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.

We are in the midst of a frightening and deepening financial and economic crisis worldwide. The world is making huge adjustments to correct many flawed policies, processes and practices including the use of real estate equity to fuel a worldwide buying binge, highly leveraged global gambling casino-style betting on the success of highly risky credit in the name of Credit Default Swaps. The process is called “deleveraging” but really what this is the process of liquidating hard and soft assets to pay off what can be paid off in the face of never-before-seen lost bets on incredibly risky investments. As someone first said, “This too shall pass.” But what will the world look like? In this writing I will focus on marketing and the lessons we can learn.

How can we differentiate ourselves from the competition? Many companies are using the same methods and procedures to create results for their clients. I have been hearing al lot of this recently at events and conferences. It seems to be a huge concern for companies who feel they cannot sustain growth or who feel they have hit a ceiling in their markets.

First, what is a “Long-tailed keyword”? It is a keyword phrase that has 3 or more words in it. I prefer to rank higher for long-tailed keyword phrases versus generic keyword phrases for one reason: profitability. Also, the competition is most likely not paying attention to them.

Some say we are in a recession. Others say we haven’t had any negative growth yet through the 2nd quarter of 2008 and you need 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP for a textbook recession. The financial and credit markets are predictors of the future and they are telling us that, any way you want to measure it, 2009 will be a year of recession, possibly a big one.

It’s one of the most asked questions. How do I increase my ecommerce sales? While there is not a quick answer or solution, there are some major factors that can contribute to increased online sales for ecommerce websites. The keys are relevance and the correct strategy. There are literally tens of thousands of ecommerce websites online; why should yours be any different and make millions?

Creating an online brand is no easy task. It requires a well-structured strategy and a good game plan. Since the competition is so great in the online marketplace, there’s a thin line between making and losing money. Therefore, any brand should carry certain characteristics.

When it comes down to it, I would rather have targeted traffic versus just traffic. Most logical people will. But what most web owners actually target is basic traffic. They do campaigns to increase traffic to their site, which in return wastes their time and money.

If you are looking for a Search Engine Marketing Company, you must know by now that there are many to choose from. However, if you think through your goals and objectives, your “Search” for an SEM Company will become focused very quickly. Consider what your goals are; asked yourself the following key questions:

Google and Yahoo both have local search services but many businesses are unaware of this and their potential benefits. Many people do not know that they are free to register and can have huge positive results for their businesses. Once you get your business listed in local services, you will start showing up on their map features like Google Maps and Yahoo Maps.

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.

At the time of this writing, the country is facing real and growing fear … on Wall Street and on Main Street. The Congress, without shame, has passed the bailout plan along with a whole bunch of pork. In other words to get enough votes, individual members of Congress traded their “conviction” for their pet projects designed to do what … get more votes and insure their own political longevity. This is Democracy?