Search engines are the second most used function in the web (after e-mail) by internet users. As one of the main accesses to a website (at least for the first access), they are consequently one of the most important tools for the development of a site’s visibility.
Data from I-Lab/Bocconi University
According to a study undertaken by Jupiter Research:
- 28% of respondents write the name of a product in a search engine;
- 23% of respondents directly enter the URL;
- 9% of respondents write the brand name in a search engine;
- 5% of respondents write the company name in a search engine;
- 5% of respondents undertake research in a search engine dedicated to shopping.
Consider, that this is now a matter of fact, supported by many studies and activities aimed at the exploitation of this opportunity are still relatively new and limited.
Moreover, besides the potential number of reachable users, search engines allow us to obtain a large volume and high quality contacts. As each user will be undoubtedly better disposed towards a site resulting from a search as a natural continuation of web navigation.
To appear, then, among the first search results is the best way to address one’s own web space to interested users.
Why Companies use search engines?
- Search engines assist in qualifying users because they have voluntarily made a pertinent search with subjects present in the site: probably high interest level.
- Search engines are the most favourable form of web promotion.
- It is no longer sufficient to be in the internet just for aesthetics.
- It is inefficient to invest money in the creation of a website if it is not visited and consequently does not bring a return of investment.
Why users use search engines?
- Search engines, directories, meta crawlers are all tools easy to use, intuitive enough and they do not require a particular school of thought.
- Search engines are perceived as neutral tools, neither wanting to direct towards a preset path nor aiming to sell something.
- The use of search engines is free.
Sites optimization
Internet site optimization represents one of the fundamental keys for the positioning in search engines because it is mainly aimed at the change/solution of all those factors, risking to jeopardize its visibility and success, according to the guarantee and respect of the image and of the presentation/navigation modes of the site itself.
A non-optimized, old or little accessible site represents real damage, both in economics and visibility because it generates higher management costs, tie up and waste available resources and, consequently, a sure way to lose new potential customers.
There are three levels of optimization:
- Code Optimization
- Layout Optimization
- Content optimization
This third point is related to another very important and interesting subject: the analysis of keywords.
Keywords represent, in fact, the expression for the user’s exigencies and needs within the performed searches in search engines. As such, on one hand they need to be set to for the synthesis of individual needs, on the other hand for request formulation. If there is a request, but the answer is not highlighted, the problem is certainly to be traced back to poor keywords analysis, which probably underestimated the three variables at stake: aim analysis, reference target analysis and competitor analysis.
It should be stressed that, in the past users have increased their intimacy with the function of search engines, adapting their own way to make searches. Even if a primary place is always occupied by a single keyword research, some studies highlight a search attitude by multiple terms and Boolean characters.
Link exchange and link popularity
It is one of the actions of search engine marketing aimed to increase link popularity (key factor in web positioning strategies as many search engines give a greater and greater importance to “references” of the various sites), page rank and search engine positioning.
The activity of link exchange provides the respect of rules and precise standards which, if not observed, can also determine a damage and be self-defeating.
The application of these rules requires highly specific knowledge and allows actual progresses in internet site visibility. This discipline is destined to have a greater and greater importance in sites grading and, at the moment, in high-competitive fields, it makes the difference.
If a site is linked from an external site, this link is, for a search engine, a sort of “recommendation”, a real reference. Obviously, like in reality, there are various kinds of references. There are, for example, dozens of sites proposing themselves as (textual and non-textual) link and banner exchange circuit but almost never are these circuits able to give value to sites. On the contrary, in these years, engines have improved their spiders and algorithms rejecting these “easy” link exchanges.
It is the reference’s selected quality to make the difference: search engines want more and more that, behind sites promotion, there is a hard and constant, but most of all ethic and politically correct work, according to guidelines and respecting navigators community.
Pay per Click – Keyword Advertising
It is one of the main activities to make a site visible in search engines, whose key characteristics are, of course, management flexibility and the possibility to limit and control investments.
Each search engine dedicates to Pay per Click some specific areas, in which it is possible to put in a link to a site in the form of an announcement.
Each obtained click is paid and the fixed charge of each click depends on:
- the selected search key
- the link positioning
The activation of a campaign is not complex. Monitoring and campaign management are instead more complex and aim to integrate and improve overall performance.
