Article
Two: How to Get to the Top of the Search Engine Results by
Enhance Media
The further up the search results you appear, the more traffic you receive. So how do you get there? This article explains
search engine marketing, the techniques involved and indicates how, and why, they should be adopted for your organisation.
Search Engine Marketing
According to NORAS Summer 2005, 41% of all first time visitors to a job board started their job search on a search engine. Search engine marketing is growing at a phenomenal pace as more and more companies start to adopt this technique as part of their marketing mix.
Search Engine Marketing can be split into two areas:
Keyword Sponsorship
Search Engine Optimisation
Keyword Sponsorship
Sometimes referred to as ‘pay-per-click’ or ‘paid for search’, Keyword Sponsorship allows advertisers to sponsor keywords and phrases that candidates enter into search engines in order to achieve a high prominence for their site within the search results.
All search engines are laid out differently, but generally the paid-for results appear at the very top and the right hand side of the listings
The pricing operates on a ‘pay-per-click’ model, so you only pay when someone clicks thru to your site.
What’s more, you can set your budget to allow you to limit the monthly spend. This is by far the most accountable advertising method available as you pay for the traffic you receive, and never pay more than you allocate.
In summary:
You pay for what you get
The more you bid, the further up the listings you appear
You control the amount you spend
The traffic is relevant because you specify the keywords
Your budget is controllable in real time
Your activity is highly accountable and trackable
Search Engine Optimisation
Below the paid-for search listings we find the ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ listings. Unlike keyword sponsorship, where you have to pay to get to the top of the listings; search engine optimisation operates on relevance to the search term.
Each search engine has complicated and changing algorithms that classify the web pages and deliver the search results.
Broadly speaking, the search engines will examine four areas and use this as a reflection of how relevant your site is.
Keywords
Meta tags
Popularity
Referring sites
Keywords - The search engine’s ‘spiders’ will trawl your site and detect keywords in the copy that reflect the content of that site. HTML based sites are much easier to detect and classify than sites built using Flash or other rich media platforms.
Meta tags – These are keywords and descriptions that have been placed in the site’s code (the instructions telling the internet how to display your web page). To check whether your site has these in place, browse to the page on your site that you want to check, position the cursor over the page, press the right mouse button and then click ‘view source’. Look for ‘<meta name="keywords" ….’ Usually somewhere neat the beginning.
Popularity – the more traffic your site receives, the more relevance the search engine will place on your content and relation to the keyword.
Referring sites – also the more sites that link to your site, the greater the perceived relevance will be.
How can you influence these listings?
Firstly, it is important to make your site as visible as possible. This is done by including keywords in your online copy, and ensuring that if your site is built using Flash, you have an HTML back-up.
Secondly, a good web developer will place meta tags and descriptions in the code as a matter of course. If your site is lacking them, consult your web department or agency.
Lastly, you have to submit the site to the search engine. This is done using submission software, which your agency should have.
In summary:
Requires a basic technical knowledge
You need Submission Software
Depends on relevance of your content
Sponsorship or optimisation?
One of the advantages paid-for search has over natural (sponsored over optimised) is that you can never guarantee that optimised results will be at the top; whereas sponsored results will appear at the top, and stay there, if you are prepared to pay for it.
What’s more, from an ease of use point of view, sponsorship programmes require less technical know-how to implement and manage; and as it operates in real-time, results can start to be seen almost immediately.
However there is no reason why you shouldn’t use both approaches.
Until the end of 2005, Enhance Media are offering a free search engine optimisation report with every keyword sponsorship campaign. The report will analyse how your site is ranked on the search engines and make suggestions for improvement. Contact Damian for more information.
Damian Routley, Account Director at Enhance Media Limited, has first hand knowledge of online recruitment systems and marketing through six years of devising media plans and creating recruitment websites that enable organisations to attract the best candidates. To find out more, contact Damian on 020 7801 6266 or at
damian@enhancemedia.co.uk.
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