Search Marketing & Search Optimization in Contrast
You're familiar with these two terms, right?
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search Marketing
Often used interchangeably, these two terms are not at all the same thing.
Most Search Marketers will tell you that Search Marketing has to do with the creation of and management of Pay-Per-Click campaigns. And, that can be a part of it... a big part, depending on the market you're in, the strength of the competition for your keywords and your prospects for success with organic listings.
But, the markets that are so completely dominated that you have no chance to make headway with organic listings are few. Add in the fact that only a fraction over 2 percent of searchers will select a paid listing, of which yours will be one of many on a SERPs page, and it seems a bit defeatist to dive into PPC campaigns without completely exploring organic options.
So, let's put aside the PPC class of ads for a moment and look into the differences between otimizing for search and marketing through search.
Search Engine Optimization in a Nut Shell
Site Architecture, Web Page Structure, Keyword/Content Relationships, Link Popularity and Page Rank. Pretty familiar ground for just about everybody. Yes? These are some of the basic SEO considerations.
Search Marketing in a Nut Shell
Search Volume, Psychology of the Sales Cycle, Search Engine Listing Advertising Copy, User Tracking, Conversion and Landing Page Split Tests are some of the essential considerations or Search Marketing.
These short lists of the core processes, objectives and/or considerations of two obviously diverse practices point out just how different they can be. Let's take each in turn and define them more succinctly.
The Basics of Search Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is frequently split into two categories of consideration: Onsite Optimization and Offsite Otimization.
Onsite optimization includes building web sites and web pages according to ceratin accepted file and folder conventions, with specific meta data and content. These are the things anyone with even a pasing interest in SEO would recognize.
The internal linking stucture; the file names that become URLs; Description and Title tags; the correct use of HTML heading, paragraph and emphasis tags; and more. These are Onsite optimization aspects.
Offsite optimization refers to gaining links; specifically, the number and the quality of incoming links, and any specific strategy toward gaining those links. As the key factor in driving Industry Relevance, Offsite Optimization is the most important aspect of an SEO project.
Let's turn now to search marketing and get a little deeper insight.
The Basics of Search Marketing
We'll take a fictional company through the basic steps of Search Marketing. Let's go to work for Harry's Hardwood Products of San Jose, California, a wood shop specializing in deck and patio furniture. The process begins by finding Harry's customers.
Who buys from Harry? Is his market local? Regional? National? International? Too many local and regional companies ignore their customer base and chase national listings that they don't need.
Products that are best served on a local or regionalbasis trigger searches that include place names. It won't always be easier to rank high for place name keyword phrases (think New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) but in many cases the competition for place name related keyword phrases isn't as strenuous.
What search criteria will people use when they're looking for Harry's product? Will it be "deck furniture"? "Patio furniture"? "Wooden deck chairs"?
For that matter, does anyone look for these things online at all? There MUST be a certain amount of "search volume" (raw number of searches for a given product) before search marketing is feasible - or responsible. Search Marketers will tell you if you're playing to a crowd that just isn't there.
Assuming we've located the traffic Harry needs in order to have the potential for succeeding online, we need to analyze the search criteria on which we're going to hang this project.
Let's say we found the following search terms (and pretend they were of sufficient volume to warrant the next step):
- deck furniture san jose
- deck and patio furniture
- wooden patio furniture
- deck chairs + wood + san jose
A quick introduction to the psychology of the sales cycle: Those people who entered "deck chairs + wood + san jose" are infinitely closer to making a purchase than those who entered "deck and patio furniture".
Assuming we could get Harry a good flow of traffic for these terms, would we send all of these people to the same page? Of course not.
The sales cycle includes people in various states of interest, from those who are merely browsing to those who are ready to buy right now. Accounting for as many of those degrees of interest as possible is pure Search Marketing.
The "deck and patio furniture" searchers are looking for information, photos, options, ideas. Give them what they want. If that doesn't suggest to you the appropriate title, description and page content, it should. Think about the goal of the search engine again... Relevance. Re-word that: Give them what they want.
The "deck chairs + wood +san jose" searchers want to buy Harry's chairs. Harry needs to bring these nice folks - who told him exactly what they want - to a page that offers them exactly what they want.
I hope this helps you to see into the search marketers world, and I hope it inspires you to dig deep into the psychology of the search terms people use to locate your site. The savvy search marketer will use that information to tweak his page content, and the result will be a sharp increase in his conversion rate.
To summarize, optimization refers to making web pages search engine friendly. Marketing referes to marketing - with all that the science entails.
