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Search Engine Marketing Research
Findings
Author: Jimsun Lui
This research attempts to obtain business
firms' views on search engine marketing.
It gives valuable implications to both
business and search engine marketing
firms.
The research collects findings from 121
Hong Kong trading firms involving in
foreign trade through telephone interview.
Also, a separate focus group was held with
8 marketing managers and 1 search engine
optimization (SEO) specialist. We believe
the implications also apply to other
geographical areas. We have extracted part
of the results to present in this article.
1. Importance and Concerns of Search
Engine Marketing/Search Engine
Optimization. A rating scale of 1 to 5 was
employed, with 5 means Very important and
1 means very unimportant. Respondents
reported that they perceived that search
engine marketing could be a cost-effective
method to help them get new overseas
customers (rating 4.7). Respondents also
considered the following factors whether
they would use a search engine marketing
firm: 1. Pricing (4.6),
2. Deliverables (4.8),
3. Guarantee Clause (4.0),
4. Ranking against rival firms (4.7),
5. Possibility to get to Top 10 ranking
(4.1),
6. Chance to increase response rate (4.8)
2. Concerns of Paid for Performance Search
Engine Marketing. This question has an
explanation about the meaning of paid for
performance search engine marketing.
Again, a rating scale of 1-5 was employed,
with 5 means Very important and 1 means
very unimportant. The respondents
expressed that they concerned the possible
high cost (4.8), potential fraudulent
clicks (4.9), ability to deliver messages
to right persons (4.7), and extra time
required to manage the campaign (4.2). 3.
Understanding of Search Engine
Optimization. This question asked about
their knowledge of search engine
optimization techniques. 31 respondents
perceived that the major task of search
engine optimization was adding keywords in
Title and Meta Tags while another 62 of
them were not sure about the answers. 108
respondents did not know link building was
an important factor that could help them
improve search engine ranking.
Interestingly, 72 respondents believed
that program submit to 1000 search engines
could increase their website traffic. 101
respondents did not realize that content
analysis and improvement measures such as
keyword density ratio and keyword
proximity ratio played a role in search
engine optimization. In general, most
respondents believed that they did not
possess sufficient knowledge on search
engine optimization. 4. Focus Group
Another 8 marketing managers were invited
to a focus group interview. 4 of them had
experience in employing search engine
optimization firms, and another 4
considered using search engine
optimization services but finally had not
taken action. An SEO specialist was acted
as a moderator in the interview.
In the interview, they generally agreed
that search engine marketing could help
them to generate business leads. For those
who did not use SEO service expressed that
they abandoned to pursue as they could not
make up a decision. First, they were not
familiarize with how to achieve good
search engine ranking. Second, the pricing
scheme offered by different SEO firms
varied greatly from US$19.99 to US$5,000
up-front fee, and some also required
US$500 to US$5,000 monthly service fee.
However, the SEO firms could not express
clearly the deliverables clients could
obtain and they also refused to clearly
explain the methodologies they
would use. These facts made the
interviewees very difficult to persuade
their boss to use SEO service.
Also, interviewees expressed that they
feared that SEO firms would require many
website changes, and some changes like
keywords stuffing in Alt Tag or put too
many texts and too little graphics in web
pages make the site looked unprofessional.
Another point made by interviewees was
very interesting. For those who have
employed SEO firms, some of them perceived
that they were being kept in the dark as
they did not know what the SEO firms were
actually doing! When they scrutinized the
changes made by SEO firms, they found that
the SEO firms have just written some
keyword phrases in Alt Tag, Title Tag and
repeated them in Meta Tags. Then, the SEO
firms only ran reports for them in the
subsequent months and asked them to wait
for the results. Finally, they found that
they had not got any extra traffic from
keyword phrases suggested by SEO firms
while the SEO firms claimed that they had
achieved more than what was written in the
guarantee clause (e.g. 20 Top 20 rankings
in major search engines). Only 1
interviewee felt satisfied to the chosen
SEO firm. This was because they knew
the deliverable, got desirable number of
top rankings, and a piece of reciprocal
link manager software and they could
continuously manage link building
themselves after end of the project.
The SEO firm also provided suggestions for
them to maintain ranking afterwards.
Also, participants voiced out that they
also wanted to know their search engine
rankings against their rival firms.
5. Implications to Business Firms In
general, it was a consensus that search
engine marketing could help to generate
new business leads. However, it was not a
simple activity. Mostbusiness firms lacked
the knowledge and tempted to use an SEO
firm. However, quality of SEO firms
varied. In order to select a good SEO
service, business firms should define
clearly their objectives. E.g. some firms
might simply define that they wanted a
better ranking than their rivals or that
they wanted a better conversion rate.
Then, it was suggested that the business
firms talk with the SEO candidates and try
to differentiate which one was more
knowledgeable. Moreover, business firms
should discuss with the selected SEO firm
in order to get an agreement on the number
of deliverables and project schedule.
From the research findings, many business
firms were yet to optimize their websites.
That means if you first optimize your
website, you could have an advantage over
your rivals in search engine exposure
perspective.
6. Implications to SEO firms SEO firms
should spend time and clearly explain to
clients the SEO techniques and
methodologies that they would use. Some
SEO firms might fear that they would
expose their top secret techniques.
However, you could not get business if
your clients could not understand the SEO
processes and failed to persuade their
bosses. In addition, SEO firms should
apply optimization techniques with a
consideration of usability of websites. Do
not make the site look silly or
unprofessional. Also, clients would not
mind your using of optimization software
such as Webposition Gold and they do want
to know how you would serve them.
SEO firms should assist clients to devise
a measurement matrix for the campaign.
This helps the decision maker to make
judgment and explain to his/her colleagues
and boss. Clients would feel more
comfortable to do business with you.
Moreover, SEO firms should define clearly
what would be delivered to clients and the
delivery schedule, e.g. how many ranking
reports, keyword research result, etc. In
addition, SEO firms should contact clients
frequently and report the progress.
Clients would then understand that you
were indeed working for them and you could
help to set or adjust their expectations.
Finally, SEO firms should offer assistance
for clients who want to terminate the
relationship and to maintain rankings
themselves. The idea looked ridiculous but
the clients would be satisfied by such
offer and would probably recommend you to
other firms. After all, clients who ceased
to work with you might be due to many
other reasons but not your performance.
Why don't you give them another candy and
maintain a good relationship?
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