In a recent Business Plus Magazine publication, JumpStart Marketing were asked to give our responses to a number of search marketing questions. The first 2 questions and answers are given below:

Q1. The whole Google, search, AdWords arena can seem intimidating at first. How tough a nut is it to crack?

Q2. Search engine optimisation involves many strands. Which ones do you think are the most important?

Answer 1:

There is a lot to learn in the area of search marketing. To make matters worse things are always changing. What you know now might not be relevant in 2 years time. Getting your head round it all can take time. To become an expert in the field could take years. On the plus side though, it is not rocket science! Putting together a successful, high ranking, high conversion marketing campaign can be achieved by inexperienced people but there certainly are variables which can make cracking the nut beyond the reach of new comers to Internet marketing.

In comparison to the UK or global markets, the Irish search engines are less hard to crack. There is less competition, therefore it is easier to rank highly in natural search results and it’s easier to keep costs down and make a profit in Adwords. You can sometimes get away with not having fully optimised sites or having badly structured Adwords campaigns in Ireland.

When concentrating solely on the Irish market, much depends on the industry you are in. Getting high rankings for terms such as ‘Dublin Accommodation’ or ‘Travel Insurance’ can be tough. These are very competitive areas and there is much competition. When competing in these sectors you have to know the intricacies of Internet marketing. A lot of time and money needs to be invested by clients to crack those nuts.

Answer 2:

The most important strand of SEO is keyword research. Keyword research is the strong foundation on which your SEO campaign must be built. If you target the wrong keywords then no amount of onsite optimisation, link building work, etc. will make your campaign a success. Through keyword research tools, competitor analysis, and communication with your client you can identify the full keyword universe for that business.

Whether you like it or not, link building is essential for SEO success. It is a key factor of the Google algorithm so you cannot ignore it. Your company needs to have a link building strategy. The key is to try and gain quality, relevant links in a natural fashion. If your link building activities look suspicious then you won’t get the ranking boost that you expect.

Your link building strategy should be built around providing useful content and a useful service. You will naturally gain links from this. Other link building strategies include article submissions, directory submissions, press releases, social bookmarking, paid links, and begging for links!