The most effective search engine marketing campaigns start at home

Although for many companies search engine marketing comes under the 'Yes, it's something we really ought to get round to' category, what often tips the balance is sheer frustration.

Savvy management appreciate the strong commercial benefits of their website enjoying a strong presence in the search engine rankings and know something should be done to improve it, but what really galls is when they see Notasgoodasus.com consistently achieving first page rankings leaving their own company website trailing in the wasteland of page 4, or beyond.

Of course there are any number of reasons why one particular website will be consistently ahead of its competition when it comes to search engine rankings, but time and time again the most effective search engine marketing campaigns are the ones where management has fostered a strong and clear working relationship between the various players behind their website and its overall marketing.

Despite search engine optimisation being a marketing discipline, even businesses who are really switched on when it comes to the value of advertising and pr for instance, are often content to leave the marketing of their website solely to IT, or choose to rely on the design team who built the site, which can be confusing from everyone's point of view and frequently results on a low if not a negative return on investment.

Why should this be? Of course online marketing has moved on hugely from the days when the Internet was “Something IT does”, to the point where in many cases it is central to the whole marketing function of many companies.

Thing is, unlike a lot of very established sales mediums, for instance advertising or pr, there are a host of different considerations that make up the value of a website and keep it working. Most marketers don't talk about IT and technology in the same breath - those attributes usually form part of the hidden wonders of a particular website that happen behind the scenes, quite rightly out of sight of users.

However, when it comes to campaigning that website in the main search engines, how those elements are managed can make all the difference between a campaign that is stillborn and one that reaps the kind of return on investment that makes even the finance director gurgle with delight!

The trouble is that in many companies the' 'ownership' of these often technical issues or the reasoning behind them are often entrenched and/or jealously guarded by the individuals or third parties concerned.

A busy online design agency may be suspicious of a specialist search engine marketing agency being introduced on the scene; they may suggest to you that the site has already been built as optimised and that there is nothing else that can be done, whereas the reality is that a managed campaign of the kind offered by Vertical Leap by its very nature entails the ongoing and thorough monitoring and enhancement of your website pages visible to the outside world, the code behind the scenes and how this all works within the search engines to gain you better rankings on performing keywords.

In addition, search engine recommendations are easy to defer, but given the timescales involved, this can make the all the difference between outstanding and mediocre results.

Unfortunately it is not uncommon to hear the same entrenched attitudes coming to the fore even before any search engine optimisation has been started.

Dynamic pages served from a database are intrinsic to the success of the website and one of the reasons a search engine would be a waste of money is that everyone knows you can't optimize these pages at all, is a common but false objection.

In fact optimising the dynamic pages from your website could literally boost your online presence many hundreds of times over with fabulously keyword rich text and could well be the most profitable web enhancement you make this year!

A search engine marketing agency like Vertical Leap brings objectivity to the table. What might seem a logical way of organising a website could actually impede results in the search engines - a situation that can be so easily rectified.

Those alias domain names that host mirror homepages that are accessed depending on which search queries are used in your pay per click campaign may seem like an easy to monitor idea, but in fact some engines, like Google may well penalise your rankings as they simply view them as duplicate sites.

Objectivity and a realistic setting of expectations are crucial to search engine marketing. Misinformation, mistrust and misunderstanding are its enemies.

Do's and Don'ts in setting the stage for effective search engine optimisation:

Do

1. Keep sight of the fact that SEM is a marketing discipline not just a lesson in IT. The prime function of your site is to drive a return on the investment you are making and nothing should compromise that. There is always a work around.

2. Appoint a Managed Search Engine company who will provide ongoing recommendations and management of your rankings in the search engine results.

3. Encourage a positive dialogue from all parties and aim at fostering a partnership in search engine marketing with the main players.

Don't

1. Get bogged down in dire warnings about lack of feasibility in optimizing your site from any party. You can cost and plan necessary enhancements once you know the score.

2. Be worried about allowing your chosen Managed Search Engine Marketing agency to examine the website from all directions. The old adage that if it ain't broke, don't fix it may hold true to the website itself, but it is broke if it ain't drawing the results!

3. Be bamboozled by techie jargon from anybody. The most important words are those such as “Return on Investment”, “Bottom Line” “Results” and “Visits to the website.”

The best Search Engine Optimisation campaigns work when there is a partnership in place with each of the participants - web design/development team, webmaster and others - with a clear understanding of what each is doing, what is expected and understanding their role in the greater and combined good of promoting your website and delivering results.