Search engines: The number 1 Internet Media source

Search engines have redefined the way people use the Internet and leverage its information and smart working tools. From finding your life partner to the best shopping bargain to the latest research for self education/business strategy to connecting with experts and service providers;  the Internet is enriching our lives in ways that were not possible in ‘pre-search engine’ days.

Today search engines are the preferred media source for accessing information on the web. Powerful search technologies with intuitive spelling correction (if you type in search terms with spelling mistakes) have made search engines the leading web destination choice (after e-mail).

Search engines also have stringent measures for checking the authenticity of the web content so visitors are assured of the quality of information they access. As websites quickly get indexed by search engine crawlers as they are launched; search engines do remain the main gateway to most Internet properties around the world. No wonder about 70-80 % of the traffic to websites is generated by popular search engines and it pays for businesses to invest in SEO techniques to boost both quantity and quality of web traffic.

These days vertical search engines that specialise in consumer focused niches e.g. automobile related search engines like carsales.com.au are becoming popular. These niche search engines are driving highly qualified traffic to web businesses for higher conversion rates.

SEO according to Business Maturity

Investing in SEO techniques should depend on the level of business maturity of your operations. For new business / product launches, it pays to invest heavily in driving traffic from popular search engines using both organic as well as paid search engines spaces. This is done to maximise exposure to the pre-identified target audience in places they prefer to visit for conducting information or product search (popular search engines and vertical search engines).

These tactics help in reaching out to more people in more places with the hope of converting more users to the new business idea/product. This also minimises the risk as you spread the messaging to more people (to offset any dissonance that a small set of web citizens may have).

If you business is relatively young you should be expecting that at least 70% of your website traffic is generated from search engines, and that the % of traffic from paid search reduces as a percentage over time as your SEO efforts take effect.

However as the business matures, pampering high usage clients may make better sense than blindly spreading your message to all possible web search engines, directories and blogs. At this mature stage, it is more cost efficient to grow business with a narrow set of loyal customers and leverage their goodwill to expand brand exposure through concerted referral marketing techniques (get one customer and get your next order free type of freebies could be used). At this stage it makes sense to divert increasing amounts of your marketing budget to build brand salience in social media (as yours is a known brand entity and will not get lost in ‘content- clutter’) and in such user generated content destinations like blogs and popular discussion forums.

Living the 20/80 rule
Smart businesses soon realise that harnessing a finite set of loyal customers is more cost efficient (as your brand USPs are regularly appreciated), and generates you better returns faster. According to research by various marketing consultancies across the world, it is about 60% more cost effective to boost revenues by focusing on getting more business from existing customers than trying to attract and convert new users to your product/services.

Successful businesses today regularly use the 20/80 rule to earn more revenues from their customers i.e. focus on those 20% of customers that contribute to 80% of your revenues. It pays to focus on this 20% customers by building dedicated web based communities and marketing channels on your website (secure microsites with dedicated logins with special, ‘only for you’ offers and such web-conveniences as pre-approved, discounted shopping sections). While you cannot ignore SEO totally, you should gradually phase out your marketing expenditures to more narrow (target audience) focused efforts as your business/product line matures over time. Fostering customer loyalty is the best tactic to ward off competition while building sales revenues and brand supremacy. 

To review and discuss your current search engine marketing strategy please feel free to contact the friendly team at ROI.com.au