Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engines & Large Corporations - a case of David and Goliath?

I’d like to tell you about an interesting new trend that has emerged in Australia over the past couple of years which could have a profound effect on your company’s market share, profitability and sales.

In my line of work, I deal regularly with companies across the country seeking to grow their Internet presence. But it seems the only ones keen to invest in new techniques that tap into market share through search engines are smaller, innovative or emerging businesses – not large, well-established corporations.

What this means for brand leaders is that they are being bumped off prime search engine positions by up and coming market players who’ve taken a different approach to search engine marketing. These small but fierce competitors are steadily encroaching on the market share of long-established players through tactical, technically astute search engine positioning.

If you are a marketing director or CEO, a big part of your work probably centres around strategic, not tactical, goals. But the one area of marketing that requires immense tactical and technical expertise is search engine marketing. Working out where that fits into your strategic vision is one thing, but making it bring continued results is quite another.

In my experience working across some of Australia’s biggest industries, I’ve seen how pivotal search engine rankings can be to competitive sales and brand visibility, particularly for large companies that work in highly lucrative but deregulated markets. I’ve also looked inside a few marketing departments in my time, and observed how detrimental outdated search engine optimisation (SEO) policies can be to market share.

It’s amazing how prevalent the myth is that a few simple guidelines on meta-tags, page titles and keyword usage are all you need to keep volatile search engine rankings at bay. Search engines have changed dramatically in the last 5 years, and yet most corporations are still wasting time and effort following obsolete SEO policies while their competitors steal prime position for high-volume, targeted search engine traffic.

There are huge benefits to renewing your approach to search engine marketing. To begin with, you reinforce brand credibility, as research shows that most people believe top ranked companies reflect brand and market leadership. Secondly, you increase your exposure to the world’s most popular online activity, and the number 1 port of call for 80% of Internet users. Finally, you dramatically increase online conversion rates by targeting only genuine prospects actively searching for your products and services.

Numerous case studies show that search engine traffic outperforms all other traffic sources by producing more purchases, enquiries, document requests, subscriptions, and downloads. However, it is not enough to simply ‘appear’ in search engine listings. Research tells us that web users typically visit only the first three results from a search query, so to effectively compete this is where you need to be.

Search engine usage is a continuously growing trend, and search engine marketing is fast becoming the weapon of choice for new and emerging Australian businesses. But what many large corporations don’t know is that by building tactical force, they can use search engine marketing to regain control of market share and maintain their leading edge.

WebDynamic™ offers a free search engine compatibility assessment and needs analysis to interested clients. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to go on our limited waiting list for this popular new service.