Vertical Search Engines and Small Business Marketing

March 4, 2009

Late last summer there was a ton of press about Cuil, the supposed Google Killer.  This was a new Search Engine that was supposed to steal traffic from Google and make the “next step” in Search.  As we all know now, Cuil is pretty much a punchline in the Search Community with small and dwindling traffic.

The reasons for Cuil’s failure so far can be attributed at least partly to the space and competition.  The Search Market is established, and the current Engines do what they do well.  To get a consumer to change their current search engine you don’t have to be five percent better than Google you have to be 500 percent better and that is a high bar to cross. Consumers are now ingrained to search Google, and “Googling” has entered our lexicon.

It reminds me of when Fox decided it was going to be a “network” like ABC, CBS, and NBC.  They failed for a long time until they had to severely overpay for the NFL, which brought viewers and news, and finally respectability.  But what is the NFL out there that can pull any kind of major traffic away from Google, Yahoo, MSN or even Ask.  It seems a different business model is emerging.

This article from Electronic Retailer Magazine talks about Vertical Search Engines.  These are engines that focus on a specific industry or topic and deliver results suited to those topics. Often these engines use humans to sort the results to keep out spam and make sure results are relevant. While none will approach the traffic of Google they can each siphon off searchers who know what they are looking for and need focused results.

To demonstrate we ran a test  for search results on a subject that brings back very different results.  We ran “steroids” through Google and OmniMedicalSearch and they brought back very different results, which makes sense. Both have paid advertising, OmniMedicalSearch keeps 6 AdSense results at the top of the page and Google runs them on the top and down the side.  On Google the organic or natural results come back with a site to buy steroids, general news about steroids, pictures of bodybuilders, very general, topical results. On OmniMedicalSearch the results come from Medical sites and give the definition of steroids and list different types. Obviously these would be results that would make more sense for a medical professional.  If you wnated to reach Medical professionals with a product OmniMedicalSearch can be a great place to advertise through the Google content network. Other engines actually sell their own space on their sites. Search Engine Watch has a nice list of  vertical engines that you can check out.

The article points out that these engines are like cable television, popping up and taking specialized traffic away from the Search Engines.  The goal is not to try and change everybody, but rather to deliver more focused results to a core group of searchers.

So how can small businesses use these engines?  In actuality, these engines can be a major part of small business strategies.  They can deliver more quality results for less money in the paid search realm and getting ranked in these engines can drive qualified organic search. Ian Howells, general manager of agency services at Pepperjam, one of the nation’s fastest growing online marketing agencies was quoted in the article as saying:

General search engines are focused on returning the most relevant results for the widest variety of searches.”  A vertical search engine puts more effort–much of it human, as opposed to automated–into a much smaller index of results. Typically, the results are of a superior quality. There is far less spam. Results tend to be extremely relevant and the site quality is excellent.”

He points out that while these engines don’t drive nearly as much traffic that the large engines bring, but the traffic that comes to a site through these engines is much more affordable, focused and likely to convert.  That is kind of a mantra here at Raise, bringing qualified traffic that is likely to convert as efficiently as possible.  When we take on clients for a search marketing campaign one of the first things that we do is identify any Vertical Search Engines that will make sense for them.  Often there aren’t any, or we run tests and they aren’t as effective as we hoped but when they work they can be a true home run for a company, especially a small business with a tight budget.

If you have more questions about Vertical Search Engines please don’t hesitate to contact us for a more in depth conversation.

Search Engine Optimization can even affect Town Names

March 1, 2009

There is a very interesting story in the Times Online from February 25 about the town of Eu in Normandy, France.  It is a resort town that has seen its hotel bookings drop in recent years as more and more tourists make their plans online.  The town name is impossible to find in the Search Engines, most results bring up European Union or other short terms.  So they are considering adding more syllables to the name to make sure it can be found.

This seems extreme but businesses should make this consideration when naming a business or certainly when picking a domain name.  If you can get important keywords into your domain it will help you rank for those keywords.  It doesn’t guarantee rankings but it can be an important piece of the puzzle.

As an an internet marketing company based on Hilton Head Island we see this a lot.  There are a lot of very competitive terms  for Hilton Head Island and sometimes the short term vacation terms completely dominate the long term or local keyword searched.  For instance Hilton Head Rental will bring terms that relate exclusively to short term rentals as opposed to long term rentals for those of us who live here.  We are forced to type in apartments, or long term rentals.  So when picking a company name or a domain name make sure you examine the landscape and attempt to incorporate your major keyword if it makes sense.

SEO: Pay Per Performance or Pay Per Service

January 30, 2009

As we talk to customers we hear more and more about Search Engine Optimization that guarantee results and only make you pay when you rank organically for a set number of your desired keywords. This is very interesting, and on the surface, is a smart strategy for the search companies. They get paid when results are delivered – who doesn’t like that?  There actually are a couple of reasons that the consumer should be very wary of a company like this:

1.  You won’t get good results. As much as these companies promise, their strategy is generally to pick and choose the least competitive keywords that you are training to attain and focus on those.  The problem is that these keywords are not competitive for a reason – they aren’t receiving good search volume or they aren’t relevant to your site.  You don’t want to focus all your time on a keyword that won’t generate traffic or conversions. Also, focusing on any very small specific keyword list is a bad idea. You want to grow your site and audience in a broad manner. Just trying to rank for one or two keywords is not a successful long term strategy.

2. This model encourages black hat behavior. A company that only gets paid for results has much greater reason to try “black hat” or shady methods of getting your site ranked quickly.  These tricks may get your site ranked for some keywords pretty quickly, but the search engines are smart. They are constantly watching tactics and changing their algorithms to jump in front of it.  And if Google sees your site breaking their webmaster guidelines you will be penalized and lose rank or be removed from the search engines altogether.  It doesn’t matter that somebody else was responsible, it is your site and you will be penalized. Only work with companies that use strictly white hat, transparent SEO techniques.

3.  Its bad strategy that will not help your business in the long run: We would never guarantee results at Raise because of the hundreds of factors that go into ranking a page – for instance, it matters what your competition is doing, how long your domain has been active and what the search engines do.  Also, just getting ranked for a keyword is great but that is only half of a successful search engine campaign.  You must watch how that traffic reacts with your site and make adjustments based on the results using such programs as Google Analytics.

We understand why these companies would build a model like that, and we understand why businesses, especially small businesses would, jump at the offer.  Pay-per-performance has its place on the internet and is the future of sales, I don’t doubt that. But I cannot see when SEO will join those ranks. It is a service that takes time and expertise. Our focus is building for the long haul, not a short bang. In the end the mantra is true that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Small Business Marketing in a Tough Economy

January 29, 2009

Wow, things are bleak right now. Customers aren’t shopping and banks aren’t lending. This leads to retail stores not being able to keep their doors open and shakes through manufacturers and every segment of our economy. If the big guys are laying off 15,000, what is a business of 15 employees (where everyone is essential) going to do? Shut the doors?

Maybe.  It looks like this is going to be a very tough year, however the businesses that come through in the end are going to come out leaner, stronger and smarter.  There are ways to protect yourself.  One of the first is to look at your marketing.  Cut everything that you cannot track.  There is an old advertising saying – “I know 50% of my advertising budget is wasted, I just don’t know which 50%”.  Online we track everything, down to what word brought a person to your site and what they did on your site.  If you haven’t yet, it is time to reassess your newspaper ads, your TV and radio and especially your yellow page  advertising.  I don’t have a phone book in my house and I have not for 5 years.  Everything I need I find online or through my phone or from a friend.

Make sure you are featured in Google Local and other similar services.  Make sure your website works, and that it is attractive and informative.  If it is not look for a respected small business web design company.  It doesn’t have to blow fire out computer speakers or have people walking across the screen.  The most important goal of website is to deliver the information that the client is looking for and give them a reason to become your customer.

Focus on email marketing. Ask your current customers if it is okay if you send them information and then set up a system to stay in touch with them in a responsible way.  Use a program like Constant Contact so you can track open rates and bounce rates. If people are unsubscribing it means you are emailing too much or not sending good information.  Take some marketing money and put it into pay-per-click marketing.  It will drive people to your site instantly and you can experiment with different keywords to see what converts.  We don’t have to guess.  I came up in newspapers, I understand how they work, but there is a reason that they are dying.

So now we have a reasonable and completely trackable plan for marketing. Our costs are cut and, for everything we do, we know how it worked.  Maybe we just hold our own, maybe we lose some business, but as things start to come around, and they will, we are ready.  We are lean.  And we push, we don’t have to make adjustments to changing media, we have already done it.  Obviously this is one facet of how a small business can make it through the tough times, but let me tell you something from experience.  Businesses that cut their marketing completely when times get tough never recover.  It makes more sense to focus your resources on areas that you can track completely.