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Pay-Per-Click Search Engines. Pay per click search engines are another way to become visible to new customers. Use them carefully, however. Do not bid more per click than
profit you expect to make from that click.
Search Engine Roles in Marketing Mix
High search engine placement can produce both short term and long term results. Short term, you can gain immediate sales. Long term, results come as potential business partners find your site.
Do not, however, become obsessed with search engine optimization to detriment of your other marketing strategies. Search engine marketing should be one part of a more comprehensive plan. Include other marketing strategies in your plan to reach additional customers.
As an example of how this can work, I generally put only two or three hours a month into direct search engine optimization. My primary focus is on quality content, which simultaneously creates stronger search engine rankings for my site and makes site more attractive to visitors. This approach has gotten me results with Google - nearly 20,000 visitors a month through free search engine as of June 2004.
Another approach to search engine optimization is to hire an outside expert to work on search engine marketing while you focus internally on other parts of marketing mix. If you take this route, however, be alert for agencies that use tricks that go against search engine guidelines to increase your rankings. These approaches may get you results in short term, but could get your site reduced in rankings or banned in long term.
Once you integrate both long term and short term strategies into marketing mix, your business is better poised to prosper for years to come.
Bobette Kyle draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com and Moderator for the Web Marketing topic at highrankings.com forums.
