What You Need to Know About Search Engines to Compete – Part I

Article by Larry Bailin - Single Throw

Spiders, robots and clicks - oh my! You can't pick up a magazine or newspaper without reading something about search; and as if the Internet was not confusing enough for you, here come the “search wars.” MSN, Google and Yahoo! are all battling to be the biggest and the best, and they are changing the rules as they go along.

What you need to know about search engines to compete may not be as cut and dry as you think. There is a lot more to search engine marketing than most businesses realize. The days of adding keywords and META Tags to gain preferable placement are long over.

Search engines have always been the primary method for finding websites on the Internet; however, when I started my first development company way back in 1995, “search” was a lot simpler. Back then, only a couple of search engines existed and they automatically “spidered” each website and added the sites’ information to their index everyday. The formulas a search engine used to determine what site was displayed in their results were much less complex. Adding keywords and META tags seemed to do the trick every time.

As times changed, so did the Internet and the search. There was a time when the Internet was doubling in size every 90 days, and everyone was a potential millionaire. But as the Internet grew, it became impossible for the search engines to keep up. This was also the time when businesses started to see the tremendous value in showing up under the right phrases in the major engines. Businesses that showed up well were able to attract customers at their exact time of need. You still can’t ask for a better lead than someone seeking out your offerings.

Today, search engines like Google boast 200 million plus searches a day! Terms such as "Googling" and "Googled" have been added to our vernacular and talking dolphins on TV boast the awesome power of Yahoo!. Search has officially hit the mainstream -- it is impossible for a growing business to ignore it.

Businesses of all sizes (large, small, regional and global) and types are trying to integrate search into their marketing plans. The problem is that search engine real estate is at a premium and most businesses don't know enough about the subject to make educated decisions. Like a lot of things on the Internet, the overwhelming flood of misinformation makes it very difficult to find the truth.

Let’s examine some of the more important aspects of search and try to “bust” some myths about marketing in the world of search.

Although there are thousands of search engines on the Internet, the major search engines account for 98% of all search traffic. Of the dozen or so major search engines (most people can only name six), the big guys include MSN, Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Lycos, and AltaVista.

For the purpose of this article, we are going to examine the three big players: MSN, Yahoo! and Google. These engines are primarily made up of two main search components -- Organic or relevant listings, and Pay Per Click (PPC) listings.

Organic “Relevant” Search Listings

Organic or relevant listings consist of the results that take up the most space on the search results page -- typically right down the center of the page -- where most searchers look. You cannot pay for these results. Those that show up in the organic listings are there because they are relevant to the phrase or keyword the searcher is looking for.

These organic search results are highly sought after by businesses. According to a recent Jupiter poll, 85% of commercial referrals from a search engine come from the organic listings. No wonder so many companies desire this placement.

In a perfect world the more relevant the site, the closer to the top of the listings it should be. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world, and there are those who manipulate or trick the technology the search engines use to determine ranking and ultimately show up in areas they should not be. This is referred to as “search engine spamming,” a situation search engines battle constantly.

Some examples of spamming would be to put white text against a white background so that a visitor could not see the text; however, a search engine spider would pick it up. Another form of spamming is something called "cloaking," in which a clever developer determines whether a search engine spider or an actual visitor is viewing the site. The visitor sees the actual website, but the spider sees a page overstuffed with repetitious phrases and keywords.

All of these methods are not only frowned upon by search engines; but for those caught, it may mean being banned or black listed from the search engine completely. When you consider that Google currently controls 40 plus percent of all search traffic (with its results partners AOL and Yahoo!), getting banned can cost a company dearly. The rule of thumb is if a search engine spider can’t see it but visitors can, it’s spam. Avoid companies that use such tactics to gain ranking.

So how does a company show up in a search engine’s organic listings?
Search engines of all types use mathematical formulas called "algorithms" to determine who is the most relevant. These formulas can, in their simplest forms, be broken down into 4 basic components: prominence, proximity, density and frequency.

Search engines determine prominence in much the same way you and I would. They look at a website for things that stand apart, such as words in bold, words that are links to more information, and key terms that are "above the fold" (top of a website before the scroll point).

Proximity is determined by how close a phrase or key word is to itself. For example, if the term "Single Throw" is used in a sentence, how many characters are there until the next time "Single Throw" is used again? With some creative copywriting you can find ways to end a sentence with a phrase and start the next with the same phrase.

Density is an easy term to understand. A search engine will take a look at all of the words used on your site and assign each word a percentage value. Does the term "Single Throw" represent 1%, 4%, or 10% of the site’s content?

Finally, there is the term frequency or simply a word count. How often is each word used throughout the content of a website?

Keep in mind that misuse of any of these techniques may be seen as spam to a search engine. Always try to remember the goal of your website and the information in it, is to help guide your visitor. Don’t just develop the content of your site to show up well in the search engine rankings and forget about your potential customer. Useful information that gives visitors what they came for will provide a true return.


Pay Per Click (PPC) or keyword bidding

Most major search engines have PPC listings. They are typically on the right hand side of the page and clearly marked "Sponsored," "Paid," or some variation thereof. For smaller businesses, PPC has become a do-it-yourself solution. Google actually promotes its "AdWords" program, stating that you can be up and running in as little as 15 minutes.

PPC programs are great for targeting very “aggressive” phrases, that is, those phrases that return a very large amount of results in the organic listings. The more sites that show up for a given search can make it very difficult – or even impossible -- to show up well. For instance, a phrase such as "Real Estate" is extremely aggressive (returning over thirteen million pages in Google’s results alone). This phrase is also fairly ambiguous. Most local agencies would be better served by creating a strategy to show up under a regional or local search term in the organic listings, such as "Real Estate Ocean County NJ." However, a national agency with offices all over the country might opt to create a PPC campaign for the generic term. Then, as searchers click through to their sites, give them the choices to localize from there.

Another great use for PPC would be for terminology that changes regularly, such as model numbers or product names. When you have products that change model numbers, you may opt to create a PPC campaign.


A couple things to keep in mind before venturing into the world of PPC:

1. You are paying every time someone clicks on your listing. This can get quite expensive, especially if you pick the wrong phrases and do not convert visitors into buyers. Make sure you set budgets and realistic limits. Be aware that you can also get into a bidding war with a competitor as typically the highest bidder shows up first. I know what you’re thinking -- you will click on your competitor’s link to drive up his cost. There are safeguards in place to prevent that from happening…sorry.

2. You still must choose relevant phrases or words. Google’s “AdWord” program has a relevancy factor built into its system, so top positioning does not always go to the top bidder. Google’s PPC listings feature a little green bar titled "interest," which measures the interest level or amount of clicks your listing gets. The interest level and bid rate will determine the placement of your ad. If you choose the wrong phrases and generate no interest (or clicks), you risk being bumped completely out and not being allowed to purchase that phrase or word again. Google also measures back clicks to determine how many people go to your site from your ad and then hit the back button to return to the search listings. To Google, this means they had no interest in what you had to offer.

Picking the right phrases is paramount to success. Keywords are not good targets anymore. The web has become too vast. You need to get very specific when determining what to target. Google recently released information that the average searcher uses three to five word phrases when making a search query. MSN recently released the statistic that over 50% of searches go unanswered. Think about what that means…It means that most businesses are choosing the wrong phrases to target and potential customers are not finding the products and services they need. You must make sure you choose your phrases wisely.

Look for Part 2 next month.

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