Balance it out: Natural Search and Paid Search Marketing

Internet advertising is gaining a large share of the advertiser’s spend, and Search Marketing has a lot to do with it. According to a study in the US, Internet ad revenues will touch $ 18 Billion in 2007, and with the growing popularity of search marketing, the advertiser’s dependence on graphic ads/banners will reduce dramatically. In fact, at the IAMAI Search Engine Marketing conference held in Mumbai, Rajiv Prabhakar,(Head-Marketing) for Sharekhan, disclosed that almost 50 per cent of his company’s marketing budget is allotted to the Internet, and 50 per cent of those budgets are invested in search marketing.

Other facts from the US are encouraging, too. On an average, Internet users use 2.4 search engines, with the average number of search results per query as high as a million. The average number of words in a search query is 2.6, which means that Internet users are becoming more specific in their searches, a result of low patience levels. So, a person will probably key in ‘women’s shoes’ instead of simply ‘shoes’, which wasn’t the case earlier.

There is a certain level of difference between natural search and paid search (sponsored links). For example, while paid search involves high risks and high returns, marketers shouldn’t ignore the benefits of natural search. A good balance of the two is necessary.

Natural search is the core offering of any search engine, so it is important to invest in it, too. This can be done by altering the content on one’s website to make sure it shows up on the ever important first page of the search engine results. This can be achieved by following a 3 step simple process.

1) The first step of the ladder is ‘Keyword Generation’. A marketer needs to link certain relevant keywords with his site, so that when the user searches for that word, his site is thrown up. Introspection in this regard is very helpful. A website owner must first analyze what it is that visitors surf the most on his own website. This will help him along.

2) The second step is ‘Trafficking’, in which creative and landing page optimization are highlighted. When a surfer lands on the website after using a search engine, he is sometimes taken to the home page of the site. A better option is to ensure that his landing page is a relevant one, where the information he is looking for is present.

3) The last step which is ‘Monitoring’ is important, including constantly updating keywords. Pull out those keywords you’re losing money on. A website owner must ensure his site has unique, good quality content, which should not be duplicated as far as possible. Further, the same keyword should not appear several times on the same page of the site, just so that it throws up during a search. This kind of keyword spamming can result in that site being blacklisted by search engines. Further, URL structures should be kept short and page re-directs should be avoided.

Update by Sunny: Search marketing is not a vehicle for branding; banner ads can do that. Search marketing is more about immediate return on investment. But at the same time, one cannot undermine the importance of Paid Search as it provides a faster return on investment as compared to Natural Search and gives us the desired results.