Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the fastest growing form of marketing, and promotes websites by increasing their visibility through text, graphic, flash and video ads, where clients are looking for them, on search engine results pages. SEM methods include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the art of modifying web sites to improve free search engine rankings, and paid search campaigns.

According to the New York Times, in 2006, North American advertisers spent US$9.4 billion on search engine marketing, a 62% increase over the prior year. As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, directory listings, and other paid search methods are online placements where ads may appear as search results or with related topics on other websites. Ycommunicate.com works with both Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing on regional, national and international levels to deliver clients to your web site.  

Paid Search Campaigns are typically used by clients for projects with larger budgets, but with careful planning can accommodate smaller budgets. These campaigns are ideal for increasing online purchases, breaking into a new market segment, and promoting a new product or service.  Especially for websites that allow customers to purchase goods or services directly from the website, including companies in the business to business sector that offer hard to find products or technology solutions.

The most common of the paid search methods, pay-per-click (PPC) has become a huge success for many advertisers with stronger ROI than other traditional forms of advertising. These campaigns allow businesses to target people that are specifically interested in your products at that moment. Targeted ads allow for tracking and documenting customer trends in real time.

We first seek to understand your organization by understanding your company's culture, its products and the marketplace. We then work closely with our customers to determine campaign parameters, budget and goals. We research, track, monitor and report on the campaign, marketplace, and the client to increase efficiency and ROI. Some of the services we offer our SEM clients include;

Keyword and Key Phrase Research: Like any good plan, it is important to have a strong foundation. We research keywords and key phrases based on your products and services, as well as search trends in your industry. More popular words and phrases often have a higher cost-per-click; we strategically select keywords and phrases for organic and paid listings, to maximize your ROI. We also take advantage of negative keywords to minimize invalid clicks.

Review the Competition: Ycommunicate.com analyzes your competition to determine what works for them and what opportunities they are not yet taking advantage of. Knowing the competition allows us to make recommendations on how to spend your budget, and make effective choices to avoid a bidding war for keywords when possible.

Budgeting: Based on experience and market research, we work with clients to determine a paid advertising budget that will be effective, and not break the bank.

Search Engine Network Placement: We work with both Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing on regional, national, and international levels. Ycommunicate.com works with clients to review budget, target market, and goals to determine the most effective search engine network to ensure visibility and the highest ROI.

Ad Copywriting: Paid search ads are very competitive, so your ad has to stand out. Most paid ads are limited in their word count or size. We make the most of a small space, writing powerful ads that encourage the right kind of clicks. We create text, graphic and flash ads.

Landing Page Selection: When a potential client clicks on your ad they expect to see what they are looking for on the landing page (the content page that a viewer is directed to when they click on the ad). Ads are created to lead potential clients to specific goods and services, while landing pages are carefully selected to make it easy for potential clients to become clients.

Monitoring and Reporting: Part of the review and monitoring process includes rewriting and tweaking ads that do not perform well. Multiple ads are run together, better performing ads show more often, other ads are modified until they produce the desired results.

Once the campaign is launched, it is carefully monitored to maximize your return on investment. Ycommunicate.com meets with clients on a regular basis to discuss paid search campaigns, and review the monthly reports. We review all major changes to the campaign with our clients, keeping them involved and aware of their campaigns. Our qualified staff reviews market trends as well as client trends, to determine if adjustments are necessary, and to anticipate changes in the market. 

SEO is a complement to SEM programs. It is a complex task of preparing web page content and programming that takes advantage of SEM programs more effectively by improving organic search engine results and increasing traffic to the site. We also use our experience and understanding of search algorithms to look for issues that could prevent search engines from successfully spidering a site.

The Ycommunicate SEO Process

The Ycommunicate.com SEO process begins with research of your existing site’s technical structure, your competition and search rankings for your industry. We review your site's technical structure including content, page structure, descriptions, tagging and other programming elements. The structure of your web site, its content and programming code can greatly help or hurt your search engine rankings. Because not all search engines are alike, and are always changing, we continue to monitor your site, to determine when updates are necessary to maintain your search engine rankings and make your site relevant to your customers.

Benchmarking: To properly track your progress we need to establish your website’s current standing.  We set up analytics and track current statistics to determine trouble areas and future opportunities. This also allows us to further understand your industry trends.

Content Optimization: We review the keyword research to compile a carefully selected list of terms and phrases, which are integrated into the content of your site. Integrating keywords requires a careful balance to compliment the flow and content of your site.

Web Ads, Directory Listings and other External Links: Organic listings are influenced in part by the quality and quantity of external links directed towards your web site. The quality of external links is important; they can significantly improve your organic ratings, or cause your site to plummet.

Web Site Maintenance: Optimization is never really completed, once the site is launched it will move up in organic rankings, and you will see an increase in traffic.  The process can take anywhere from 2-12 weeks, during which we monitor your ranking so that we can identify which key phrases and pages are performing best. We also monitor link popularity to see where your site is in comparison to your competition and goal placement.

New competition will inevitably enter the market, market trends will change, as will your consumers. Continuous monitoring and campaign management is necessary to maintain your organic rankings and drive traffic to your website.

Find out how our SEM and SEO services can help your company or organization achieve its full online potential. Contact us at info@ycommunicate.com or call 705-458-4289