Small Business and Search: Where's the Return?
Keywords can make or break any search marketing campaign. Here are some important questions you need to answer about your niche before diving in.
Keywords can make or break any search marketing campaign. Here are some important questions you need to answer about your niche before diving in.
My last couple of columns have focused on how social media can help you meet your goals as a small business owner.
But what about search itself? Search and social are drawing closer and closer, both in terms of technology and usage. But we don’t have to worry about that level of abstraction to answer a simple question: can search marketing work for my small business?
While the question itself may be simple, arriving at the answer requires understanding and consideration of a number of factors. So before we try to answer it, let’s look at search a little more closely.
Why Search?
Search marketing, whether pay-per-click (<https://www.searchenginewatch.com/define#ppc>PPC) or search engine optimization (SEO) is often seen as a cornerstone of any online marketing campaign. Indeed, of almost any marketing campaign these days.
There are many ways to approach it and many things you can accomplish from it, but, looking at it in its simplest terms, it differs fundamentally from almost every other marketing or advertising method in human history (including social), in one simple but powerful way:
Instead of trying to interrupt or distract people, you are putting in front of them the very thing that they are looking for at that moment.
Sounds Great, Right?
On paper, it’s wonderful. Can’t go wrong. In practice? Not quite so simple. And that’s doubly true for most small enterprises where, unless you’re successful or lucky, tight budgets, time, and other resources tend to amplify any problems.
However, search marketing can work wonders for small businesses. For many, it’s probably the single best marketing investment possible, but you have to look at it carefully before jumping in the deep end.
So, what kinds of things are worth considering before taking the plunge?
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
Keywords are make-or-break for any campaign. Precise figures aren’t important at this early stage, and I won’t go into keyword research in detail here (there are plenty of good tutorials and articles already), but you should have a good grasp of the following:
To Be Continued…
In part two, we’ll look at the time spans and financial burdens of getting into PPC and SEO, and ways out of tricky situations. We might even get close to answering our original question. See you then!
Join us for SES San Francisco August 16-20, 2010 during ClickZ’s Connected Marketing Week. The festival is packed with sessions covering PPC management, keyword research, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, ad networks and exchanges, e-mail marketing, the real time web, local search, mobile, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization and usability, while offering high-level strategy, keynotes, an expo floor with 100+ companies, networking events, parties and more!