Investing time, energy and resources into launching your startup means your marketing plan is going to be crucially important. One of the most effective ways to generate targeted visitors to your site is through search marketing, where you can pinpoint user interest based upon search queries. For example, if you’re opening a store to sell golf clubs then you’ll want to target a complete set of terms including “golf clubs” as well as related commercial intent keywords such as how to tips for golf, buyer’s guides for golf equipment, as well as specific brand content.
Potential customers start commercial searches from a variety of vantage points, whether they are casually looking for a vendor, are seeking out new ideas or are just curious about finding a particular solution. As a result, any search marketing campaign should begin with keyword research. Identifying which search terms users utilize to find solutions in your area can help you better understand the market and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of updating the content, links and structure of your website to capture search terms through the regular (natural) results. Targeting the surrounding ads through pay per click (PPC) marketing is known as paid search.
Keyword Rearch
There are a variety of keyword tools, including Google’s keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) which provides data on how frequent terms are searched for, as well as how many advertisers are on the PPC term. As an example, let’s analyze a series of Golf club related keywords to understand how we can utilize keyword-level data:
| Keyword | Monthly Searches | Keyword Type |
| “golf clubs” | 9,140,000 | Commercial |
| “golf tips” | 165,000 | Informational |
In the example above, there are both informational and commercial keywords. While commercial keywords have a higher buying intent they are also more competitive since more sites are actively competing for those keywords in both paid and natural search channels. The key to successful search marketing is to build out a variety of content and campaigns which target both commercial and informational sources based upon opportunity.
Search Marketing Strategies
If you’re just starting out with a limited budget, then you’re going to want to first associate a dollar value to a conversion on your site. Whether you’re selling golf clubs or generating leads, understanding the net revenue from a particular conversion can help you properly organize an ad campaign. After you identify the conversion goals you can start working on both your paid and natural search campaigns. Google is the best place to start for both aspects, since you can both track the results of your natural campaigns through Webmasters Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/) as well as targeting 70% of keyword searches through Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com/).
Both PPC and natural search require determining keywords along with mapping them to the right pages on your site. For PPC you want to track your spend relative to conversions so you can adjust the bid and ads on each keyword, while natural search campaigns rely upon generating high quality links to your website, a major factor in search rankings. You should ensure the content of your site is high quality and targeted toward specific keyword sets, including product descriptions, blog posts and content pages, all of which should have a clear path toward a conversion outcome.
