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Does placement matter more online than offline?
Before you raise your hand and answer, sit back down and continue slurping on your milk and cookies. Today's lesson will explore whether placement of your brand matters more online than offlline and if so, why?

Placement, one of the seven P's of marketing, is a critical component of the offline marketing mix but online is absolutely HUGE. Organisations are beginning to realise the importance of ensuring that their brand is well positioned online and is visible at the 'virtual point of sale'.
 

Internet users continue to embrace search engines as a resource to navigate the overwhelming amount of information available to them.  Hence why techniques such as SEO have become so popular - it enables a brand to be placed where prospective consumers are going to come into contact with it. The driving force behind these techniques is to occupy one of the top three ranking positions, either in the organic or paid listings, to obtain maximum exposure to the ever increasing number of customers relying on search engines to find products and services.  Research has shown that people rarely go beyond the top 30 results listed from a search.

In fact:
•    The top 30 results get over 90% of search traffic
•    The top 10 results receive over 80% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
AND
•    Positions 1-3 obtain 80% of the OVERALL traffic.

Its ok, take a second, push your lower jaw back up and I will explain further.  

So by employing a strategy that allows your brand to obtain one of the top 3 positions you are going to achieve a significant portion of 80% of the overall search volume for your chosen keywords. The Enquiro click distribution study suggests 1st place position obtains 56% of the total consumer searches whereas as 2nd postion receives 13% and 3rd position 10%.



 
It is a legalised version of daylight robbery, sponsored by Google.

The Crime Scene: Artefact 1 - The Evidence

The 3rd "P" of the marketing mix deals with product placement.  Placement under the offline marketing mix involves various ways of making products available to customers.  This contrasts hugely with online as the distribution channels online are dwarfed by the importance that search engines hold as 80% of internet users visit a search engine every day. This is why the placement of a product is so much more crucial online than off.  If you did not have your brand positioned within one of the major shopping centres then it would slightly affect sales but due to the various other channels of distribution that exist you would still survive, with regards to online, if your brand can not be found within search engines then it will be detrimental to your ability to generate brand awareness and the acquisition of new customers.

According to the web monitoring company Hitwise (2008), here's where we pull out the big guns, the three largest search engines are Google, Yahoo! and MSN. These account for 90% of all searches carried out in the UK and since comScore states there were "4.1 billion searches conducted in the U.K., more than in any other European country" in April 2008,  you can imagine the integral part of a online strategy they must play.

Knowing that around 80% of web users visit a search engine every day for product or service research is why advertisers are investing "to fish where the fish are" (Roehm, 2005)  Positioning your brand online through search engines is as essential as opening your doors to let customers in.  

To summarise, what online marketers can identify is that the web is growing continuously; as new pages are published on the web every day. However, it is not enough to publish a web page; the site must also be locatable for it to succeed. See the placement pattern emerging here? This is why online product placement is vital.  


The Crime Scene: Judges Verdict


The foreman steps forward and summarises suitably:

"In retail marketing, the catchword is "location, location, location." In cyberspace, the same catchword holds true, only the locations are different. Hollywood got it wrong when they said, "If you build it they will come." The reality is, they will only come if they can find you. SEO is a matter of survival."

As Google continues to expand, their opportunities to pedal Adwords ads and recycle clicks within the Googletron empire spread.  Google was first recognized as a superior search engine because of its unique algorithm that gave weight to back links and valid content, Google rejected the loud advertisements of competitors like Yahoo and AOL and was preferred by users because it gave them what they wanted; relevant results and no advertising mess.  But then they started shopping around for other companies, and today Google holds stakes in the likes of British Sky Broadcasting and partners with Sony BMG Entertainment.

On the paid search side of the fence Google introduced Adwords, software offering corporations and peons alike the opportunity to advertise on their results pages with a clean 95 character box based ad.  Adwords really took off when they introduced content match, allowing advertisers to publish on a range of websites, instead of exclusively keeping them to the Google search results pages.  Last year this meant $16.4 billion, the majority of Google's revenue. 

As  they purchase more advertising sites, they are able to send their advertisers to more places, in turn receiving more ad revenue.   Their new mobile phone platform ANDROID delivers advertisements which Google can bleed into to the Adwords profit stream.  They even issue their ads through Fox Interactive Media division, which include sites like MySpace, American Idol, and Rotten Tomatoes.

In the Organic search engine results, Google is benefiting big time from rolling into media.   Purchasing YouTube in 2006 Eric Schmidt, the chief exec at Google, said to BBC "the powerful media platform complements Google's mission to organize the world's information."  Organize the world's information by buying it up?  Doesn't that enter the flood gates to self promotion across multiple medians?  Namely, the exclusive recycling of clicks within the Google umbrella? 

For example, I search the term "muffin top" looking for the popular Life Savers candy commercial.  The second organic result is a YouTube video, complete with an image of the commercial.  I will click this top link, keeping me within the Google family from query to content.  However, there are other websites offering the same video which also rank on the first page, but without the (promotional) image signifying to users "video here!". 

In short, Google is sucking up revenue by expanding where they send their ads while simultaneously keeping the organic results in the family when possible.  As Google continues to build on its metropolis of content across mediums, our searching options as users continue to shrink.  Is it worth it to have access to relevant content if it will be littered by ads and pulled from a diminishing pool of non-google results?

Is Google becoming a search monopoly?  Deciding how we will browse instead of their original premise, relying on good content to rise on its own merit.

You have no idea how many times I get asked this, and the different ways I have tried to explain what it is and why it is so important. In fact in some cases I've just given up, my mum for example; she still thinks I work for Google.

I'm kind of worried people think it's just some buzz word, like "Web 2.0", which by the way in my opinion is a word that is a bit like an unidentifiable decease, like colic or IBS, you can just imagine your doctor saying "I'm sorry Sir, you have Web 2.0". Back to the point, SEO is NOT a buzz word, it's not something you possibly should do to be keeping with the Joneses. No, no, no sir! If you are serious about your online presence SEO isn't something you should consider it's something you should most definitely do.

Ok before you think I have totally lost my marbles and I get lost in a tangent, let me start with the basics, defining SEO:

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is where you adapt and moderate a website specifically so that it is indexed and ranks highly within a search engine's organic (free) listings. See below for where the organic listings are.

Ok, let me get straight to the point, lets skip the captivating introduction, pass through the drawn out middle and land at the grand finale, what puts bums on seats, it is all about conversions... this applies to all aspects of life. Let me explain, we all want our website to attract visitors but once they are there we want to convert them into customers. What I mean is that even if we have really good rankings, it does not mean anything if our conversion rate is low.

Being dumped recently and coincidently having a lot more time on my hands I was talking to another friend (dumped too) we came to realise that perhaps there is not much difference between a first date and converting users on a website! May be the same rules apply...



RIGHT KEYWORDS - As with dates, we have to stimulate the interest of people even before they come to our website / agree to a date. We need to tweak their curiosity and make sure they click with us and not our rivals. How? Words, words & more words... No technical trick here! Our Title tags and meta-description tags are our main weapons here.

SEOMOZ a respected and valuable resource for Search Marketers place 'Keywords used in title-tags' first in the list of factors positively affecting the search rankings of a website. In brief, while a good title tag can boost rankings, a bad title tag can totally ruin your page, exactly like a few misplaced words can ruin a date. I still can't believe that my friend, whom I won't tell the name managed to say something like this on his first date "I never said you need a nose job. I just said it wouldn't hurt to consider it?"

GOOD FEELING AND CONTENT - Having a clear theme on our website ensures visitors understand and feel positive about the business right at the start. Normally we have only a few seconds before a visitor decides to stay on our site or leave. Our dialogue with the visitor (date), clean design (clean shaven and fresh clothes) are key elements that can make visitors stay (and not escape out the toilet window), thus increasing our chance of conversions. We also need some interesting and unique content on our website because we don't want our date (visitors) to get bored, do we? Talking about your lousy day at work or your ex (worst) will bore your date so much that you can possibly never see her again. The same rule applies on your website, we must ensure that our content is interesting enough to make visitors stay and hopefully provide us with a return visit (2nd date!)

Also we should never optimise for keywords that are not related to our business since this will cause our website to attract the wrong audience. In brief, we should always talk to our target audience (your date) in a way that makes you attractive...

CONSISTENT NAVIGATION - Ok, now that things are going well enough, we don't want that to end on the first night... do we? We'd like the long lasting romance. So the same applies to visitors to our site. Visitors are more likely to get what they want from a website if they are familiar with its navigation scheme. Most of the time visitors hesitate to purchase products on a website where the global navigation scheme is not consistent, they get confused, they don't know if the product they're looking for is on the same site or not and finally find themselves asking "Maybe this website (guy) isn't trustworthy and not right for me"

Therefore, we have to make sure we have a clear, consistent and well-labelled navigation that will make our visitors (our date) time on our site a pleasure...

APPEALING CALL-TO-ACTIONS - It's like making our proposal. Our goal on our site should be clear, direct and express why people should click, you don't want to mumble words and stare at your feet whilst proposing a date as the likelihood of success is slim. Whether we want our visitors to buy something, sign up for something or else (Uh hum...like spending the night together after diner).

The call to action should be clear enough and sharp to make them 'click' and convert. Therefore, when planning site architecture, part of the process is to clearly determine individual pages primary and secondary calls-to-action (depending on the type of website).

We must also think about what messages we are communicating to our visitors and the search engine spiders. If keywords, navigation and calls-to-actions are all obvious to targeted users including the search engines... then we have better chance that our visitors convert.

KEEP THEM INTERESTED - Our first conversion, hold that 'feel good' sensation. The story does not end there as within SEO we are not concerned about one night stands but the long lasting romance! So we will have to keep our dates (visitors) interested! How? We have to 'feed' them with nice and exciting offers always! Keep our content up to 'date' and interesting and also offer 'gifts' from time to time... it's all part of the game.

Never being good at science homework, and often making more explosions than finding the cure to the common cold, I vouched that I would leave the test tubes in the class room. Little did I know that entering the world of search engine optimisation would I find myself experimenting more than ever!



With search engine optimisation the algorithm of how things are measured is constantly changing. When you think you have found a fool proof theory and formula, the powers that be will rupture that theory and make you re-evaluate your methods.  To be successful in SEO you must be open minded to change and to new theories. You will always have an end result, however it is knowing WHAT components in the experiment got you to that point.

For example;
There is the argument that anyone can do SEO, that anyone can "bash" in a few keywords and can see some results. It is not the result that counts it is a process of trial and error, of knowing HOW you got a result and adapt that to each new algorithm.