis and development of your website content and structure.

What is Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising?

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising (also known as ‘cost per click’) is a flexible advertising platform which allows online advertisements to appear along-side traditional search results. Your ad can be tailored specifically to the search term requested by the internet user, giving you direct control over your marketing message for specific products and services.

I have invested time and money in developing a good website. Why can’t I find it in the search engines?

There can be anywhere from 10’s of thousands to millions of results returned in a search engine when a keyword or phrase is entered. Not all websites have been developed with search engines in mind and therefore may not be appropriately designed for a search engine to understand the content available to Internet users. You should consult a search engine marketing company to assist you in analysing your website to determine its level of compatibility - contact Hitwise Search Marketing Services.

What is the difference between a Search Engine and a Directory?

Directories (such as Yahoo!) include websites into their database in a different way to Search Engines (such as Google). Directories employ human editors to review and provide editorial on websites that they believe are the most relevant and present these in categories to their users. Search engines use computer programs (spiders) to find and analyse the HTML of a webpage. The program extracts relevant information and adds it to the search engine’s database automatically, bypassing the human element used in directories. When a user enters a search query, the engine examines its database and presents a list of results, which are ranked according to the search engines rules or algorithms. Search engines have their own team of engineers setting different rules to determine their own unique results.

How do search engines rank sites in their results?

Search engines have teams of engineers constantly refining how they return their results to search users based on what they see as "relevant". By doing this, each search engine has a unique way of defining relevance and as such their results differ accordingly.

Do I have to make changes to my website for Pay Per Click (PPC)?

It is not 100% necessary to make changes to your core website when undergoing a Pay Per Click campaign. This is mainly due to the fact that many search engines allow paid listings which have no reliance on optimised code on your website. However, if you are looking for a full search engine marketing strategy incorporating areas outside of paid listings then it is recommended you incorporate website enhancements (Search Engine Optimisation) into your strategy for a holistic, integrated strategy.

Why is search term research so important?

Keywords and key phrases are the primary drivers in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and are directly related to the success of your marketing campaign. Hitwise Search Marketing Services ensures that the keywords targeted directly relate to the products and services offered on your website. This means that users who click through from search engines can be delivered to relevant content based on their search. This in turn leads to a stronger conversion and a higher ROI for your marketing campaign.

It is also important to take into consideration which country you plan on targeting for your search marketing campaign as different countries have different spelling and terminology. At Hitwise Search Marketing Services, we utilise proprietary keyword research tools powered by Hitwise which allows us to breakdown keywords by market and by industry aiding the planning of our client search marketing campaigns.

How long before I can start receiving traffic from a Hitwise Search Marketing Services PPC/SEO campaign?

The time before a PPC campaign commences depends upon the campaign objectives; target market; depth of search term research; website complexity; optimised editorial writing requirements; and search engine editorial approval process. You can usually expect a 10 day turn around time until your website starts receiving qualified search engine traffic.

It can take up to 3-months until your website starts receiving increased qualified search engine traffic from a Search Engine Optimisation campaign. This is due to the 6-8 week indexing cycle of the search engines, when they crawl the web for updated website content.

I have been offered the promise of excellent listings in over 300,000 Search Engines for less than $100. Are these services effective?

We receive questions regarding these types of marketing companies every day from clients and potential clients. Here are a few reasons why we do not recommend using any type of service like this:

• They submit the website URL to 1,000’s of search engines and that is all. In the Australian market the top 5 search engines hold over 85% market share. Also, some search engines like Altavista do not accept automated submissions.
• They submit the website as it currently exists with no optimisation, giving the website no chance to rank well if at all. Generally, the submission will only bring you spam emails.
• They have no intellectual property in regards to the most popular search terms that users are using to find websites and therefore can act as a spamming submission tool which many search engines aim to block.

What is "Conversion Tracking"?

It is becoming more important for marketing managers to be able to report to their management team the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Hitwise Search Marketing Services is committed to providing you with key information to understand your search marketing campaign and as such have developed a proprietary conversion tracking system. This system monitors your campaign and reports to you on the number of conversions directly related to your search marketing campaign, making it very simple to measure the return on your investment (ROI).

Search Engine Optimisation FAQ's

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

If you have a website, you may have wondered why you have a difficult time finding yourself on the Internet. The fact is, there are literally billions of web pages out there. Search engines such as Google, Fast, Inktomi, etc., attempt to locate and categorize these pages in order to serve up relevant web sites to web surfers looking for information on a particular subject. Search engines use highly sophisticated formulas for identifying which websites will be displayed, and in what order, for any given search. Search engine optimisation is intended to increase the chances of a website to achieve high rankings in the search engine results, thereby increasing the number of web surfers that actually find and visit the web site.

How do you Optimize a Website for the Search Engines?

Search engine optimisation is most effective when implemented at the conception of the website design process, but can be applied to an existing website as part of an update. The first step is to develop a list of terms that potential visitors are likely to enter into the search engine when looking for information relevant to the website. Careful attention is paid to the content and layout of the web site's material, including the use of such elements as headings, bold or italic fonts, and use of graphic images, keeping these search terms in mind. The underlying HTML code is also developed with an eye to the targeted search terms. Once the website is completed it must be submitted to the various search engines. Finally, a program of creating high quality inbound links from other websites is undertaken, as most of today's search engines favorably rank those websites that are linked to by other websites.

Can I do my own Search Engine Optimisation?

Yes. In order to be effective however, you must be prepared to invest a significant amount of time in learning about search engines, as well as keeping abreast of the most recent developments in the field. Search Engine optimisation also requires a sound knowledge of HTML, CSS and web browser technology.

What about these offers to list my site in 500,000 Search Engines for a fee?

Save your money. The fact is that over 90% of search engine referrals are generated by only a few major search engines. And, the major search engines are involved in complex and ever-changing relationships with each other. Submitting to major search engines like Google, Fast, Inktomi and Alta Vista, and listing in appropriate directories such as DMOZ, will get a website listed in almost every return generated by a search engine request.

I have been told that it costs money to get top Search Engine listings. True?

This is a half truth about search engine optimisation. While there are programs offered by search engines that charge, good search engine rankings are possible to obtain without investing money for traffic. The most common paid options today are "Pay For Inclusion" (PFI) and "Pay Per Click" (PPC). For example, Overture is a PPC search engine that requires subscribers to bid on search terms. For highly competitive search terms the price may be as high as $20 for every click through from a visitor. Inktomi, on the other hand, offers a program which charges a flat fee for inclusion in their listings. A person knowledgeable in search engine optimisation knows that there are effective ways to avoid these charges and still maintain high rankings in the major search engines. That being said, one advantage to paying for listings is the guaranteed positions that are attainable, and the speed with which these rankings can be attained. For a person considering this course it is important to establish clear goals and conduct a thorough analysis of the return on investment.

I have been told to use meta-tags and hidden text. Do these work?

Search engines have become very sophisticated. Very few search engines pay attention to the key word meta-tags any more. Tricks, such as invisible text, run the very real risk of resulting in a website's complete removal from the search engine listings.

What about reciprocal links?

One of the many factors that search engines look at in ranking a website is the number of other websites that link to it. In this sense, trading reciprocal links with other sites is helpful in improving search engine rankings. However, as search engines become more sophisticated, it appears that reciprocal links are no as helpful as they once were. It is important that a website contain content that is of high enough quality to gain links from web sites purely for the information that your website offers.

Are there other resources that I can use to learn about Search Engine Optimisation?

There are a number of resources on the Internet about optimizing a website for good search engine ranking. Try to get as up to date information about search engines and search engine optimisation as possible. Here are a couple of resources to get you started:

Campaign performance tracking (general comments, PPC & SEO)

Paid Search Reporting and Performance Tracking

Paid search marketing is one of the most effective ways to create an online presence for your business. By bidding on keywords, you can get a higher placement on search engine results pages, making your web site more visible to more potential customers. You can get even more out of paid search process by tracking your progress to see what’s working and what isn’t. Like any marketing effort, paid search has to provide a return on investment (ROI) and requires effective, reliable reporting and performance tracking metrics.

Reliable reports help you to create paid search ads and campaigns that align with your company’s objectives, and the reports themselves serve as a guide when you add products and services to your online offering. The content of your reports, which contain click-throughs, conversion rates, and other web analytics, should help you determine which keywords are working, which ones are not, how your business should optimize its submissions, and when to add more keywords and phrases.

Search Engine Reports

Many paid search services offer reporting and tracking functions that make it easy to monitor your results, such as:

The ability to log into your account at any time to check the number of times your ad is shown on results pages, total clicks, click-through rates, and click fees for each keyword included in your campaign.

The ability to generate reports to immediately spot problems. For example, you may discover keywords that were rejected during the submission process or deleted due to poor click-through performance.

Click-through reports that help control your budget. For instance, by monitoring your fees at the beginning of the campaign, you can monitor actual expenses and see how these costs compare to what you estimated.

Click-through reports do not reveal an ad’s profitability, however. This is something that you can calculate by knowing your conversion rate (the percentage of customers that click through to your site when they view your ad) and revenue/profit per sale or by using ROI-based tracking solutions. Regardless, you need to be able to determine whether the amount you currently are bidding on a keyword is producing the results you desire.

Each service has a slightly different array of reports available so make sure that its reporting services meet your company’s needs. In some cases, paid search services will fine-tune the reports to meet your specific needs, but you need to inquire about availability in advance. Without implementing reporting and performance tracking, there’s no way to tell if your paid search approach is working.