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Several years ago I wrote a newsletter for Newfangled called “Who’s Your Homepage.” I read a post today from Ian Lurie called “4 Metrics for Analyzing SEO Traffic (and one to ignore).” It reminded me once again of the value of content as it relates to ongoing search engine traffic. Ian was reviewing his site’s stats and was again reassured by one particular metric–keyword diversity. He points about the benefits of diverse keyword search engine traffic. I point out a few more in the Web Smart newsletter. I also explore opportunities to consider when sub-pages function as homepages (which is what happens when diverse keywords lead traffic to your site) in the sense that they give the first impression to a new visitor.
The videos on analyzing website traffic and How to do SEO refer to these principles and benefits as well.
Last May I addressed the topic of search engine marketing at the Highland Capital Partners Internet Marketing Summit. The May 2008 Web Smart newsletter “Search Engine Marketing: At the Corner of Context and Intent,” provides the substance of my talk. I highlighted three main principles for evaluating any online advertising opportunity; context, recommendation and intent.
I recently tagged an article on the Social Times called “How Long Can “Ad Supported” Last?” Nick O’Neill echoed my main point when he wrote, “Search is still the only thing that can measure intention [italics mine] and nobody has figured out a better way to reach people.” There is a lot of excitement about social media, and the explosion of web based applications, media, and services. Most all of these sites are advertising driven, yet the effectiveness of the ads in such contexts is not as great as advertisers would like.
It’s incredibly important for advertisers to be learning about and participating in the social media movement. But not so much to figure out where to best place their ads. Rather they need to be in tune with how it’s changing the nature of marketing and advertising all together–the effects of which we are just now beginning to feel. But this is not a post on social media’s impact on advertising, it’s a reference to my search engine marketing session and newsletter.
While search engine marketing (both optimization and advertising) is not the newest most exciting subject, it is still by far the most effective avenue for driving traffic. That’s because it meets us at the corner of context and intent. It’s in the act of searching, using various iterations of search phrases, that a search engine delivers it’s results. And it’s when we are searching as part of a purchasing process, contextual ads have their greatest effect. They not only reach us with the right message, but more importantly, at the right time.
So while social media is very important to brands and marketers, search is still the bread and butter of active, traffic-driving Internet advertising. Check out the newsletter to read more.
Website Traffic Reports Video Training - Google Analytics and Urchin
Website Analytics video by Newfangled Web Factory
How To DO SEO from Eric Holter on Vimeo.
How To Do SEO, part 2 Farming vs. Hunting from Eric Holter on Vimeo.
