According to research by Accenture:
• 68% compare prices online before shopping in a physical store
• 58% locate items online before purchasing offline
• 67% prefer to research online and buy from physical stores

FACTS OF SEM –
1. Your potential customers are seeking products on search engines.
2. Search engine advertising is one of the cheapest ad vehicles available.
3. Advertising results can be measured.
4. Ads can be revised in the middle of a campaign.
5. Why not SEM?
6. Upcoming Trends in Search Marketing

Search engine marketing includes SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) search engine advertising. Both are an integral part of a successful internet marketing strategy. According to a recent study, search engine advertising is one of the most cost effective marketing vehicles available. Cost per lead Varies From Product and the related services.

Cost per lead campaigns on digital medium have been falling in price points from INR 400 per acquisition to INR 50 per acquisition and trust me their is no science to such except for market economics of marketplace dynamics with players coming in to pick up purchase orders under cutting each other.

Why SEM? First, you want to meet your customers when they are actively looking for your products on a search engine. Second, advertising via the search engines is cost effective. Third, statistics can be gathered from web logs to determine the efficacy of an ad campaign. How do you know if a TV ad is working? Fourth, a poorly performing ad campaign can be corrected without having to build a new campaign from scratch. Try that with a print ad. Perhaps the better question is this: Why start anywhere but SEM?

How to Search Engine Advertisement – Paid Advertisement Campaigns? Search engine advertisements are purchased on the basis of keywords. Ad buyers engage in running actions for keywords, with popular keywords costing several dollars per click through.

Search engines use algorithms to determine the position of ads according to click through rates. Ads with poor click through rates can be pushed down to the bottom of the first page of search results or onto subsequent pages. Even though advertisers are only paying for click through, the algorithms assigning ad positions based on ad popularity provide incentives for optimizing keyword selection and other cost control measures. Without cost control measures, it is possible for ad buyers to spend twenty five to fifty percent of their ad budget ineffectively.

Upcoming Trends in Search Marketing – more competitive, multichannel market: Major areas of focus should be customer retention, attractive content creation, targeted online communication, leveraging online social communities, detailed reporting, converging various distribution channels, etc..Online marketers should build a robust foundation for future expansion by enhancing their brand and leveraging existing resources. Solution Point can help you with all your online marketing campaigns and promotion needs.

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• Handbook of Online India
• SEO Resources, Tools and Partners
• Promotion
• Social Networking in India
• Digital Marketing Conference 2007 in India

What do they do?: A professional search engine firm helps you strengthen the corporate identity of your website at an international level on the Internet. They bring into the notice of the Internet users, services and products that are being offered at your company’s website. Strategic SEO techniques are utilized for website promotions so as to help you achieve higher rankings. As your website ranks on the top positions in the search engine result pages (SERPs), the traffic on your website is increased tremendously. So, the return on investment (ROI) of the website also rises.

How do they do it?: Scrutinizing the behavior of the Internet users allow SEO companies to develop new ways of promoting a website. Reliable SEO company experts also keep a constant eye on the frequent amendments that are made in the search engine algorithms and device their SEO strategies accordingly.

Another important consideration for a professional company is the SEO tools that they utilize. Only ethical or white hat techniques are appreciated by the search engines in order to reward the site with the coveted topmost ranking in the search results. Though this may take a few months to show results but they are the best way of website promotion. Unethical or black hat techniques with immediate results would only lead your website to be banned in future. Link farms are a common black hat technique.

Long term benefits promised by professional SEO Company: Hence, if you wish to benefit in the long term from the advantages of professional provider, make sure they employ only white hat techniques. Some of the best white hat techniques that professional companies use for the long term success of a website are:

1. Link building – Inbound links, diverting the Internet users to the main website are created by the SEO experts all over the Internet on blogs, discussion forums and social networking sites. Reciprocal links are also made with websites that share a similar theme.

2. Selection of the right keywords – Accurate selection of keywords is also necessary for the success of a website promotion campaign. The chosen keywords should attract relevant traffic to the website. The competence of these keywords must be checked.

3. “Content is the king” – This phrase is indeed true and holds a lot of importance in the SEO world. SEO consultants ensure that the content of the website is original, easy to read, up-to-date and have the appropriate keyword density. Over stuffing of keywords unnaturally may draw the suspicion of spamming towards the website. So, professional firms are quite alert in this regard.

4. Article, blogs and press release submission – As updated information is necessary to achieve higher rankings, blogs, press releases and articles are written by expert writers associated with professional SEO firms and the link of the website is included in the author’s bio. These writing copies are then submitted to different online directories. They disseminate information on your niche keywords and are free from plagiarism.

5. Web designing – Last but not least, the website designing of the company is also checked by the affordable SEO Company and amendments are made in the website so as to make it search engine friendly.

Hence, the need for a professional SEO company and its affordable SEO services is undeniable for online success of a website and business associated with it.

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• Learning SEO
• Contextual Link Building – Most Effective Inbound Links
• The Interactive Attribution Wave is Live
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The fragmented internet marketing industry in India needs a common platform – a national organisation that can represent and aggregate multiple consilidated efforts to fuel the shift of budgets to digital marketing, along with the need of advertisers to further integrate their online and offline services, rather than relying on a roster of many standalone service providers.

Most activity to be in search marketing, analytics, mobile marketing and buzz/viral/guerilla marketing, closely followed by online lead generation and database marketing/CRM. The U.S. still holds the most growth potential for advertising and marketing services, though a strong minority say Asia, with Japan, China and India. Such efforts will facilitate integration of online and offline marketing services as well as by campaigns across digital devices like cell phones, PDAs and television.

The search engine is becoming content in its own right, not just a portal or thoroughfare through which to reach other sites. It is this constantly changing relationship between the web, its users and the technology behind it that has managed to hold everyone’s attention for so long. It is becoming a news source, reference point, business channel, information explorer, an educational device, a trusty recommender and much more. A previous post in this blog had rightly said – “If all roads lead to Rome, then all cyber pathways lead to Google.”

The internet is causing a reexamination of how media companies reach consumers through evolving marketing services. Moreover, there is a tremendous demand for SEO/SEM education these days and staffing is an issue as well. A common platform is useful so that, the information may be recycled to generate more successful search marketers. More hands on event with legitimately top practitioners could be very appealing.

With the advent of blogs, it’s easier than ever for sites to keep their content fresh. The key to recognition in the search engines is right content and it’s syndication. With RSS, sites can exchange content like never before. The hardest part of Internet Marketing for many site owners is the actual creation of the content itself. With RSS, it is possible to keep relevant content on your site updated at all times. The actual content creator or publisher also benefits greatly from the syndication. But again, we need to solve issues related to copyright, vulgarity, community norms etc. and this is where a common platform will help.

- Author is the Lead Search Marketing Consultant with Solution Point

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• Handbook of Online India
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• Promotion
• Social Networking in India
• Digital Marketing Conference 2007 in India