Search engine marketing process

The process of search engine marketing is initiated when an online user makes a search query. The search engine rummages through the WWW knowledge base for the specified search term and generates a list of results. In addition to the search engine results, advertisements are also placed, depending on the search query, which are displayed when a specific keyword is entered. The advertising campaign is linked to certain keywords that trigger the display of ads when these keywords are searched for. Therefore, the success of a search engine advertising campaign depends on the choice of keywords.

However, as it is often the case that several advertisers bid on one and the same keyword, the ads only appear after their rank has been automatically determined. This auction procedure defines the positioning of an advertisement on the screen, which is influenced by the amount of the bid. The secondary factors that determine the position of an advertisement are the click rate of the advertisement on the one hand and the content of the website on the other. The use of such measurement tools serves to provide online users with search results that are as accurate as possible.

The process of search engine marketing is characterized by a continuous development that is closely linked to the constantly changing Internet. The design of an advertising campaign must therefore be adapted at all times and steered towards a specific end goal. Setting a specific goal to be achieved with the search engine advertising campaign helps to make the right choice of metrics (rank, click-through rate, costs, etc.).

Both the objectives pursued and the target group are understood as the main framework conditions for designing an advertising campaign. In general, the homogeneity of the recipient group influences the success of the advertising campaign. The more uniform the target group is, the more strongly and clearly they react to the ads. The decisive factor here is, of course, to understand what actually makes the online visitors and, above all, the target group of the site “tick” in order to be able to define the appropriate search terms.

Asking family and friends (using brainstorming) what keywords they would use for a particular topic, product or service, taking a look at the competition, what keywords they find popular and use, or simply using computer programs to generate the right high quality keywords are a good place to start looking for the optimal keywords and discovering them quickly.

Nowadays, most search engines give you the opportunity to crawl their keyword databases (keyword analysis tools) and thus find out the popularity of each individual word. Keyword analysis is used to filter out key terms that are most frequently searched for and least used by the competition. It would be best to concentrate on those keywords and keyword combinations that have been optimized the least up to this point. A quick search in the Internet space for keyword analysis tools quickly reveals that you can check the keywords for a wide range of characteristics and features: from relevance and popularity to temporary popularity and a comparative analysis of synonyms.

All of these keyword analysis tools definitely provide meaningful help in choosing keywords for a successful advertising campaign. A help service that offers relevant and high-quality content, attracts the user’s attention and thus extends the time spent on the relevant page. In addition, the relevant search terms can be determined not only with the help of a keyword analysis, but also on the basis of the frequency of keywords within the text of a page, the so-called keyword density. Based on the keyword density, each search engine determines to which thematic category it must classify the website. This is based on the principle of counting. This means that the number of occurrences of each individual word on the page is recorded by the search engine and then placed in relation to the other words. The resulting relation is the keyword density.

Basically, when choosing keywords, it is important to ensure that they are not unfamiliar to the target group and that the probability that online users will enter precisely these keywords in the search field of the search engine is significantly high. Furthermore, it is not advisable to use universally valid terms, as these are not profitable. In most cases, a combination of words is used to minimize costs.

In addition, when selecting keywords, it is important not to use protected brand terms unless you are officially authorized to do so. To avoid unpleasant court proceedings, the advertiser should never use the brand name of a market leader to attract customers. Professional advice from lawyers who can demonstrate experience in the online sector offers more security and saves unnecessary headaches later on.

The Google search engine, for example, distinguishes between four ways in which an advertiser can store keywords: “Match keywords broadly”, “Match exact phrase” (= matching phrases), “Match only exact term” (= exact matching phrases), “Do not show my ad if this word appears in the search query” (= excluded words).