Web Marketing. Get found by customers searching for what you sell.
A business website is only as profitable as the clients it brings in. A $500 website that appears on the first page of Google results, will vastly out-perform a $15,000 website that doesn't get easily found. The difference is professional optimisation.
What would it mean to your business to get your message, your products and services in front of almost every person in the country who is searching for what you sell?
Call us on 1300 785 434 for a free consultation on how many customers are searching for what you offer.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Keyword Research.
- Content and structure modification
- Link building, the key to Google's heart.
- How long does it take and will it work for my business?
- Pricing.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Search engines are how people find businesses in 2008. Where did your customers go?
Consider the conversion rate for a direct mail piece or flier. At this point in time, right now, 99.5% of people probably wouldn't be interested in your products. They may have been interested yesterday and may have just purchased from a competitor or they may be interested next week, but if you spent a dollar reaching each person right now, most business owners would accept that 99% of the budget would fall on deaf ears.
Imagine if you could spend a dollar to get that message delivered 100% entirely to customers interested in what you sell, at the very time they've decided to take action and search for it. That is the power of search engine marketing, and why Google has grown from two students with a good idea, to become the 15th biggest company in the United States, the biggestadvertising provider and the biggest media company in ten short years. They simply offer targeted value that no other form of marketing can compete with. The internet is a big market, and a big opportunity for any business.
Ten years ago the Yellow Pages basically owned the "find a business" market, yet most people now search online. In the online arena, the top 3 web sites in Australia are the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, who between them account for around 95% of all searches. The online Yellow pages sits at around 50th position with around 1-3% of searches. A postage stamp sized advertisement in the print edition can still cost more than many websites. Consider the cost of a point of sale display, a retail fit-out, getting business cards & stationery printed, sign writing a van, direct mail, print media, radio or TV. It simply makes more sense, and costs a lot less, to just make sure that customers searching for what you sell can easily find you.
What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and how does it work?
SEO is the process of getting your site higher in the search engine results, for commonly searched words and phrases in your industry. In simple terms, it has 3 basic steps ...
1. Keyword research and strategy. Identifying which words and phrases ('keywords') to target.
2. Content modification. Making your site appear 'highly relevant' to a given search.
3. Link building. Makes your site appear more 'important', especially to Google.
Keyword research and strategy.
Search Engine optimisation starts with good keyword research to discover what your customers are searching for. Some words and phrases are easy to compete on and some are hard. But good keyword research takes off the blindfold so you can identify not just the blockbuster search terms that can send a river of customers to your business, but also the niche terms that can produce faster results and delivery easy money that your competitors are happily leaving on the table.
We will then recommend a strategy that may range from going after popular 'blockbuster' generic search terms, or a strategy of targeting a larger number of more unique searches that add up to far more total traffic. For example it might be nice to be found for "supplements" (but highly competitive), and yet there would be a far more total searches for the sum of unique products, each of which will be easier to compete on than the generic term. They will also have higher sales conversion rates because the are more specific and targeted to customers ready to buy. The best approach varies from industry to industry.
Clarica's Advanced Keyword Research Report is $199, however we can offer a basic assessment of what your customers are searching for, absolutely free. Please don't hesitate to call us now on 1300 785 434 for an obligation free assessment.
Content and structure modification.
The second phase of SEO is modifying the Content. We need to get the keywords and phrases in the right positions on your site at the optimal frequency to make search engines see your site as "highly relevant" to the given search term(s) . Unfortunately you can only take this strategy so far, as any site that has excessively high keyword densities, starts to look a little unnatural and will actually harm your search engine position. Keyword meta tags are not used by modern search engines, so the focus has to be almost entirely on the visible elements of the site. Well optimised content by itself can often get a good result on MSN or Yahoo, and sometimes even on Google if the keyword is not competitive.
Most search engine optimisation providers simply give you the advice ('consulting'), few can also provide the copy writing (content writing) services to weave the plan into an effective marketing message on your site. A message that works not just for Google, but that also turns visitors into clients. Fortunately at Clarica we design all our clients' websites with SEO in mind from the outset, but if you have an existing site in need of repair, we'd be happy to help.
Our copywriting and design services (if required) are $77 per hour.
Link Building - sorting the wheat from the chaff.
Imagine there are 500 websites in your industry that all appear to be 'highly relevant' to a search. Who gets to be at the top of Google? The solution is "link popularity". If another website links to you then their link counts as a vote for your site. Google takes this one step further. Their main patent that let them overtake Yahoo was the "Page Rank" scoring system. In simplified terms, It says that the value of that vote is determined by the link popularity of their website.
Google actually has thousands of sophisticated elements in their scoring system and half their efforts are aimed at penalising obvious or automated attempts to manipulate their system. Their $150 billion dollar business model relies on giving quality results so they don't want to make it too easy. For this reason link building needs to be from real websites with existing credibility, and done in a steady, sustained and varied pattern that looks very natural. There is no quick fix, and there are no shortcuts. Almost every simple or automated trick to manipulate Google is already penalised or eventually will be, so a clean approach is definitely rewarded in the long run.
The "relevance" of your site to a given search is finite (you can't make a website any more relevant than "highly relevant"), but with "link popularity" there is simply no upper limit, which is why mega sites with overwhelming link popularity such as Wikipedia, or smh.com.au in Australia, often appear in search results even where the page seems far less relevant than others, for this reason there will sometimes be keywords where a few super sites hold the top spots who will simply be impossible to beat. Before we accept any order, we will advise you on the competitive landscape for your keywords to offer some realistic targets and advice, but remember, you only need to be on page 1 of the results to be seen by almost everyone searching for that word or phrase. Fortunately in some industries you will not find any seriously optimised competitors. Keywords in most industries fall somewhere in the middle though.
Clarica's link building program is $299 per month.
How long does it take and will it be worth while for my business?
This depends greatly upon the competitive landscape for your targeted keywords. For broad, generic, highly competitive terms like "jobs" or "news" or "dating" you will be competing with very large sites who have teams of in house SEO experts working full time on professional optimisation to maintain their positions, effectively devoting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of staff time to their efforts. Unless you are prepared to match their efforts don't expect to knock the likes of SMH, Seek, or RSVP out of their top spots. For more unique & specific products & services (especially when coupled with a geographic location eg "Plumber Sydney" the results will come much faster (usually months up to one year to get a first page result), for other sites with very little competition whatsoever we've seen newly built sites reach the top spots on Google within weeks of their launch simply by building the site in a Google-Friendly manner but without any link building. Before accepting any order for SEO services we will analyse the competitive landscape for your chosen keywords to give you some realistic expectations on what is possible before you make any decisions.
Once you reach a top spot on Google, consider it a bit like having a full page colour (interactive) advert in the Yellow Pages right at the front of your chosen category. Bear in mind also that for online search, Google has around 80% market share and YellowPages around 1-3% market share. The best part is that river of customers being diverted to your business is absolutely free. Weigh that up against what even a small YellowPages advertisement would cost you. All of our strategies aim to get results that last, unlike providers who simply rent temporary links. For those seeking more immediate guaranteed results, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising on Google might be the answer for you, but natural SEO will usually deliver far more traffic at a much lower cost in the long run. If you absolutely must get your site very high in the natural search results very quickly, please call us for some more advanced options such as public relations and press releases amongst other things which can help you acquire very high quality backlinks quickly.
Before commencing an SEO program we need to assess what a new customer is worth to your business and how many would it take to generate a positive return on the program.
Feel free to call us for an honest assessment of the competitive environment for your industry and how many customers are searching for what you sell.Comparing that against the typical sales conversion rates for your business, and the profitability for your products, can give us a realistic guide as to the likely return.
While your position for your main keywords is climbing, you will usually see much faster results on MSN and Yahoo for all keywords, and even on Google for the less competitive words. Often they will be individual product names or more specific targeted searches indicating someone is ready to buy. These types of searches actually have a higher sales conversion rate even though they are less competitive and have a lower search volume. You should start seeing these early results within around 3-4 months.
Natural Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Pricing
- Keyword research and strategy. Free for basic research or $199 for an advanced report.
- Content modification. Structural redesign and copywriting. $77 / hour if required.
- Link building. Getting other websites with existing credibility and popularity, to pass on some of their own "importance" to you by linking to your site. $299 / month.
For more information or a free assessment of demand in your industry please call us on 1300 785 434.
Pay Per Click - Affordable flexibility and immediate quantifiable results.
Pay per click (PPC) search marketing lets you bid say 50 cents per click on a particular search word or phrase, and a small blue and green ad will appear on the right hand side of the Google results in the "sponsored links" area. Ads that are not clicked are absolutely free, so with a typical "click through rate" of say 2%, 98% of your ads would be delivered to targeted, interested potential clients absolutely free. Sound like a good deal? That's why Google is worth $150 Billion and 99% of their revenue comes from those little blue and green ads.
The position of your ad is determined by your bid amount as well as the percentage of people who click your ad. Google doesn't want to waste valuable screen real estate on ads that no one clicks.
Flexibility
You can increase your click through rates and return on investment by better targeting your ads.
Excluded words: For example if you sell computer hardware and bid on the word "monitor" you might want to exclude the words "baby" or "heart rate".
Target geographic regions: avoid displaying your ads to people who can't become customers. For example you could choose to display ads only to people within 100km of your store locations (Google uses geographic IP address tracing to roughly identify the location of the person searching.) You can also do this with words, e.g. bid on "Sydney accountant" if you are an accountant in Sydney.
Time of day: Want to just target business clients or home customers? Set your ads to appear only during business hours or only after hours. If you own a pub you might want to just display your ads on Fridays and Saturdays.
Cost Control 
Maximum cost per click. If you know that on average 5% of clicks turn into customers, and you make $100 profit per new customer acquired, then you could bid up to $5 per click and still make a profit. Fortunately even if you bid $5, Google automatically adjusts the amount you pay to just one cent more than the bid of the ad that appears below yours. Its like an auction where you only ever pay one cent more than the next highest bid.
Maximum daily or monthly budget: Set a maximum daily budget of just $1 if you like. This is a good way to test conversion rates and identify if search engine marketing will work for your business. If spending a dollar a day on average makes you $10 in extra profit, you might want to consider spending a bit more. A low budget pay per click campaign is a great way to evaluate if search engines are a cost effective way of driving customers to your business.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Pricing
Setup costs:
Keyword setup costs: $2 per keyword (min $100).
Advertisement creation: $22 per ad written (min $66).
Management fee:
10% of your set monthly ad budget. (Min management fee is $99 per month).
Includes a monthly review of the variables to cull the non performing keywords or ads, expand the high performers, tweak ad positions, time of day, geographic locations and other variables as required to get the maximum return on your investment.
A professionally managed Pay Per Click will typically generate dramatically higher returns than self managed campaigns as variables are tweaked. Our keyword research enables us to find niches of low cost keywords that your competitors have missed. When combined with visitor tracking software such as google Analytics, we can monitor what customers are doing when they get to your website and block keywords or sources that aren't pulling their weight, as well as tweaking variables such as time of day and geographic locations. Our experience allows us to spot opportunities and threats that deliver the maximum return on your dollar.
Example:
You skip the advanced keyword research and use our free assessment to get started.
We setup a campaign to target 40 keywords with 3 excluded words.
Keyword setup costs for 43 words would be $86, so minimum applies: $100
We write 3 ads to target different types of customers and keywords.
Advertisement writing costs:
$66
You set a monthly ad budget of $100 and $1 max per click just to test the waters initially.
(You can ramp up or stop at any time as the returns become apparent).
Management costs would be $10, but the minimum charge of $99 applies.
Total Expenses: $166 setup, + $99 monthly management fee + $100 worth of ads.
Return on investment from example above:
Your $100 ad budget results in 5000 ads being shown with a 3% click through rate (153 clicks) at 65c (avg) per click.
6 of the 153 become customers (4% sales conversion rate) with an average lifetime profit of $100 per client.
6 new clients at $100 each delivers $600 worth of extra profit.
Total Return: $600 extra profit for $100 worth of ads would be a good result. Management fee's and initial setup cost also become less significant as you scale up your campaign. For example if you ramp up to $1000 / month on ads (which you only do if returns are good) your management fee is still just $100/month. The beauty of the system is that you only spend money if you know its making you money.
Want to learn more?
There are a great many ways of increasing conversion rates, with strategies that offer measurable results with low risk through to a long term investment in your natural search engine position that makes your business appear as a leader in your field. If you're ready to investigate pay per click or natural search engine optimisation a little further please call us now on 1300 785 434.