Feature: Unravelling the ‘black art’ of search engine marketing

Article written by Mark Scriven, Turismotec Ltd.

The internet is becoming an increasingly more significant part of the marketing plans of any travel business. More and more money is being spent on building highly advanced websites offering e-commerce capabilities and delivering enhanced user experiences. Millions of pounds are being spent on getting visibility in the search engines through various Search Engine Marketing strategies. Despite all of this there is still a vast amount of mystery and hype surrounding the whole subject of SEM (search engine marketing), also confusingly known as SEP (search engine placement) and SEO (search engine optimisation).

In simple terms, Search Engine Marketing is the process whereby a website is formulated in such a way that it ranks highly in the search engines for specific search phrases. Despite the growing number of credible SEM agencies, the sheer size of internet generated revenues, and the amount of money now being spent on SEM it is remarkable that many people still view the industry as some kind of black art, or the realm of spotty computer geeks sat in dark rooms trying to crack the search engine’s ranking algorithms.

The reality of SEM is very different from this. Effective SEM is a marketing based process backed by solid research, effective copywriting and good old-fashioned hard work. It is underpinned by some basic programming work, but it is important to remember that it is about marketing and not technology, and the results can be measured like any other area of traditional marketing.

It is not necessary to be “blinded by science” as all professional SEM vendors will make an effort to educate their clients as to what the process involves, what input is expected from the client and what results can realistically be achieved.

The simple truth is that there is no magical formula, mathematical solution or automated technology that can provide the answer to effective search engine marketing. In fact, it is actually a fairly logical step-by-step process that incorporates 5 key elements:

1. Keyword selection
Keyword selection determines the volume and quality of your visitor traffic. The objective of effective keyword selection is to identify the keywords that your prospective customers are using to find holiday products and services like yours online. This is all about research and analysis in order to identify the keyword phrases and combinations that will work best for your business.

2. Content development
If you want your website to get ranked for a particular keyword you must have good quality site content relevant to that keyword. All good SEM companies will have copywriters on board who are skilled in the art of writing copy that is compelling to both the search engine and the site visitor.

3. Link building
Link popularity is a highly important part of the search engine’s ranking algorithms. In simple terms it is a function of the number, quality and theme of other websites that link to your website. All other things being equal, the website with best link popularity will rank the highest in the search results. This requires significant research in order to find relevant and high quality websites that would provide good link partners.

4. Effective site design
It’s no good investing your marketing budget in order to attract thousands of visitors to your website if it is so poorly designed that they cannot find what they are looking for. Special consideration needs to be taken with the site layout and navigational structure to ensure that it is well prepared to maximise the visitor traffic generated by your SEM plan.

5. Monitoring and measurement
SEM is not a “one off fix. In reality it is a process that takes time to reach full effectiveness and it needs to be monitored on an ongoing basis and tweaked to ensure that it is delivering the best possible results

So there it is, no black magic or rocket science. Just a straightforward and logical marketing based process grounded on sound research and hard work which, if implemented correctly, will generate a continual flow of highly qualified visitor traffic to your website.

Article written by Mark Scriven, Turismotec Ltd.