introduction

skip to search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising or e-mail marketing.

The single most overlooked aspect of web design is an web marketing strategy to drive true business results through your site. Without implementing a sound web marketing plan, your chance of increasing business through your website is severely limited. Of all the web marketing programs available today, search engine optimisation/marketing (SEO/SEM) has proven to be the most effective at targeting prospective buyers of products and services. Search engine marketing is ranked the #1 website promotion method used by commercial websites and the most cost-effective method of increasing online revenues.

• Over 85% of all Web users rely on search engines to find websites.
• 2/3 of people now feel web searches are the fastest way to find information.
• 35% of all online searches are for local providers.
• 62% of small to medium sized businesses (SMB) now consider online promotion (SEO and e-mail marketing) to be important for the success of their business.
• 60% of people said their opinions of brands have changed as a result of online research.

While there are literally thousands of search engines on the Web, the top 4 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL) account for about 85% of all the search engine traffic. So the important decision to make is not how many search engines should list your website. The most important decision to make is how to get your website ranked within the first 3 pages of the most important search engines. Most people will not review websites beyond the first 3 pages. If your website is not listed for relevant key phrases within the first 3 pages, your company basically will not receive any exposure on the web through search engines. The top search engines we target are:

search engine optimisation (seo)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site and ensuring that the site ranks well when those keyword phrases are part of a web search. Also known as organic search listings, SEO requires optimising the website in such a way that the algorithms employed by the various search engine companies rank the website as most relevant according to certain key phrases. At a high level, SEO techniques focus on key phrase analysis, content optimisation, coding, and link popularity.

Through years of SEO experience, we have developed a proven and methodical process of obtaining and maintaining high rankings in search engines. Our process includes market research, content optimisation, link strategy, and performance management.

market research

We begin with a questionnaire to help us fully understand our clients' markets, products, competition, and marketing objectives. Our unique approach to a key phrase analysis helps us understand all the key phrases that are currently being used in searches, the demand of our clients' products and services, the level of competition and the current market value of each related key phrase. From this very detailed analysis, a search engine strategy is developed with recommendations for implementation. In addition to the key phrase analysis, we analyse our clients' website for any coding issues or improvement for the optimisation efforts. We will also analyse some key competitor's websites to understand the level of competition. The result of the market research is a blue print or road map to ensure high rankings in the top search engines.

content optimisation

It is critical that your website content supports the key phrase(s) you are optimising. Effective content optimisation accounts for about 50% of the factors that search engines take into consideration when ranking your website. The website with the most focused content on a key phrase will be considered more relevant and will rank higher in the search engines if all other factors are equal.

We analyse the content on the website for relevancy to the key phrases you are optimising. We edit the content and design the page to ensure effective content optimisation. For each optimised page in our program, we optimise the Meta tag coding for up to an additional 3 pages on your website. This improves the overall optimisation efforts and increases the importance of other pages on your site.

link strategy

Your link strategy and implementation will account for the other 50% of the factors that search engines take into consideration when ranking your website. There are 3 types of links related to your site structure:

• Incoming Links
• Internal Links
• Outgoing Links

Link popularity is a measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. Since link building has become a critical element of any SEO effort, all of our SEO plans are implemented with some level of link building.

Not all incoming links are equal, so it is important that you research and obtain high quality incoming links that are considered by search engines to be of high value. We will also evaluate your internal link structure and outgoing links to ensure an overall SEO effectiveness. For more details, see our Link Building Services.

performance management

SEO is not a static process. Search engine rankings fluctuate constantly. Millions of additional websites will come online across all industries and markets in the next several months, constantly increasing the level of competition. SEO is recognized as one of the top performing web marketing programs, but it is not always realistic to do one off optimisation program and obtain the results that you desire indefinitely. Ongoing performance management to monitor progress and improve your results is essential. Our performance management includes the following:

• We generate a monthly report tracking your page rank in the top 3 pages for each key phrase optimised for each major search engine. It will also show the number of position increases or decreases as compared to the previous month's report.
• We analyse the monthly report and produce a written summary.
• We will analyse the website statistical reports to determine the traffic results from search engines and directories.
• We will analyse any changes in the search engine algorithms and determine the impact on our SEO efforts.
• As a result of our analysis, we determine if any changes need to be made to our SEO efforts. If we determine that changes are needed, these changes are made in order to improve or retain our rankings in the search engines. At times we may make recommendations to the client to expand their efforts in content, coding and link building that may be beyond the implemented program. We will not implement any of these types of recommendations without the client's approval.
• We monitor any changes implemented to improve performance to determine if the desired results are achieved.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

Pay per click (PPC) search engine advertising is a performance-based form of search engine marketing. Your ranking on a search engine results page is determined by your bid amount, or the price you are willing to pay for a visitor to your website. You are charged when a searcher clicks on the search listing or text ad that is displayed on the search listings results page.

Search engine advertising or PPC can be highly cost effective. A report from US Bancorp Piper Jaffray reveals that the cost per lead from search engines is approximately $0.29, compared to $1.18 for yellow page advertising and $9.94 for direct mail inserts. You only pay for those visitors who click on your text ad and come to your website.

what we do

We set up and manage PPC programs for Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. The Google AdWords PPC system will display your text ads on Google, AOL, Earthlink, Ask Jeeves and others. The Yahoo! Search Marketing PPC system promotes your text ads on Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, CNN and others.

Performance of PPC programs is measured so you can determine your return on investment. Some examples of the types of performance data that we track, analyse and report are:

• Tracking the number of impressions (number of times your text ad was displayed).
• The number of click throughs (the number of people who clicked on your ad and came to your website, the percentage known as click-through-rate).
• The number of conversions (the number of people who met your goal such as ordering a product or coming to your contact us page) and the conversion rate.
• The average rank of your text ad, the average cost per click and the total costs per text ad.

Through our services agreement, our normal process is as follows:

• Key phrase Analysis - We conduct a key phrase analysis to determine the most related and cost effective key phrases for your business. You select the key phrases for us to market your business.
• Text Ad Copy Creation - We write the text ad used to promote your business for a given key phrase. This is the ad that your visitors will see before they come to your website.
• Account setup - We set up your account with the text ads we have created and implement the budget and bidding guidelines that you have set for your campaign.
• Performance Management - We manage your campaign, which includes meeting your budget guidelines and managing the bidding process. We will also track, analyse and report the results to ensure that the campaign meets your objectives. We implement any of your approved modifications to the campaign to ensure optimal performance of the overall marketing campaign. You have a choice of monthly summary reporting or monthly detailed reporting.

benefits of pay per click

Compared to search engine optimisation, some of the advantages of PPC are:

• Placement Guarantee - Rankings are controlled by the bid amount.
• Quick implementation time - You can have your text ads promoting your business in as little as 24 hours.
• Cost - You pay only for the number of clicks or visitors that click on your text ad and come to your website.
• Ease of implementation - No need to worry about the complexities of website coding, content and link building required for organic listings in the search engines.

e-mail marketing campaigns (EMC)

We recognise that like any technology, different companies will have different expectations and requirements for e-mail marketing. As a result, we provide two different types of service:

Create & Send: "DIY Newsletter Campaigns"

Create & Send is an web-based application that provides all of the tools that you'll need to create, send and manage your e-mail marketing campaigns yourself. We provide bespoke newsletter templates and can assist you with the customisation of your account but once you're set up - creating new campaigns is as simple as pasting in your content, uploading any images and choosing your recipients.

And it doesn't stop there; as soon as you've sent out a newsletter - the system begins collecting statistics and generating reports about the success of your campaign. Detailed graphs will not only show you who has read your newsletter and when, but also which links are being clicked within the e-mail and when. more information

Campaign Viewer: "Let us do the hard work"

If you don't have or want the skills needed to produce your own newsletter content, we can take raw copy and images from you and manage the process entirely. You won't need to worry about maintaining your subscriber lists or formatting text or images for screen-based media.

You will however, still be able to access the detailed reports and graphs that are produced by the system (as mentioned above, see Create & Send). You can use this information to measure the success of your campaigns and aide the decision-making process. more information

who uses e-mail marketing?

Companies of all shapes and sizes use e-mail marketing to reach out to their customers with new new products and information. E-mail is a particularly low-cost medium with a huge potential as almost everyone has an e-mail address.

Whilst the concept is nothing new, we like to think that our approach differs somewhat from the vast majority of e-mail marketing services. We believe that in a core set of values that we would like to see reflected in all campaigns:

• Users must specifically opt-in to receiving e-mail marketing when they give you their e-mail address.
• Great care should be taken to ensure that your newsletter designs are not overly complicated and text-only alternatives must always be available for e-mail clients that do not support HTML.
• Newsletters should contain newly written content, not just copy from brochures or press releases.

E-mail marketing allows you to showcase recent events, news and products to your most loyal customers. It shows them what's going on in your organisation and might inspire them to become more involved. Sending an e-mail is just like sending somebody a letter, think about what you do with all of the mindless marketing material that you receive through your letterbox every day. We can help you ensure that your newsletters do not come across in this way.

strengths of the software

The software is used by thousands of companies all over the world, from small/medium business (SME) right through to international corporations. One of the key features of the software is that it maintains a white-listed status with all of the major e-mail providers.

Many large e-mail providers such as Hotmail and AOL use intelligent spam-filtering software to identify and block e-mails which they perceive to be unwanted by the recipient. The analytical process of distinguishing spam from personal e-mail is complicated and many systems fail to perform effectively. As a result, newsletters and marketing e-mails are often identified as spam and fail to reach their destination.

To be white-listed with e-mail providers means that a greater leniency will shown towards messages that you send and with so many people using systems like Hotmail, you can't afford to loose the opportunity.