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The Search Engines As Your Global Sales Force
By Laszlo Horvath
February 15, 2005

Search Engines: the Crown Jewels of Today's IT industry

One can't open a newspaper today without an article about the "search engine wars". The hype surrounding the search engines is similar to the excitement and speculation about the Internet in the early nineties. However, there is a significant difference between the two periods: while profits were mostly imaginary at the beginning of the Internet boom, today's search engines surprise analysts with their ever growing revenue numbers. The revenues from the search engines come from satisfied advertisers (150,000 of those work with Google alone, which became the darling trend-setter in the industry thanks to its simplicity and superior results.) There is a lot of innovation and investment focused on improving the algorithms that deliver the search results for all three major players, Yahoo, MSN and Google. Google reportedly employs more math PHDs than any other technology company in the World. The current success of the search engines is impressive by any standard. Not many industries can brag about a 71% annual growth rate in the last five years and this is still just the beginning of this industry's growth. While users today find only half of search results relevant to their needs, this percentage will become better as new search technologies are created and introduced to the market.

What does this mean to your business?

The Internet has found its rightful place in the marketing mix: it has become one of the most powerful direct marketing channels. Potential customers seek information and solutions on the search engines in their moment of need. The Internet is the dream of marketers -- a process that self-qualifies your best prospects.

When your prospective clients type in keywords and keyword phrases to search for your products and services on the search engines, those who can't find your company's website go to your competitors instead. The opportunity costs of not being on top of the search engines' results pages can be huge, regardless of your business. Business to business providers have just as much to lose as consumer goods companies. In the B2B field the number of potential clients is smaller, the specific keyword space is narrower and the price tag of products sold is usually higher. Missing out on the opportunity to capture an audience that is prepared to buy from you is a strategic mistake. If you are planning to grow your business, search engines present a "gift that keeps on giving" because of their increasing global reach and improving results.

How can your business take advantage of this most targeted marketing channel?

There are two ways of driving traffic from the search engines. First, and most important, are the editorial links pointing to relevant websites on the search results pages (they are also called "true" or "natural" or "organic" results, or "free listings"). You can get in the top thirty search engine rankings by a process called "search engine optimization." The second way to drive traffic is a type of link referred to as "sponsored links." "Sponsored links" are techie lingo for keyword-driven advertising.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a multi-step process. The most important element of the process is keyword analysis. Keyword analysis analyzes the way that potential clients search for your product -- a mission critical analysis to any marketer of products. An extensive keyword analysis lists the number of search queries and the number of competing sites. This helps to make strategic decisions on the list of primary target keywords. The keyword analysis is followed by a page by page review of the website, both for content and technology used. Some popular web design methods, like extensive use of Flash technology and dynamically generated pages, are not search engine friendly, and require workaround solutions. After page by page reviews, page level optimization is done. This creates an environment for the search engines to recognize and value the pages. The final step of the process is the submission of the revised website to all relevant search engines.

It takes about 60-90 days to see the first results of an optimization program. An average website can expect that their site will appear within the top 30 positions on results pages of the web's major search engines when a user searches for dozens, sometimes hundreds of keywords relevant to their website. The result is a significant increase in search engine derived traffic leading to increased sales. Search engine traffic delivers higher purchase / conversion ratios than any other direct marketing medium. In terms of ROI (return on your investment), search engine optimization delivers the best return. In order to maintain advantageous listings, it is highly recommended to follow up with an ongoing maintenance program.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is often called PPC (pay per click), CPC (cost per click) or "keyword buying." The market has developed two large players, Google and Overture. Both companies sell sponsored links not only on their own search engines, but on affiliated sites as well. SEM can be a powerful tool. It delivers the exact same level of targeting as SEO, with an added level of control. The advertising website determines the marketing message that appears on the search engine's results page, so the site is not at the mercy of the search engine to link to certain pages from given keywords. SEM has the second best ROI. In comparison to SEO, the disadvantage of SEM is that the website has to pay for every single click from the results page to their website. Keyword prices vary dramatically, anywhere from less than 20 cents per click to dozens of dollars per click. Sometimes a group of advertisers will try to monopolize certain keywords by artificially inflating the prices.

The opportunity costs of not being found on the search engines

It can be prohibitively expensive even for large businesses to operate direct sales offices in all major markets throughout the World. By positioning your website on top of the search engines' results pages, you have recruited a global sales force that works on selling your products and services 24/7. From a competitive standpoint, it is a zero sum game: if you are not listed in the top 30 results on keywords that supply top quality leads, those potential customers will do business with your competitors. As you can see, top level presence on the search engines should be a priority for any business wishing to increase its sales.