Advertisers use search engines as a marketing medium with the main goal of increasing awareness and to also “Get Found”. I think that the best way to ensure that searchers or potential customers find your specific website is to:
(1) Be knowledgable about their behaviour and intent
Being a seasoned web surfer and search engine user myself, I know that I want to land on a web page that answers all my questions and supplies me with all the information I need quickly. According to the December.14, 2006 article “Dan Russell: How Do People Use Search Engines” this is true for most search engine users
Russell mentioned how quickly people scanned, and that they often refined their query within 2-3 seconds of their initial result. He emphasized the importance of making sure your titles are written well so that your site won’t be overlooked in the 2-3 seconds before the user decides the results are not applicable
This implies that Marketers should make sure that they understand what there keywords and titles imply about the corresponding website. A website could be either informational, transactional, or navigational. However, over approximately 50% of queries are informational based so marketers that are trying to optimize their position need to ensure that they have informational type keywords. They also must have the corresponding information to meet with the searchers expectations, so that they can achieve their goal of “Getting Found”.
(2) Understand that Google is not the only way customers search for and find websites
The way customers obtain information is rapidly changing due to the increasing popularity of social media. Searching for a website or information used to consist of entering a search engine page such as Google or Yahoo, then finding an applicable site to gather the needed information.
Today, consumers increasingly rely on social media as a source for finding information online. This means marketers must adapt their search marketing strategies in order to be found. We recommend using social content to inform and drive search results, a process that you can start by planning search and social together and seeking internal staff and partners with research, technology, and social expertise. See the November 23, 2010, “How to Integrate Search With Social Media”
In 2004, 83% of consumers said they used search engine results to find Web sites; in 2010 that number decreased to 61%. Additionally, 16% of consumers surveyed said they used a social networking site to find Web sites in 2010. See the August 11, 2010, “The Future of Search Marketing”
Today searching isn’t just about search engines such as Google and Yahoo, as seen from the data above. Marketers need to acknowledge that potential customers are also using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to find the information that they need to satisfy their questions and queries.
To be successful at “Getting Found”, there should be a focus on understanding what searchers are looking for on search engines so that businesses can make sure that they have the most optimal titles and keywords. However, businesses should focus on integrating social media into their SEO plans since sites such as Facebook are beginning to look like more and more like the new wave of search engines.