A few nights ago I was asked by a regular in a bar I frequent:
'what is this pub doing with a website? Somewhat bemused,
I replied that it receives substantial hits to its website
and that it is listed on all the Bangkok portals. More importantly,
they have consistently remained at #1 on Google, Yahoo!,
MSN and the other major search engines for well over a year.
Visitors the site, although not verifiable, must convert
into a lot of money.' He looked slightly bemused, shrugged
his shoulders and muttered something about not knowing much
about search engines.
That is where we stand on building websites: our philosophy
is based on making the web work for our clients; in providing
them with a new revenue source. We don't just deliver tastefully
designed websites, we also provide detailed research which
we convert into accurately anticipated keywords likely to
be used by potential visitors when searching for a source
of information.
With this knowledge, we optimise our clients' web pages
and register it with sites we know will boost its rankings.
This strategy has been successfully employed on sites based
in Thailand, the UK, Germany, Australia, France, Austria
and France.
But there is another option to be seriously considered:
commercial search. It is by far the most dynamic and fast-growing
industry segment now, estimated to extend beyond $5billion
by 2006. Pioneered by Overture (now Yahoo!), pay-per-click
was created in response to three fundamental issues concerning
internet search: poor quality results; random ordering of
listings; and a weak advertising revenue model. It solved
these problems by creating a real-time market for keyword
bidding.
Recently, however, it has spawned a series of bidding wars
among a growing number of marketers wanting their ads displayed
alongside the top search results, and the demand for placement
now seems to have reached an almost critical level. Highly
popular search terms can easily get you involved in a cost
escalation dynamic: extend your bid to the top spot and there's
a good chance that, within hours, #2 will outbid you. This
process can go on indefinitely until the actual 'market space'
for these search terms is inflated beyond reach, which can
take several weeks to stabilise and return to some kind of
equilibrium.
Also, whilst pay-per-click can be the best marketing tool
on the web if 'conversion rates' are high, there are four
fundamental objectives to be recognised:
1. The content of your site must exactly match the keywords
you intend to bid on;
2. All of your keywords stand no chance whatsoever of being
listed in the top ten positions on the major search engines;
3. The cost of bidding will be more than recovered, as visits
to your web pages will convert into quality leads or actual
sales;
4. The more popular the search term, the more expensive.
If you think it's worth the investment, then take the plunge.
In the main, robots index websites, and few people look
beyond the first 20 results. This has driven Google, Yahoo!
and now MSN to devise a more specific search trend: e-marketing
driven by localised search advertising, personalisation and
increased specialisation. When fully operative, these initiatives
will narrow the scope of the problems inherent in generic
search results.
In the meantime, V9 will continue to provide our clients
with optimum results: we have the expertise and proven credentials
in providing Thai- and foreign-based businesses the opportunity
of profitable expansion.
Media Director of V9 Design & Build, providing both
local and outsourcing web and SEO services: we provide both
brochureware and custom-designed websites, with tasteful
design and branding, professional design and build, proven
and successful SEO and e-marketing, e-commerce-driven database
integration and content management systems.
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