Search Engine Optimisation for Websites and Ecommerce

Increase Website Traffic and Drive Internet Sales

Search Engine Optimisation/Search Engine Marketing - is there a difference?

In simple terms, yes. Search engine optimisation or ‘SEO’ as it is commonly known in the industry is the modification of HTML (code interpreted by web browsers to render a web page) to include target keywords in various elements of the page, which has an effect on where the page is listed within the main search results.

Positions originally within the search engines were determined by how many times your keywords/key phrases appeared in the meta tags (code visible to the search engines and not the user). If you had the word or phrase listed 101 times and a competitor 100, your link would be listed higher within the search engine results page (SERP).

Search technology has obviously come on leaps and bonds since then, due to the quality of listings and unfair procedure produced with this approach. Now search engines use ‘off the page’ content (including inbound links) in the algorithm which determines the results page in addition to more ‘on the page content’ (such as heading tags, body text and link text) and the site structure as a whole.

Search Engine Marketing or SEM, incorporates SEO and other forms of search marketing such as pay-per-click listings (Google adwords, Overture and Espotting), paid inclusion and trusted feed. Paid services are therefore more sensitive to ROI (return on investment), particularly Overture and Google Adwords. They require extensive tracking and fund protection if you as a marketing manager or director are to justify the spend on search engines and even request more funding based on the results of an initial campaign.

At TMG we endeavour to help implement the necessary tools for this, both online and offline and instruct on how to draw knowledge from the results produced to plan the future of pay-per-click campaigns and other marketing initiatives. From our basic packages for small sites, we offer setup on Overture and Google for up to 100 terms. In addition to this we provide proven tips and tricks in action on other client’s sites.

Search Position

For nearly every company using the search engines to market their products and services (regardless of industry), there are hundreds if not thousands of search term variations, web users enter which are related to your market. It is therefore important to target as many of these terms as possible, by structuring your site for the benefit of web users and search engines. 99% of all web pages on the internet are inaccessible to the search engines and so many businesses are missing out on the huge potential of this traffic, by simply not having a search engines friendly website.

Further still, web users who enter 3+ terms in a search phrase are far more likely to be interested in your products and services than a visitor who enters 1 or 2. For example:

Toner - could be interested ‘abdominal toner’ or ‘facial toner’.
Toner cartridge - a general term and the visitor could be a potential prospect.
Canon toner cartridge - a further qualified visitor interested in Canon.
Canon GP215 toner cartridge  - Hot prospect – providing you can supply it!

When TMG are assigned to a marketing project, we will carry out conclusive research on these search terms and give examples on how to restructure the site both in technical and content terms. This will help to target as many potential terms as possible. For database driven sites and in particular large ecommerce sites looking at internet marketing, we will look at the data stored and find ways to further increase traffic from search engines by restructuring and improving the way data is presented etc. Please get in contact for more information on our bespoke services.

Optimization Advice

Registering for our quarterly e-zine will keep you up to date on the latest methods in search engine positioning, plus news and trends within the industry. Should you require further advice please email SEO@trianglemediagroup.co.uk with your questions. In-house SEO training can even be provided for those companies who wish to dedicate a full time member of staff to the project.

Page Ranking

Page position for your link within the search results page is becoming increasingly more important. With 75% of web users only going to page 1 and a further 15% to page 3, being on the first page, be it sponsored or naturally is vitally important.

However, page one might not be enough! In a recent article by Brent Winters of First Place Software, he commented on a staggering drop of click through from position 1 to position 5! So the advice to take from this is, get listed as high as possible in both the sponsored and natural results. Having coverage in both is far more beneficial than singles combined. But remember, when increasing the cost-per-click you need to track the cost per acquisition at the same time for each term or risk running at a negative ROI on certain terms, which in turn will bring down your overall profit from the campaign.

Successful Results

Monitoring a search marketing campaign is no easy task as there are several factors to consider. For a long time success was determined by how many first page positions were achieved, but this is no longer the case. If a site has a first page position, this could be wasted with inconsistent and complex navigation or poor copy grammar.

Even if a site has good structure and copy, further revenue streams could be explored and cross selling exposed to make better use of the leads from the search engines.

We make it our responsibility to explore as many of these avenues as possible and make the most from search engine visitors, such as offering advice of tracking offline sales generated by the web, to the discovery and compensation of click fraud on pay-per-click campaigns.

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