Getting Started

Search Marketing isn’t black magic — in fact, it’s actually quite logical. Here are the basic steps we’ll use to improve the performance of your existing website.

STAGE ONE: Background Research (Analyze)

• We start by studying the traffic statistics for your industry from at least the prior 2 years. This gives a baseline of traffic used to measure any future gains.
• We’ll note which keywords most frequently bring your website up in search queries, how high in the rankings your website was listed, and which keywords actually led people to click on your site.
• Then, we look for trends in your site traffic. Do visits to your website spike during the holidays? Do they jump when you’ve just posted new content? These are the types of clues that can help you determine how people use your site.
• Then, we’ll meet with you to set goals for your website. If you don’t know where you’re trying to go, we don’t know how to help you get there.

STAGE TWO: OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE (Optimize)

• We begin the optimization stage by reviewing the content of your site. We’ll look for important search engine factors like prominent use of keywords, relevant page descriptors in your title tags, use of boldface to highlight important words and more. Search engine algorithms are constantly being tweaked, so it’s important to make sure your content reflects those changes, so your site isn’t penalized.
• Make a list of reputable friends you have on the Internet. The more high-quality sites you can be linked with, the higher your standing will be in the world of search.
• Be sure to add new content to your website every so often. Examples include news release with new information about your company, an article related to your chosen field. It will give the search engines a little more valuable information when indexing your site, and provide human visitors more opportunities to see your expertise when they get there.

STAGE THREE: TEST YOUR RESULTS USING ONLINE MEDIA (Advertise)

• Determine a budget for your online advertising. With a list of keywords for your business, we’ll help you test a series of search engine ads. These simple text ads consist of a headline and up to two lines of copy, and will show up as paid links when someone searches for one of your keywords. (Yes, people DO click on them. In fact, roughly half of all searchers click on the “Sponsored Listings.”) By rotating them out every so often, you can figure out which ads and keywords garner the best response, i.e., the most number of clickthroughs to your website.
• You can also support your online advertising with contextual ads. These are ads that show up on websites that are related to your organization. For example, if you are a fishing pole company, you might have your ads sprout up on sporting goods websites.

Once you’ve begun the process of using keywords to fuel your online efforts, you’re off and running. But here’s the twist — your work isn’t done … not by a long shot. You must continually go through this three–stage process — research, optimize, test … research, optimize, test. That’s the ugly — yet successful — reality of search marketing. Trends change, and only by regularly refocusing your website efforts using the keywords and ads that have worked in the past can you maximize the potential of your website

Fortunately, the search marketing specialists at webstratics.com are ready to roll up their sleeves and start improving your web results for you. After all, you’ve already waded through a million websites just to get here. Why not leave the rest up to us?