Search engine marketing consists of a series of search engine optimization components combined with traditional marketing techniques in order to drive qualified quality traffic to your website and convert them into paying clients or sales lead generation.

Search engine marketing is not the same as search engine optimization although they quite often get placed in the same category. Search engine optimization is simply one the steps in a search engine marketing campaign. Other aspects in a SEM campaign would consist of web analytics, Conversion tracking software, technical writing, conversion path metrics, website usability assessments, competition analyses and so on. Below is an outline of a typical I Search marketing campaign outline.

1. Basic preliminary Key Word Analysis - The first step in our search engine marketing campaign is a basic keyword analysis. Utilizing industry standard tools such as word tracker, we gather the most up to date, sought after keywords being searched for on the internet. With this information and any additional information supplied by the client we can focus in on exactly who our competition is and where we need to set the bar in order to compete.

2. Competition analysis - Before a search engine marketing campaign can begin, a detailed baseline and competition assessment needs to be performed to asses exactly what you’re up against and exactly where your website stands in the big picture. Depending on the competitiveness of your product or service will depict how in depth we need to take this analysis. As a general rule of thumb from this analysis we can extrapolate strategy outlines, areas for improvement, and the strengths and weaknesses of our competition. The search marketing competition analysis is by far one of the most crucial components in and search engine marketing strategy.

3. Strategy Outline - With the information provided from the competition analysis and the initial keyword analysis we now have the metrics needed to create an ongoing search marketing campaign strategy and work outline. With a solid baseline for your website and a clear understanding of what we're going after competition wise, we now know exactly hat needs to be done and where to focus our efforts.

4. Search Engine Optimization - Following the outline that we have prepared in the 3rd step we can now begin the actual optimization of your website. Dependant on the level of competition we are dealing with will dictate the level of optimization we need to get into with your website. In general a basic optimization would include technical writing for the Title, Description and Keyword meta tags for each particular page of the website. Next on the list for traditional SEO would be content optimization. Each page of a website is different, and the visible content on the page must reflect certain elements such as the title tag contents in order for that page to be considered relevant for a particular search term. Along with key word themes and optimizing each page of a website we also have to take a look at the algorithmic end of the pages from a mathematical standpoint so to speak. For instance where the content is sitting in the source code is an important element, along with page size, java script and CSS externalization, visible content densities, invisible content densities, spider friendly navigation, graphical vs. contextual navigation, internal linking structures and strategies, URL strings, dynamic URL's, page naming conventions, URL rewriting, incoming and outgoing linking structures. This should provide you with some minor insight as to what is involved during the optimization process.

5. Spam Compliance Assessment - Website optimization ethics are an absolute necessity in a successful search engine marketing campaign. Many fly by night companies boast that they are able to produce amazing results in an amazingly short period of time. In many cases they are right!! the only question being is for how long before your website gets banned. New spam techniques pop up on a daily basis and many times get employed just as fast by unsuspecting companies looking for a quick fix. I Search Marketing optimization ethics are simple. A properly build and maintained website should never be banned. Search engines are built in order to provide the best possible search results for John q public web surfer. If you design, build, and market your website properly there is no need to employ such tactics. We work with you and your website to ensure that it is the most relevant and authoritative website on the Internet for your targeted key phrase groups. This is what Google and Yahoo want to see and that is exactly what we provide for them to find.

6. Link Building Campaigns -Link Building is a quintessential component in any search engine marketing campaign. To put it simply Google and Yahoo count "backlinks" (links outside your website that point to your site) as if they were votes. The number of votes you have, the more important Google and Yahoo consider your website to be. This used to be an easy way to gain popularity with Google and achieve high rankings in a relatively short period of time. However questionable webmasters and companies alike soon found the loophole here. Enormous link farms and Free For All link websites sprouted up across the Internet enabling anyone with a website to add their backlink and gain instant link popularity. We have all hear of website promotion software that will submit your website to thousands of search engine and free for all directories. Well their right, that’s exactly what that software does. The only catch is that since Googles "Florida Update" in November 2003 websites that participate in such tactics are now being banned and filtered from Googles search results. Google had found a way to filter out delinquent websites that were filling up the results pages with spam, thus making Googles search engine results pages even more relevant for its surfers. At I Search Marketing every backlink we collect for your website(s) is hand picked and pre-qualified by a search marketing consultant for quality, Page Rank and relativity to ensure you are not being added to any potentially harmful link farms of free for all websites that could potentially harm your websites performance.

7. Visibility Reporting - Visibility reports are a measure of how your website is performing on the Internet. These reports measure exactly which pages of your website are showing up and what position they are holding in the search engine results pages for all the major search engines. How visible your website is, is determined by calculating how often your website shows up for your particular set of key words for the top 8 major search engines that occupy 98% of all traffic on the Internet.

8. Log Analysis - Log files are a veritable plethora of information collected by your hosting company about what exactly is happening with a website. From carefully examining and analyzing your websites log files we can take an in depth into such areas as:

• How people are finding your website
• What pages they are entering & exiting your website from
• How long they visited each page
• Which search engine they came from
• What key phrase they used to find your site
• Which media buy is providing the highest ROI
• Just to list a few.

9. Conversion Analysis - Conversions are a way of measuring a websites performance and success metrics using third party software. A conversion can be a variety of different functions performed by a visitor on your website. For example if your main goal is to have your visitors fill out an online form to provide a sales lead then with the proper tracking software installed we can tell exactly what path they took through your website and what form the filled out or product they downloaded in producing said conversion. From this information we can tell exactly which search phrases are converting the best and which key words need to be re-visited.

10. Website Metrics Assessment - This is where we take a step back and review your website to make sure your website is "user friendly" so to speak. A detailed review of you websites functionality and usability. Is your content clear and compelling, does your website provide the appropriate look, feel, and professionalism for your specific target market. Other aspects would include examining your websites top entrance and exiting pages to see why visitors are staying or leaving your website after viewing these pages.

11. Advanced Key Word Analysis - This type of keyword analysis comes into play after we have monitored your websites performance for a period of time and have the detailed log file and conversion analysis information that we need to perform an advanced key word analysis. During this process we essentially streamline your original key words analysis and remove the components that aren’t' converting. Once we have streamlined your original list we run a series of in-house marketing assessments and competition analyses to determine a new set of search phrases that wouldn't conventionally be found in a standard issue word tracker keyword search.

12. Existing online marketing strategy assessments - This component is designed to ensure that in-house search engine marketing divisions are on the right path. More and more companies are taking a majority of their web work in-house to save time and money. This strategy assessment is designed to provide your in-house staff with a solid search engine marketing outline to ensure your website is keeping up with the competition. During this assessment we take your website as if it was one of our search marketing campaigns and run it through our gauntlet of test and analytics to pinpoint a solid strategy and areas for improvement. Once we finish our assessment you are provided with a detailed outline of what needs to be done on your website in order for you to compete with your top 10 competitors. This component has become popular due to the fact that is eliminates a lot of the uncertainties and conjecture surrounding in-house development teams and search engine marketing. We provide the industry knowledge and outline while your in-house team takes care of the daily maintenance set forth in the strategy outline. Intern saving hundreds if not thousand of research dollars and still maintaining the most up to date search engine marketing campaign methodologies.