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SEO, the next battleground for Web marketers
Search, once considered a commodity service,
has moved centrestage with more and more users tracking websites
through search engines. A host of small Indian firms have sensed
this rapidly emerging opportunity and are using specialised search
engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to boost their client’s rankings
on search engines. Srikanth R P has the details on this new trend
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| Binoy Pillai says SEO gives a psychological
branding advantage to the user company over sponsored listings |
Imagine if you are given the task of finding
out a particular fish in the ocean with only a tiny fishing net,
without even knowing the location of the fish. Impossible, right?
Now extend this analogy to the information available on the Net.
What are the chances of an average user finding out about your company’s
website? Almost zilch, if you consider the statistics.
With close to 407.1 million users, 33,942,187
domains, 25,675,581 websites and over one billion pages, the Internet
is nothing short of an ocean when it comes to information. So, hoping
that a user would find relevant information about your company by
just putting up a Web presence is way too ambitious. But unlike
the ocean, the Internet has got helpful guides in the form of search
engines like Google and Altavista, that scan and index millions
of pages to fine tune a query and get relevant information.
Search, once considered a commodity service
extra by online sites, has today become an important and strategic
tool in acquiring prospective customers. Hence, if you find that
your company is not even listed in the top three results pages of
a top search engine like a Google or Altavista, maybe it is time
to talk to some search engine optimisation (SEO) firms, for your
competitor must have already done so. SEO firms are specialist firms
which tweak Web pages, content and also make a host of submissions
to search engines so that the next time a user types a keyword search
on Google, your company will appear on the top of the rankings for
the specified words used.
Stll not convinced? Consider the example
of a leading handicraft manufacturer in India. Despite being the
best in the business with rates no other competitor in the country
could match, the manufacturer found himself losing business to his
more-expensive rival. Upon investigating, he found out that his
rival had sought out the services of a search engine optimisation
firm. Whenever an user from anywhere in the world used to type in
the words ‘handicraft manufacturer India’ on Google, the rival’s
site was listed on the first page of the results. Serious buyers
who wanted to procure handicrafts from India sought out the services
of his rival’s firm. His own site, despite having competitive rates
and more categories, was ranked on the fourth page of Google. It
takes no whizkid to figure out why he was losing business. Today,
he is eagerly talking to SEO firms to help make his company appear
in topmost search engine rankings.
Importance
The importance of optimising your site for
search engines becomes more relevant when you consider the fact
that only a serious user would consider coming to your site through
a search engine. Says Binoy Pillai, CEO, Brandtrix, "At the
end of the day, what counts for any website or companies that operate
online is the serious/relevant traffic it generates. And search
engines are the most cost effective way to drive serious visitors
to your website. Whoever is coming to your website through search
engines is spending his time and energy to find the product or services
you offer. Hence, if your website is not placed in the top 20 search
engine results, you are undoubtedly losing prospective clients."
These facts are corroborated by market statistics.
For instance, a report by Jupiter Media
Metrix states that 28 percent of Internet users type a product/service
name into a search engine, 9 percent type a brand name, 5 percent
type a company name and 5 percent go to a search engine shopping
channel. The report also states that a majority of online traffic
is generated through Google, Yahoo, Inktomi and FAST search engines.
Also as 90 percent of users generally do not go beyond the third
page of search results, it is of utmost importance that a website
or product gets listed within the top three pages for the relevant
keywords for it to get any traffic.
Cost effectiveness
Unlike traditional forms of advertising,
running a targeted SEO campaign can help your company not only get
serious buyers, but more importantly do it cost effectively. Explains
Prashant Deorah, CEO, Puretech Internet, "The RoI for SEO is
excellent when compared to any other form of advertising as one
gets better conversion rates, lower cost per click and lower acquisition
costs. A study by market research intelligence firm NPD group says
that "consumers are more likely to purchase products after
seeing search engine listings versus online banner advertisements."
The same market report states that high search engine listings drive
the highest awareness or branding for a site, with consumers recalling
websites 60 percent of the time from search engine listings and
roughly 20 percent from online banner advertisements. Companies
are also gradually realising that their customers did not stumble
upon their site by accident. They were actively searching for a
particular product through search engines. That’s exactly the type
of audience most companies would like to cultivate.
Sponsored links vs. SEO
Though search engines like Google have the
concept of sponsored links, wherein an advertiser’s services or
product name gets thrown up the moment the user types in a particular
set of keywords, SEO players believe that their concept is more
cost effective and promising. Since a normal search engine optimisation
programme takes almost 90 days to achieve results, advertisers who
want to go live quickly prefer sponsored links but in the longer
run, a SEO campaign is more cost effective and strategic.
Says Vishal Sampat, director, Convonix Inc,
"Sponsored links and pay-per-click programmess (the green boxes
on the right-hand side of Google) work on the bidding model. You
select a keyword and bid on it. The highest bidder gets his ad displayed
on the top. Each time a user clicks on your advertisement, the search
engine will charge you your bid amount. While initially it is a
good idea to go in for a pay-per-click program for immediate exposure,
this works to be expensive in the long term."
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| Vishal Sampat says SEO is not an overnight
process and the results could take 8-16 weeks to show |
In terms of cost effectiveness too, there
is a huge difference between using SEO techniques and sponsored
links. Explains Pushpendra Singh, webmaster, IndiaInternetmarketing.com,
"The average per-click rate for sponsored links on Google is
around $1.72, while through the SEO techniques you get top placement
with an average click-rate of 50 cents only. It is been proved that
you get around 30 times more traffic in SEO links than in sponsored
links by investing the same amount."
Additionally, SEO companies believe that
a listing achieved through an SEO campaign gives a psychological
advantage over sponsored links. Says Pillai, "When a person
sees the sponsored listings, he knows that the link is there because
the company paid money to the search engine to advertise there.
But when he sees a site within the normal search result page he
thinks it is because of the quality of the site. This gives a psychological
branding advantage to the company over the sponsored listings."
Current scenario
Though the market is still nascent, awareness
about the SEO concept is increasing gradually and business is looking
up for specialist SEO firms. And going by the experience of the
magic the SEO wizards have worked, business is certainly looking
up. There are numerous examples in both the domestic and international
market, where SEO firms have tweaked sites and increased the number
of visitors.
Take the example of CCAvenue.com, one of
India’s leading payment gateway providers. CCAvenue’s SEO consultants,
Brandtrix, made sure that whenever one typed ‘payment gateway India’
or any related keywords, the CCAvenue site showed up in the top
10 results. Another example is Mumbai-based Rhombus Technologies,
where the number of visitors to the site has increased after it
optimised its website using the help of Puretech.
Tech companies are not the only ones swinging
to the SEO tune. Mumbai-based Bombay City Eye Institute wanted to
create brand awareness and promote its various eye care and ophthalmology
services like cornea transplant and surgery, cataract surgery and
glaucome treatment to both the local and international market. In
came SEO specialist firm, Puretech who fine tuned content and tweaked
its website structure. The result—whenever anyone entered the words
‘retina surgery’, ‘Glaucoma treatment Bombay’, ‘Cataract surgery
Bombay’ or ‘Cornea surgery’—the institute’s site got listed in the
top rankings on major search engines. Not surprisingly, today all
these companies have seen an increased number of serious visitors
to their sites.
While enquiries from the domestic market
are picking up, the real big potential for Indian SEO firms could
be in the international market, where the familiar cost advantage
can be leveraged. Indian firms roughly do the same job at only 50
percent of the cost that a SEO firm in the US or Europe charges.
Says Pillai, "India has started making
its mark in the global SEO outsourcing industry. Currently, development
companies in the US and Europe are approaching us for partnerships
to provide SEO services to their clients. We have also started dealing
with major SEO companies in the US and Europe, wherein they outsource
their work to us. Another market which is proving to be lucrative
is the small business segment in New Zealand and Australia, from
where the number of projects coming in is on the rise. Currently,
over 50 percent of our business comes from the overseas markets.
We have clients from over 15 countries, mainly the US, Europe, Australia
and New Zealand." Looking at the quality of services Indian
SEO companies provide, international firms are gradually increasing
their SEO requirements to Indian firms.
For instance, BrandTrix has just done a
SEO optimisation campaign for the New Zealand School of Travel &
Tourism, an organisation offering IATA training in Auckland, New
Zealand. The result—whenever one searches for ‘IATA training institute’
in Google, the organisation is positioned above the official IATA
website. Not surprisingly, more and more organisations prefer Indian
SEO firms for their SEO campaigns. Firms like Puretech have seen
an increase in business coming from abroad while Convonix derives
around 80 percent of its business from overseas markets.
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| Prashant Deorah says the RoI for SEO is
better as it delivers better conversion rates, lower cost per
click and lower acquisition costs |
Challenges
Being a nascent trend, there is a still
a lot of misconception in the market about the benefits of search
engine optimisation techniques. Says Sampat of Convonix, "A
lot of people come to us expecting to either see an overnight increase
in traffic or asking us to submit sites to 5,000 search engines.
This is because they themselves have received a mail saying that
a software does that. The truth is that there are 20 top engines
that account for over 95 percent of search engine traffic. Most
of the other 4,980 search engines get less traffic than a personal
website does. Also, SEO is not an overnight process. The results
take 8-16 weeks to show, but if properly implemented and persisted
with, SEO shows substantial savings over any other method within
a few months of tweaking and optimisation."
Additionally, there are numerous fly-by-night
operators in the country who charge clients extremely low fees without
taking into account the quality of the rankings. Says Deorah of
Puretech, "SEO is no trifle task. It is an art and science
of applying the knowledge and experience gained over the years researching
the search engine’s distinct algorithm and unique indexing parameters.
But this industry is plagued by numerous small time players who
promise clients submissions by just purchasing a software that automatically
submits your site to numerous search engines."
Naturally, the quality of rankings such
firms promise is never achieved and it gives a bad name to the entire
industry. There have also been numerous instances where search engines
like Google have banned certain sites because their SEO firms have
been indulging in spamming search engine submissions. Additionally,
many firms convince clients that increasing the density of keywords
to the amount of text on a page guarantees top listings in Google.
This is far from true. For instance, if you were a handicraft manufacturer
in India and you repeat the keywords ‘handicraft manufacturer India’
about 50 times in your Web page, Google is likely to treat this
as spam and it could well result in your site being banned.
Conclusion
Till last year, Indian SEO companies had
to approach clients and convince them that search engines are important
marketing tools, but now companies have started approaching firms
specialising in SEO. SEO players claim that business has grown at
least three times compared to the amount of deals done the last
year. While awareness has yet not reached its full potential, the
industry is certainly getting more aware of the importance of SEO
techniques. The next time you type in an innocuous word in Google,
remember that an Indian SEO firm could be tweaking the pages behind
the scenes for the rankings you see.
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Search engine optimisation is
not a job that can be done by an automated software agent,
but it’s not rocket science either. The first thing that
any SEO firm does is conduct research on the type of market
a company is operating in and design the content of the webpage
in a manner that includes the keywords. Over here, it is important
to know that not everyone searches the web in a particular
fashion. So if you are a firm selling ‘software encryption
products,’ it will help to include keywords like security
product, software encryption and even ‘protecting files.’
The key here is to predict the way a normal Web user thinks
rather than how the marketing whizkid does. SEO firms also
optimise the site structure. For instance, many search engines
do not crawl dynamic sites or sub pages with framed sites.
SEO firms hence work on optimising the home page and making
site modifications so that the search engine can crawl through
the entire site.
Next comes the submission of
the home page and sub pages to top engines and various directories
such as Yahoo!, LookSmart and Open Directory Project. Simultaneously,
the SEO firm exchanges the website’s links with other
sites which have the same theme. For example, if a client
has a jewellery site, then an exchange of links with other
jewellery sites is done to boost popularity. SEO is not a
one-time process and an SEO firm has to continuously observe
the rankings in the search engines and tweak up the site to
accomodate changes in the search engine algorithms. For instance,
when search engines change their algorithms some websites
get dropped from the top rankings. Hence, an SEO firm has
to run periodic reports to gauge the position of a particular
site on various search engines. After all the hectic work,
it is a patient wait till the site gets to the top of the
rankings. Players like Puretech have gone one step ahead and
offer a live ranking of the client’s website on different
search engines.
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Vertexera.com, a US-based firm,
deals in targeted mailing campaigns and lead generation campaigns
in the B2B sector. It promoted its campaign and services primarily
through its website.
Status
before SEO
The site was marketed using PPC (pay-per-click) techniques
from Google and Overture. The monthly budget for PPC was $2,400.
The average cost per-click for each keyword used to be $0.81
and the average cost per lead used to be $14.72.
- B2B lists 1
- B2B leads 10
- Targeted mailing lists 8
- Targeted mailing campaigns 2
- Lead generation programs 1
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In stepped specialists from SEO
firm Convonix, and used primary keywords like B2B lists, B2B
leads, targeted mailing lists, targeted mailing campaigns
and lead generation programs in the content of the site.
Keyword rankings after six months
of SEO for the company on Google. For instance, when a user
typed in ‘B2B lists’ on Google, the ranking was
first and for ‘targeted mailing campaigns’, the
ranking was second. See table.
The
results
The estimated cost if PPC was used, would have been 422 X
0.81 = $341.82/ day. The average cost per unique visitor from
SEO techniques came down to $0.078 from $0.81 and the cost
per lead reduced to $1.43 from $14.72 using PPC techniques.
Conclusion
SEO has proved to be cost effective in reducing the cost per
lead by over ten times compared to PPC.
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