It's one of the hottest (but least understood) items in the communications field these days: Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which comprises both Search Engine Optimization
(SEO), primarily working with the components of a Web site, and Search Engine Advertising (SEA), buying pay-per-click ads on search engines like Google and Overture. Just a year
ago most companies didn't even know either existed. But with coverage in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Business 2.0 and other business publications there's more awareness
now. Still, many communicators are confused about the difference between SEA and SEO and think they are synonymous. Wrong.
"Like the rest of an integrated marketing plan, search engine need to be understood," says Niki Fielding, president of Digital Brand Expressions, a Kingston, N.J.-based search
engine marketing firm, whose clients include Index Stock Imagery and brands at Johnson & Johnson. "Web sites were not understood as a marketing tool when they first hit the
marketplace, either. Over time, all departments need to play a role in developing these tools, [including PR people]." To get a better handle on some of the differences between
SEO and SEA -- and how they each relate to offline communications -- PR NEWS asked Fielding to break down the topic so PR execs can take better advantage.
- SEO is somewhat predictable but not guaranteed (you can spend time with the media educating them about your product, but there's no guarantee if a story will run or how
your product will be depicted). A good optimizer will continually tweak results to maneuver brands into the top results on a search engine, but positions will rotate as search
engines change their algorithms and competitors make changes to their sites. - SEO is not a one-time event--it takes careful and constant evaluation of the marketplace, the competitive environment and the strategies underlying the evolution of your
brand's site. - SEO should include building links to your site from other sites. This results in direct traffic from those sites and influences search engine rankings--search engines more
positively rank sites with quality in-bound links compared with those without good links from other sites. Cultivating relationships with Web masters to acquire these links for
your brands is very much like pitching story ideas and keeping editors and reporters aware of the brands you market. - Like great advertising, SEA is somewhat predictable--paying for your insertion guarantees you a certain spot. Unlike print or TV advertising, you can get bumped from your
insertion spot by someone outbidding you. It takes close management of the creative and the bidding to ensure a client's message is consistent with the rest of the messages seen
in the media while jockeying for ideal advertising spots for the lowest possible price. - SEA is great for product launches. It is guaranteed visibility on the first page of search engine results. It is also a great way to complement the SEO program until it
takes hold (done properly, a new SEO effort can take up to 3 months to fully take hold). - After the initial SEO takes hold, it is almost always more cost-effective than SEA. SEA can get expensive very quickly--bidding drives up prices for everyone. From April to
June 2003, Overture said that advertisers paid 40 cents per click on average, up from 30 cents in the same period in 2002 (reported in an article on CNET.com). - With SEA, every term purchased on every network carries a per-click price; with SEO, there is no limit on how many terms can be optimized for, and there are no per-click costs
associated with optimization. - Both SEO and SEA, like traditional media relations and advertising, require constant care and careful management, with results analyzed and turned back into fuel for ongoing
PR endeavors.
Contact: Niki Fielding, 609.688.8558, [email protected]