“Searching” for Results

The number of consumers performing online searches increased 20% in 2008 to more than 11.8 billion searches in the U.S. alone. In the worldwide market there were 82.8 billion searches in 2008. These figures will continue to increase in 2009.

As you strategize about where to spend your marketing budget, be sure you are allocating a portion to optimizing your results from Internet/Web searches.

This is especially important if you are marketing business-to-business. And it is why more than 26% of small B2B companies (those with fewer than 100 employees) are beefing up their online spending this year while making cuts to the overall marketing budget.

In just over ten years the marketplace has shifted dramatically as buyers, for both personal and business purchases, now let their fingers do the clicking at the computer keyboard instead of walking through the yellow pages.

If someone searches your business by name you will most likely rank high on the first page of results.

However, most searches are for categories of products or items of interest where general (organic) terms are entered in the search field. When this is done there can be hundreds or thousands of pages available.

It is important to stay on top of how you rank, and who ranks higher than you, when a general search term is entered. Here are some tips.

Create a list of all the general terms you think someone might enter when searching for the product or service you offer. Then set aside some time each day to enter some of those terms and do your own random searching to see where, or if, you appear on the first page.

If you have a product or service that is sold in a local or regional geographic area only, be sure to search key geographic names to see in which geographic areas you rank high, and where you don’t make the first page.

Random searches should be a part of your daily schedule. Rankings will change from day to day, and throughout each day.

Visit the Websites of those who rank higher than you. Evaluate what they have in content on their home page vs. the content on your home page.

Is their content more clearly written and to the point? Are they using more key words than you use? Are you being too general, too vague or too clever with your home page copy and therefore not providing the words that get you selected and placed high by search engines?

Make changes to your Website content that will improve your search rankings. For a few weeks after making changes continue to monitor your position and which words are bringing you up in your search position.

Key words can get old. That’s why you need to continue to review and tweak your site on an on-going basis to keep your content fresh.

The search is only the first part of a multi-step process. Set up seamless integration at every step of contact for online searches so you get a return on your investment.

Use analytic tools to track where prospects go on your site, which pages generate the most interest, how long they stay on a page and whether they make contact with you.

When you get a new visitor to your Website make it easy for them to find the information they want and to make a next contact with you. Most sites have a contact us link. But very few offer any reason or incentive to motivate the contact.

Most Websites, if measured the same as a retail store, would find that lots of people come in the store but very few people actually make a purchase. They browse and leave. Any retailer can tell you that browsing traffic is nice, but it doesn’t pay the rent.

You need to turn browsers into buyers. Your Website is a direct response medium. Promotions and offers that work in direct mail will also work on your Website. They give people a reason to do more than browse. Think about what you could offer on your site to get responses and capture information about the people who visit.

If you are an e-commerce site, your online store needs to be organized in a logical and easy way for shoppers to search for items, select items and make the purchase. Current statistics show that shopping carts are abandoned at an average rate of 60% after purchases are selected.

The primary reasons for this high rate are glitches in the check out process that keep it from working properly, diversions from the check out process for the purpose of up sell or cross sell, or additional registration steps in the check out process that create customer frustration.

Even more telling, however, is the ratio of visits-to-sales. For most e-commerce sites, the conversion rate of visits-to-sales is only 2%. Many times the reason for “no sale” isn’t a failure of the site to provide the right products, it is that the site is too complex for the user to easily make the purchase decision.

Analytic tools will help you determine if this is your problem as well. If people are staying on your site for long periods of time without taking an action, that’s a hint that you need to improve the process for your Website visitors.

Consistent testing of your Website is key to making and keeping it an integrated part of your marketing mix. Your Website is a combination company store, office, brochure and catalog all in one location.

Each year consumers increase the amount of time they spend online getting news and information, shopping, researching, communicating, staying in touch, and being entertained. Mobile browsing is now being done by 26 million consumers. Your Website is quickly becoming the most important marketing tool you have. Keeping it fresh and current is no longer something you “get around to.” It needs to be your priority.

As you strategize what to do with your Website to capture more than your share of the online search market, keep in mind these valuable words from President Theodore Roosevelt more than a century ago: “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing is the wrong thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”

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