SEM is no easy task. It requires a thoroughly planned execution strategy and a flawless process to be successful. Depending on the competitiveness of the industry, it might take 6 months to years to achieve substantial results. There are no tricks or magic involved here, just hard work and dedication. There are a lot of roads to take and strategies to implement. However, marketers should not forget the fundamentals of SEM.

Search Engine Advertising is a term that is inherently confusing. Some use this term interchangeably with Sponsored Search or Pay Per Click Advertising as in Google Adwords. Of course, these are actual advertisements that are tied to specific keyword phrases. As such they are targeted advertisements because they are only viewed based on the keyword itself. Others use this term to mean Organic Search Engine Optimization or SEO which in fact are not advertisements. Rather, these are listings based strictly on relevance as rated by the search engines themselves. These listings are not purchased or bid upon like PPC; they are earned through highly sophisticated optimization techniques. Successful Organic Optimization results in highly visible listings with no cost to the website owner no matter how many times the listing is displayed or clicked.

While Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is very important so that you are found by those seeking your product s, you still need to convert that visitor to being a buyer. If you are selling through an online store, conversion is easily measured … SALES.
How do you know that your e-commerce site is generating all of the sales that it can? The answer lies in the statistics. Monitoring and analyzing your stats is absolutely critical towards the ultimate goal of maximized sales for your online business. You can almost count on, in every case, that you will find things in the stats that will indicate issues that are preventing you from achieving the best performance.
Stats offer you a window into the user interaction with your shopping cart. You can see how effective and efficient the buying process is. Are visitors moving through the process smoothly? Do they seem to get stuck on a particular step or page? How many enter the checkout process? How many complete the checkout process? At what point is the checkout process aborted? Which products are producing the most sales … and the least? Compare the best sellers with the worst? Are there differences that can be attributable to the information and the way the information is displayed?
Have you tested different designs, configurations to see which ones perform the best? There are hundreds, even more, factors involving color, font, positions, graphics that need to be tested to determine the optimum combination.
Are you insuring that the visitor feels secure, confident and have the peace of mind that your site is secure, their purchase is secure? Do you offer guarantees, warranties, even money back guarantees? Do you offer customer reviews / comments to further promote a sense in confidence in you as a vendor and in the product itself?
Not all e-commerce sites are created equal from an SEO point of view either? E-Commerce structure and internal software needs to be SEO-friendly in and of itself. The products need to be indexed through a well designed and structured relational database. Visuals are important as well; are you displaying high res / high quality images that can be enlarged? Are you offering more details / specifications … there are those that read this stuff so it needs to be made available.
Your Back Office
Your shopping cart requires active administration to:
1. Monitor and manage your product line and all available options.
2. Manage integration and options involving all of the major shippers.
3. Dynamically update the site map to include all relevant updates so that Google has your products properly indexed for universal search purposes.
4. Carefully review stats which is so essential as already said
5. Customize CRM (Customer Relation Management) features to reflect current operations, products and policies online.
6. Offer special pricing, coupons, promotions and other customer-engagement initiatives.
There are hundreds of additional considerations depending on your particular situation.
You likely will need an E-Commerce Design Specialist with demonstrated results both in Internet Marketing / SEO and Conversion Optimization. Both sides of the success formula, visibility on Google and the highest conversion rates on the site itself need to be addressed by a fully integrated Internet Marketing Services Company. The wide array of specialties and sub-specialties dictate the need for top-level expertise. The opportunity cost is huge without a dedicated company that is focused and skilled in all of these areas.

The key, as with everything worthwhile, is being fully committed to the ultimate success of your website and your shopping cart in particular.

Search Engine Marketing Consultants, as the term “consultant” implies, provide analysis, guidance and usually implementation of Search Engine Marketing strategies and procedures. However, the definition by itself does little justice to the important areas of emphasis that you must look for in a true SEM Consultant.

It’s always tough to create a team, a team of people who can communicate and identify opportunities as well as deliver promises. Employee turnover is one of the major issues at any company. So, how do you find the right kind of staff to create your Search Engine Department?

The first step would be to identify yourself; what type of an organization you really are. Are you an internet marketing agency, a full service marketing firm or a consultant? Once you place yourself in the right category, the people you should associate with will be limited.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is not reserved and exclusive for big business. In fact, it is the brightest light for small businesses to effectively compete in their respective markets. It is a mistake to believe that the “big boys” know what they are doing on the internet, at least not yet.

Search Engine Marketing , whether its Organic SEO or PPC , even spectacularly done, is limited to getting searchers to find you and land on your home page, a specific landing page or another internal page that is most relevant to the search performed. It does not equal CONVERSION .

Successful SEO gets the right user to the right page on your website. Now your website must take over from there to grab the attention of the visitor and very quickly … 5 seconds.

While organic listings are based on relevancy alone, as evaluated and rated by Google’s algorithms, paid search, more specifically, paid search listings also are controlled by relevancy. This may seem counterintuitive when thinking of Paid Search. Paid Search by definition involves a bidding process specific to keywords and basic logic would indicate that the highest bidder would get the highest positions within the Paid Search Listings. However, Relevancy is the most important factor for Google, even as it applies to Paid Search. Google invests billions to make their results more relevant and this extends to its major profit contributor, paid ads. Google wants one thing, above and beyond all else … the continued #1 ranking of its search service to continue to dominate the Search Engine Industry. If searchers continue to use Google in overwhelming numbers, advertisers are sure to continue bidding higher and for more keywords.

Ever get the look …The look when discussing intrernet marketing and its potentialwith clients. The look that says “what are you talking about?” The incredulous look about what it really takes to be successful marketing on the internet.

Internet Marketing is nothing short of a big race. If you are a brand new website, your competitors already on the web are already ahead of you. If this race were across the United States and we are all trying to get to California from New York, your competition can be anywhere from Ohio to Nevada. So by the time your website is created and launched, your competition still holds a wide advantage in the “race to California.”