To solve this problem, we brought the groups together on a monthly basis. Using our keyword research and mapping techniques, we were able to demonstrate the need for integration. As a result, recent content changes are delivering more traffic than before and top rankings are growing. The bottom line is that high value keyword phrases generate more traffic.

One of our healthcare clients decided to redesign their Web site. Their advertising agency wanted to reposition the product claim and eliminate the top traffic-driving keyword phrase for a disease category.  The advertising agency wanted a “consumer-friendly” term to be used.  Our keyword research indicated that the Web site would lose tens of thousand visitors per month by eliminating this keyword phrase plus lose top positions on search engine rankings. We put a full court press on the senior manager to review our findings and we stopped this change.

When facing the challenge of bringing separate client teams together for SEO, we demonstrate the power of using keyword research to create keyword-enriched copy that increase search engine rankings.  By creating a shared vision for the role of search engine optimization, SEO can be easily integrated into all online marketing strategies.

Google has built a $23 Billion dollar business by understanding what their users want or will want in the near future – think about the YouTube acquisition!

Google has built an important user franchise for their Google Maps, the ultimate “local search engine offering”. Every day, this terrific tool helps millions of searchers find local locations of restaurants, doctors, paint stores, building contractors and drug stores in their neighborhood. Google has the database that tells them a whole lot about what people want to find locally online.

Not surprising, there is data to support this fast-growing activity in Local Search. Nielsen (2009) reported that 72% of consumers are using search engines more often to find a local business or service. Compared to other options, only 16% said they were using Yellow Pages more. This speaks volumes about what is happening to the traditional Yellow Pages franchise.

Google and search engines in general are quickly becoming the default method that people use to search for local information and with a map to boot.

When you add in the increasing wave of mobile device usage, the trend becomes even clearer.

Marketers need to recognize this seismic shift, particularly if they market through a network of locations like stores and offices. Determining how to create Local Search programs, both in search engine optimization (SEO) or paid keyword programs (PPC), is now a critically important marketing tool and medium. Not acting on this shift, is a very big missed business opportunity. And, it may be an opportunity that competition is pursuing.

Having said that, one has to also pause and wonder whether Google is threatened by this move. I don’t think so.

The key to Google’s whopping 65% market share (and 70% by some estimates) is not the offering of free news. That’s a nice added benefit but not a driving force.

The driving force is Google’s extraordinary commitment to, and delivery of, a high quality user experience. They have spent years honing their speed and accuracy in delivering answers to a search engine user’s queries. At the moment, there is no one better doing this and that is why they hold their dominant share in spite of competitor innovation.

We still continue to place most of our client budgets on Google, but we also see roles for Bing and Yahoo in those buys. This could change in the future, but that decision will be primarily driven by further innovation of the search engine user experience.

One last note. There are some who speculate that Murdoch’s discussions with MS’ Bing are really a negotiating ploy to create fear in Google’s corporate suite, and thereby, move them to pay News Corp. a fee for their news feeds. Given Google’s devotion to the user experience as the ultimate driver of their business, I doubt the recent events will make them nervous.

Given this is a core competency for Strategic Domain, we were able to help the PR firm drive our shared client’s content to appear on the first pages of the leading search engines. Our approach to SEO collaboration ensured a very productive joint effort with the PR firm to deliver the desired results for our client.

From this experience, we became curious about whether PR agencies were employing SEO protocols effectively. One of our search analysts reviewed 25 PR agency Web sites to see whether they had optimized their own corporate Web site to rank well on search engines. Our analyst canvassed a range of firms, small, medium and large.

To our surprise, none of the 25 PR agencies had effectively optimized their own Web site — even though they claimed to provide digital services and more specifically with some, SEO capabilities. In all fairness, some of these sites had a few SEO protocols in their code. But frankly, not enough to do the job. PR is a very competitive industry and being able to deliver search engine rankings could be critical to keeping or gaining new clients.

As I’ve suggested in earlier posts, talented Web designers and programmers may have some knowledge in this area, but SEO is not their core competency. These firms lack the staffs that live and breathe SEO everyday with many clients. And, they don’t have a tightly disciplined analytics program in place to measure success and failure on a regular basis.

Our experience is that to be successful in SEO, you have to be committed to integrating SEO into the fabric of the company and embrace all of the current protocols. This means maintaining a high level of vigilance with the continual stream of algorithm changes that flow from Google and the other leading search engines. Alternatively, finding a partner who has a solid SEO practice can be a quick and efficient way to solve this problem when PR firms are charged with building Web sites for their clients.

The biggest impact will not come from MSN’s Bing™ and Yahoo!® signing a deal, if approved by federal regulators that will allow them to share Bing’s new search engine capabilities. At issue is the reality that the search results seen on Bing will be the same results shown when searching on Yahoo!. Web sites that have not optimized for Bing will be at a disadvantage.

Keep in mind that Yahoo! is much more than a search engine with tons of content and online services. Although Bing’s name is being leveraged across other Microsoft content sites (farecast.com has become Bing.com/travel,) Bing is a search engine similar to Google®. Importantly, the algorithms and thinking that we previously used for Yahoo! search will no longer apply. The specific needs of Bing’s algorithm will be controlling your site’s search ranking on Yahoo!.

Google, not to be outdone has raised the bar by streamlining the search process to offer quicker and more relevant search results. We are seeing search results returned in half the time on the beta model of Google Caffeine. Our research is revealing that the new Google will focus on keywords as a more important part of its new algorithm (and we don’t mean the keywords contained in Meta data.)

These new search engine algorithms require more than just entering Meta data and page titles. Marketers must now be able to combine page formatting and page content to support high value keyword phrases. As a result, there will be more reliance on semantic organization and keyword-richness of the content. It also means that videos and Flash will need to be supported by alternate content that integrates the same type of organization and keyword-embedded content.

In looking ahead, Web sites that are not professionally optimized for search engines will suffer in rankings. Marketers can no longer rely on design-driven Web sites to deliver the ROI expected. With the increasing importance of Web marketing, companies must not risk their search engine optimization (SEO) to poorly trained or misguided designers and inexperienced agencies. If agencies don’t specialize in search engine optimization and provide the proof that they deliver results to many clients or have command of the latest standards, then marketers owe it to themselves to seek professional help (this last phrase is intended to have the double meaning you think it does.)

You can prevent your Web site becoming a casualty of the search engine wars. Start by choosing the right SEO partner that understands the changes in search engine algorithms and it will help you succeed as the major search engines battle it out.

From experience, I know that companies occasionally consider this as a viable option. After all, they think that they’ll save money and better manage the SEO effort.

I’ve learned that this is rarely the reality. IT staffers are usually working the with tight time allocations. As a result, SEO becomes a “part-time” commitment.

SEO is no longer a short-term activity managed by occasional IT support. To the contrary, successful SEO campaigns are carefully and continually managed over many months and ideally, the course of the year.

Deciding whether to execute an SEO program in-house or alternatively, with an agency that has proven ability to execute SEO should be considered very carefully.

Here are three points I shared with the prospective client:

1. Agencies build up a very valuable knowledge base by serving many clients. This includes knowledge about search engine algorithms and protocols. There are few industries or practice specialties that are subject to the on-going and frequent change like search engines. A stream of new adjustments to their algorithms is common place. What worked six months ago, may not work today.
2. Top tier SEO agencies have developed a range of tools that provide valuable diagnostic information to determine if a site is search engine friendly, content opportunities as well as tracking rankings and competitors. These tools are regularly tested with a wide range of agency clients.
3. SEO agencies provide the rigor of systematic analytical reports. This establishes a way for clients to regularly keep an eye on what they are getting for their investment with the agency. In-house reporting tends to be pushed to the bottom of the client projects lists.

No doubt, some client companies do have success managing this function in- house. In fact, Marketing Sherpa’s survey several years ago indicated that on average, in-house practitioners achieved a 38% increase in traffic to their Web site. Not bad. But, the survey went on the report those companies that used an agency achieved a 110% increase with their efforts.

If SEO is important to a company and their Web site is viewed as a contributor to its business success, then clients must carefully consider the trade offs of going in-house.

One company I had spoken to last December had done just that. When I had presented our credentials back in December, the company showed great interest in what we could do for them. At that time, there were 49,500 monthly searches for their three most important keyword phrases just on Google.

The company recognized the value of this audience and communicated great interest in getting an SEO program in place – and quickly. At the last minute before contract signing, however, the client decided to have his IT department do the job.

Several days ago I revisited their Web site and underlying code. To my surprise (or perhaps no surprise), nothing had been done to make their Web site search engine friendly through SEO!

I called the client to discuss this outcome. As it turned out, the IT department got busy on other assignments and the SEO initiative had to be put on hold indefinitely.

I was not too surprised with this news. IT departments are not in place to perform search engine marketing functions. Said another way, SEO is neither a priority nor a core competency.

My most recent investigation also showed that search volume had more than doubled to 115,200 searches on Google for April. So in the five months that passed, literally hundreds of thousands of potential sales prospects were lost because search marketing was not deployed. In a recessionary economy it is so painful to see a client lose potential business. But sometimes, clients look for ways to economize that turn out to be missed opportunities.

FDA in Focus

Serving a broad range of businesses, we come up against many unusual or difficult situations that clients face with their on-line marketing initiatives, and in particular, search engine marketing (SEM). Recently, our pharmaceutical clients were affected by an unexpected FDA Warning Letter barrage that went to 14 pharmaceutical companies targeting 48 of their brands’ use of Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns on the major search engines.

Essentially, the FDA took a 20th Century approach to a 21st Century medium – the Internet, and in particular, search engines. The FDA stated that pharmaceutical manufacturers were not providing sufficient information in their search marketing text ads. The FDA’s April Warning Letters didn’t take into consideration how the average Web user searches for information or the limitations of pay-for-click advertising. In my judgment, the FDA was lost in cyberspace on this issue.

To address this very important subject, Stu Friedel, an attorney and partner in the Advertising, Marketing and Promotion group of Davis & Gilbert LLP, and I co-authored an article for DTC Perspectives magazine regarding the FDA’s action.

I invite everyone to read the article and draw your own conclusion and even some insight in how to handle problems with Washington regulators.

Please click here to read the “FDA and Search Engines” article PDF now.

Strategic Domain's Website

New York, NY Dec. 8, 2008 — Strategic Domain, Inc. announced expansion of its SET² (Search Engine Traffic Power) process for improving Web site rankings on leading search engines including Google, Yahoo! and MSN. The expansion now includes their recently developed 30-Point Search Engine Check-up.

The SET² 30-Point Check-up (www.sdsearchengine.com) is designed to improve rankings on major search engines for corporate and product Web sites. Strategic Domain’s Managing Partner Rick Robinson pointed out that, “Web sites are often created by designers or programmers, and they frequently don’t realize or don’t have the skills to make a Web site search engine-friendly. They don’t fully understand search marketing. They often miss major opportunities to reach their intended target audiences. Web sites have to earn the right to appear at the top of search engine rankings by giving search engine robots more readable, valuable content.”

Strategic Domain, Inc. (www.strategicdomain.com) is a New York City-based e-communications firm specializing in online communication for healthcare organizations, B-to-B companies, financial firms and consumer companies. The firm began developing their search engine optimization strategies nine years ago which led to the development of SET² (Search Engine Traffic Power), a search marketing process for improving Web site rankings. Since then, the firm has been engaged in search marketing and optimization for a broad range of Web sites in the US and in Europe.

“The SET² 30-Point Check-up was created to uncover a Web site’s search engine problems. It creates an easy to follow guide and sets a priority for resolving all major issues to help Web sites get indexed and ranked by the leading search engines. With ever-changing algorithms and specifications,” continued Robinson, “a search engine may find a company’s Web site, but using outdated specifications makes it unlikely the site will get high rankings or see the traffic from searches their competitors may be getting. That is why professional search engine optimization is so critically important.”

Strategic Domain’s SET² 30-point search marketing check-up provides clients with a systematic list of the most up-to-date search engine optimization protocols. If these protocols and techniques are used, it will greatly enhance the Web site’s chance of quickly getting its targeted pages indexed while positioning the site for high rankings on the leading search engines.

One example cited by Robinson was the way in which many Web sites use Flash animation or videos. Web designers and programmers are not aware of how to make sure this content is recognized with specialized coding. Without the proper coding, search engines cannot “read” the content of the animations, videos and images. Google, Yahoo! and MSN, the big three search engines, are eager to rank videos and images, but most sites miss this opportunity. Strategic Domain’s SET² search engine optimization process solves this problem.

About Strategic Domain, Inc.

Strategic Domain, Inc. is a US-based e-Marketing and Advertising firm that specializes in on-line communications for healthcare organizations, financial firms, B-to-B and consumer product companies. Founded ten years ago in New York City, they provide their clients with a broad range of e-Marketing services including Web Development, Search Engine Optimization & Search Marketing, Web Analytics, On-Line Training, On-Line Marketing Research and other cutting edge e-Marketing initiatives in the US and globally. A partial list of their clients include American Standard, Benjamin Moore, CV Therapeutics, Dassault Falcon Jet, Endo Pharmaceuticals, EUSA Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), Pharmacist e-Link, Procter & Gamble, and Salix Pharmaceuticals. The firm has been widely regarded, having received 48 industry awards.

Contact

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Eisai.com Site

Strategic Domain produces tangible results in the competitive online pharmaceutical landscape

Strategic Domain worked with Eisai to search-engine-optimize their corporate site for increased exposure.

Highlights from the attached PDF include:

• Eisai company name search ranking increased from
  595 points to 1,079 points, or 81 percent. During
  the same time period, the industry average only
  increased 28 points, or three percent.
• The average number of Eisai-related listings per
  search engine increased from 1.6 to 8.8, an increase
  of 450 percent.
• Eisai has vastly improved its saturation level. Saturation
  refers to the number of times a site appears
  within a search engine’s top 30 positions, despite its
  ranking. During the first month of reporting, the
  highest number of rankings Eisai had on any search
  engine was two, giving us a very low saturation and
  low exposure. In the latest rankings, Eisai appears at
  least nine times on six of the search engines and at
  least five times on all but two search engines.

Download and read the report

Click here to download and read the PDF report entitled “Getting Results”