Search engine marketing is composed of two primary areas, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) advertising, plus several related areas including search optimized press releases, local search marketing, contextual marketing, and paid inclusion trusted feeds. In order to reach the broadest audience of potential customers it is vital to evaluate each element and determine how or if it factors into your overall online search engine marketing strategy.

At The TAC Group we have the expertise to assist you in developing and implementing a successful search engine marketing strategy. We have developed successful campaigns using a holistic approach incorporating search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, local search, contextual and paid inclusion as well as campaigns focusing on only one or two elements of the search engine marketing equation. Each of our clients has different goals and different budgets. We don’t believe in a one size or one method fits all approach to search engine marketing. Our campaigns are tailored to your specific needs.

Search Engine Marketing Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Search engine optimization or SEO is the practice of getting web sites to rank well within the natural / organic search engine returns. SEO is comprised of two distinct elements the on page factors and the off page factors.

On page factors are those contained within the actual client web site. These include title, Meta, alt and header tags, web copy, site structure, and internal linking structure among other elements. Off page factors include inbound links, anchor text, link neighborhoods, and link context among other elements.

Pay Per Click Advertising:

Pay per click (PPC) advertising was pioneered in 1997 by GoTo.com which later changed its name to Overture Services and was subsequently bought out by Yahoo! in 2003. Pay per click advertising allows a company to bid on a keyword in order to appear on the search results page that a search engine returns for that user query. PPC ads are usually displayed at the top and bottom of each search return page and along the right hand side surrounding the natural / organic search returns.

Currently there are two major players in the Untied States PPC market, Google and Yahoo! Search Marketing. MSN will be entering the market in late 2005-early 2006 and there are a number of second tier players, including FindWhat and LookSmart that have been competing in the market for a number of years.

Contextual Search Marketing:

Contextual marketing is a hybrid of traditional PPC advertising and banner network advertising. An advertiser bids on a keyword similar to PPC advertising. However the ads are displayed on content based web sites rather than in search engines much like banner ads can be purchased through an ad network. The ads themselves are mostly text based although some of the contextual providers, namely Google, offer advertisers the option to publish banner ads in lieu of text ads.

Search Engine Optimized Press Releases:

Search optimized press releases are an effective means to boost both short term traffic and long term search engine rankings. In the short term optimized press releases appear very high on Google News and Yahoo News searches. This is an effective means to reach a vast audience quickly as the major news search engines are widely used by journalists as a source of material for stories. A well written press release can be picked up within 24 hours by 1000s of news outlets.

Long term those stories and associated links can provide a tremendous boost to a site’s link popularity. The combination of optimized anchor text and authoritive web sites can greatly impact a site’s rankings.

Local Search Marketing:

Local search is a rapidly growing market. In the past local search engines were primarily an afterthought for the large Yellow Page publishers, such as Verizon and SBC. In the past year and half the major search engines have greatly expanded their listings for the local market and you can now find options to limit searches to local markets on all the major search engines.

The new competition has forced the Yellow Page companies to revamp their sites providing a far more robust user experience. These new local search services offer new opportunities to reach potential customers often at a fraction of the cost of large national paid search campaigns.

Paid Inclusion Trusted Feeds:

Currently the only major search engine to offer a paid inclusion program is Yahoo! with their Search Submit program. Paid inclusion guarantees that your pages will be indexed by the Yahoo! search spider but it does not guarantee where your listing will appear in the search results. Sites that use dynamically generated pages often have a hard time getting indexed. For these types of sites paid inclusion can be an effective means for garnering listings but merely getting pages indexed does not guarantee that they will generate traffic to the site. Paid inclusion is best used in conjunction with SEO and is not normally a standalone solution for garnering new potential customers.

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