Search Engine Marketing Campaigns...

There are many different options to choose from when you are marketing your E-Commerce Web Site. Listed are some methods with my opinions.

Search Engine Optimization
This is the most common and traditional. Optimization is typically a flat rate service using at least 10 keywords and search terms to help your natural search rank in all the Search Engines.

Side Note: I highly recommend having your web site optimized for the Search Engines first, before you choose another marketing method that can be more costly.

Pay Per Click
This is a service that can become costly in a short period of time. You choose the keywords that will get you the most relevant click through results and bid accordingly. Some keywords can be very costly for specific markets.

Side Note: I strongly recommend that you begin with Search Engine Optimization first. If your site is not optimized and placed in the Search Engines, when your Pay Per Click Campaign stops, no one will be able to find your web site.

Linking Campaigns
This type of campaign offered by other companies builds links from other web sites back to yours. Some companies charge per link, or enormous amounts for a set number of links. Search engines will follow the links (spider) to pick up and index other sites. Linking also helps build Page Rank for Google.

Side Note: I do not offer Link Campaigns as a stand alone or separate service. Linking to other businesses, affiliates, or professional sites that are relevant to your business is included in my contracts. The number of links varies per business, and are always relevant. I also suggest to all my clientele that they forward me any link exchanges for evaluation.

E-mail Promotion Campaigns
You can either buy or subscribe to a list of e-mail addresses or get searchers who visit your Web site to enter their information to be added to your list. E-mail campaigns are primarily a way to get the people who have shown some interest in your business to come back to your website or respond to your offers.

Side Note: Sending e-mails to people who have not consented to receive information from you can be considered spam and could result in action taken against the sender. Be careful when doing E-mail Marketing Campaigns. Most recipients of "spam" mail will just delete it without reading it or it may be immediately deposited in the spam filter that many email companies now use.

Paid Listings in Portal Sites

A few search engine charge a price for inclusion in their index. These are known as paid listing or inclusion fees. They range greatly in cost from Yahoo! $299 down to as little as $5.00 these cost are non negotiable. Plus this is a yearly fee on most search engines.

Side Note: Sometimes it is possibly to get around these charges. If the search engine is a spider, they might pick up your site on their own or a directory might have a free submission area (you just have to search hard to find it). Even thought you pay to be included, you can still get rejected. You need to evaluate if the cost of all the other search engines submissions is worth it.

Banner Ads

Banner ads are along the same lines as pay per click ads. They don't get you much exposure, and the people on the pages your ad appears did not get there by looking for your specific services, or products. (more to come later)

When researching a SEO company, ask what practices they will be using in the optimization process. Things such as doorway pages, cloaking, meta-refresh, frames verses no-frames content, and keyword stuffing are just a few practices that should not be used. Google also penalizes for over optimization on link text. Here is a wonderful section by Google you might want to read over before choosing your SEO firm.

Others (info to follow later)

Let CybrConsult help you achieve your improved search engine positioning and rank. Read more about our services and the ways we help you and become an integral part of your Internet marketing team.