For many years, consumers could only locate businesses through directory guides like Yellow Pages. And for businesses, advertising in the Yellow Pages was a 'no-brainer'! It wasn't cheap but how could you argue when it was the first place customers would search when they were trying to find a business like yours?

 

The Yellow Pages forced consumers to endlessly leaf through business categories and full-page display ads trying to find a business that could provide the product or service they needed. The businesses were in control because all they had to do was pay more money to Yellow Pages to achieve better placement in their category- and to appear more attractive to consumers.

 

The internet has changed the concept of a directory guide completely.

This 'directory guide' type of marketing has evolved into what is now referred to as 'search marketing' - its called 'search' because it is completely led by how the consumer searches for products and services. No longer do consumers have to adapt their behaviour to the directory structure of guides like Yellow Pages. It is now up to the business to ensure that they are putting themselves in front of their customers when the customers are searching for them. Quite a change.

 

Search engines are also allowing consumers to dictate the language that is used when they search for businesses - language that is relevant to them and not to the directory structure of Yellow Pages. If a consumer wants to search for 'Ottawa plumber to repair bathtub leak' it is up to the business to figure out how to get their website to show up on the results page when this is searched for.

 

There are two major components to search marketing - Organic and Pay Per Click

Organic Search

Organic search results are the non-paid listings that show up on the left hand side of a search engine results page. To have your website show up on the first pages of the organic results you have to 'optimize' it so that it matches up with the keywords that consumers are using when trying to identify your type of business.

 

Optimizing is a process of injecting the keywords that people search for into titles, body text, and the underlying code of your web site. To identify which keywords are being used to search for your type of business, research is performed to identify the current websites that are appearing on page one of search engines for your business category.

 

Organic search is often best used for words that typify the beginning of a search process - words that allow people to describe things like location, product category, or brand name.

 

Pay Per Click Search

For the keywords that go beyond the categories covered by organic search, pay per click campaigns make perfect sense. Pay per click ads are sold in an auction style format. When people use the keywords that you have identified in setting up a pay per click campaign, your ad will show up on the right-hand side of the results page - how high your ad appears depends on how much you are willing to pay if someone clicks on your ad. This price can be as low as a few cents to as much as ten dollars. It all depends on the competition. Plus, if your ad is more popula (is clicked on more) you can even rank higher that other ads that have paid more per click - its a mechanism to level the playing field (somewhat).

 

Pay per click is a great tool to complement your organic search optimization. It also has the added benefit of having a broadcasting appeal. While you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, your ad may show thousands of times to consumers who will consider you a staple of the category that you're advertising for.