The Three Biggest Mistakes in Search Marketing

Knowing What Not to Do is Important, Too

Editor’s Note: Here on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog we usually like to “accentuate the positive,” as Johnny Mercer would say. But in search marketing, knowing what not to do can be just as vital as knowing what to do, especially when you’re just starting out. Veteran search marketer, Mike Moran author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. and Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules, offers us some useful tips on how to avoid some of SM’s biggest pitfalls.

Search marketing is becoming mainstream (as opposed to sidestream, I think), but I still find people drowning in that stream. They forget that search marketing is more about marketing than search, because the search technology piece seems so new and different. Woe to the search marketer who misses the marketing part—they’re likely to make one or more of these mistakes:

1: The Rank Amateur Error
Rookie search marketers often fixate on the rankings of their ads, thinking that getting a #1 position on an important keyword is the road to success. Now understand, being #1 usually beats being on page 17 of search results (unless you are targeting the obsessive-compulsive segment), but the days of even knowing your page’s ranking are coming to an end.

Search engines are personalizing more and more search results, so that different searchers get different results for the same keyword. If you focus only on rankings, soon you’ll wake up to find that only the search engines themselves know your rankings. Rather than slavishly reviewing your rankings, your time is better spent finding another metric that best captures the business value of your marketing efforts.

2: The Traffic Report Error
Well, if it’s not rankings, it must be traffic, right? After all, the purpose of search marketing is to drive traffic to your site. That’s true, of course, but the business value of search marketing stems from buyers, not lookers. For paid search, in fact, having more lookers with few buyers is the worst possible situation to be in, because you pay for every searcher who clicks, but you’re getting next-to-no sales to show for your investment.

Instead of studying traffic reports, focus on conversions—the sales that result from your search campaign, whether online or offline. Very often, search keywords that send heavy traffic to your site convert at low rates, while less popular keywords drive more revenue. Focus on the keywords that drive sales, not just traffic.

3: The 24/7 Sales Pitch Error
Some search marketers who avoid the first two errors still fall for the third, blanketing their web site with sales pitches without the proper background. Of course, it’s natural for you to emphasize information about your products, such as advanced features, special deals and capabilities that differentiate your wares from competitors’.

However, that information targets people who already know they need to buy something—folks who know that your product (or your competitor’s) solves their problem. What about the people who know they have a problem, but have no idea what to do about it? Do you have the kind of problem-solving content that those customers are looking for? If you do, figure that some of those people will appreciate the information and stick around to buy from you.

As you gain experience in search marketing, focusing on content across the entire buying cycle (including problem-oriented content for folks not ready to buy yet) will provide you with the widest net with which to snare searchers and turn them into customers. And you’ll be measuring just how many of them buy, instead of tracking only rankings or traffic. By avoiding these big three mistakes, you’ll be ready to make a few lesser mistakes—or maybe even get it right.

—Mike Moran is an IBM Distinguished Engineer for IBM’s OmniFind search and analytics products

Posted by Administrator

[ Categories: Guest Columns, How (Not)-To's ]

74 Comments Add your own

1. Canada SEO | January 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Great tips, although I think personalization isn’t that big of a factor. I’ve noticed very few people who leave themselves logged in, and whenever they do a new search they haven’t done before chances are it’ll be the stock results. I’ve only seen big changes for personalized results for phrases people constantly search. Cheers.
2. Internet Marketing Maryland | January 14th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

I agree that increased traffic without sales in Search Marketing is not always a good thing. Do you have any recommendations on how to convert the traffic other than your keyword suggestions?
3. handsome rob | January 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

I suppose #4 would be disabling the overture inventory keyword tool?
4. Three Biggest Mistakes - &hellip | January 14th, 2008 at 10:58 pm

[...] little bit of common sense from the Yahoo Search Marketing [...]
5. Neutralize SEO | January 15th, 2008 at 3:06 am

I’d probably add in “not understanding enough about your potential audience/customers in order to properly target your search marketing activity towards the correct ‘finding’ methods and locations they might be using”. While a vast proportion of traffic comes via mainstreanm keyword search on the major engines, the number of other places you can search and verticalisation of search experiences is increasing.
6. Los 3 grandes errores del&hellip | January 15th, 2008 at 4:45 am

[...] Changes the Old Marketing Rules” ha dado, en el blog de Yahoo! Search Marketing, una serie de consejos para evitar los tres grandes errores en este campo. Según Moran, uno de los errores de base que se suelen cometer es olvidar que el [...]
7. supaswag | January 15th, 2008 at 9:21 am

It’s not that important to be in the top three on page one for your main key phrases – but as soon as you drop to page two [or even 3], you’re out of the game. No normal user thinks “Well, I looked at all the results on page one and I am still not quite happy with what I was looking for, so now ..let’s have a look at what’s on page two. Or three. Or four.”. Nobody’s doing this in the real world. You’d rather re-phrase your search phrase than click trough the second or even third result page. Well, I wouldn’t. I think it’s better to invest time to find relevant keyphrases that are not extremely competitive and then try to get listed for them somewhere on the first two pages instead of wasting time & money to push a listing for a highly competitive keyphrase from page 99 to page 5.
8. supaswag | January 15th, 2008 at 9:29 am

btw: Do I get a no no-follow link if I write a comment in Spanish? or just quote a part of the post?

;]
9. Ido | January 15th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Good tips!
10. Pay Per Click Advertising&hellip | January 15th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

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12. uGuX SEO & SEM Blog | January 16th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Maybe a post on the three best ideas in search marketing may be a little more helpful. Well, learning from mistakes is great too.
13. Eric Ward | January 16th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

Mike,

Truly excellent piece.
I’d add a 4th: Looking for links in all the wrong places
14. Dan | January 16th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

Drawing traffic to you site without any corresponding sales is a killer. Frankly, even at the minimum $0.10 per view, a low priced, low margin product line will spend more money getting views than it could ever possibly make up for in sales. I think the per view pricing in way out of line to be a viable source of advertising.
15. Martin | January 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

It seems like Google has started increasing the number of site it shows for the more descriptive words but not for the tough words like http://www.LogoSurfing.com
16. Maui Internet Marketing | January 16th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

This is 3 of many. Personalization will be a major factor considering the new computers going out with it built in.

The best tip to add is just write good targeted content. I find the better the information is, the more traffic comes and sticks around. So long as you’re writing clear and helpful info, your target audience will find you. The big search engines know this and are working towards placing these sites at #1. That’s what the future holds, so forget about the tricks.
17. comment | January 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Google is a complete rip off. I know darn good and well that they increase click costs unfairly, I picked a made up word “navmderuemaned” and placed it in my pay per click, for one month it was only 5 cents per click… THEN…after one month it went to 50 cents per click now they are saying it is worth 1.00 per click and I know darn good and well NOBODY is looking for this word it is just a BIG SCAM!!!
18. Maui Internet Marketing | January 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Keep it white hat, and you’ll stay on top.
19. Matt | January 16th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Anyone got an opinion on the value/relevancy of these tips for property or real estate? Search certainly drives traffic and leads, but sometimes the sale happens so far down the line its difficult connecting the dots in order to understand or evaluate the role of search.
20. Maui Internet Marketing | January 16th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Google has so much power, but the bottom line is that they need to put out a good product, otherwise no one will use them. With new light such as your “navmderuemaned” word, maybe they’ll research a little closer. As for now, i’d be wary with any advertising through a paid per click program. Analytics are all different, and you never really know what the other guy is paying.
21. Maui Internet Marketing | January 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

Matt, that’s probably something you’ll have to manually keep track of. No program is going to automatically know when Escrow goes through, unless you input it.
22. Jeff | January 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

“Focus on the keywords that drive sales, not just traffic”
So, how exactly do you know which keywords are the ones driving the sales as apposed to just traffic?
23. Promotional Products | January 16th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

Maui – I use Joomala and on some of my pages, I can not easily add meta tags and KW’s. However, my content is decent, should i spend the money to get these added? Do the tags and KW’s matter that much at this point?
24. Raylier | January 16th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

We have tried many various ad campaigns at http://www.raylier.com and we have to say that Yahoo Search marketing is our number one choice.
25. jeff boyce | January 16th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

Great article Mike, as so many people don’t realize that your 3 tips are ACTUALLY important! During 2004 to 2006, I spent $4,000 a month for PPC, but was able to convert a 500% to 1000% percent ROI on my money – because I followed that same advice. The #1 way to convert is to have an excellent landing page, and a fantastic compelling offer – that no one can resist.
26. Andrew | January 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

These are great tips, the best approach is to diversify, run ads on more than one search engine. And use a shopping cart software package that generates the keywords and meta tags based on yoru actual content.

PageDown Support
27. Yahoo_H8R | January 16th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

#26 – have you ever heard of CLICK QUALITY? If you keep searching your word but don’t click on your ad – your ad is getting impressions and no clicks, so of course, Google will want more money to show your POORER PERFORMING ad.

Wow, what a rookie.
28. Lisa R | January 16th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Great article, I see these mistakes all the time. Often it just takes a little education which this article provides.
29. Joe strobel | January 16th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

I used to get good enough results. Now my cost to get a customer from Y.S.M. is 3-4 times more expensive. “The Three Biggest Mistakes” is a poor excuse for Yahoo’s new pay-per-click huge cost increase
30. TraderJoe | January 16th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

Before evaluating any marketing advice try to evaluate the site of the one who give it. His we is mikemoran dot com. Type in the Google search “Internet and Search Marketing” (name of his web) and try to find his web…. I think the result will reveal how strong in internet marketing he is…
31. John | January 16th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Great advice on all of these! I have been preaching #1 to my employees for the past few months.
32. Craig Klein | January 16th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Excellent post! I spent a lot of money to learn these lessons the hard way. Newcomers would do well to listen up!
33. Search Place Free Web Directory Link Submission | January 17th, 2008 at 1:23 am

Very interesting article.

I didn’t utilize Yahoo! paid services yet, but so glad that most of my new pages gets indexed so quickly on Yahoo!’s search engine.
34. Send Free SMS Short Text Messages Worldwide | January 17th, 2008 at 1:28 am

Yahoo! paid listings helped us build our subscriber’s list, generate traffic and increase revenue.

However, organic listings are more important, any suggestions/techniques for keeping our rankings as top as possible?
35. Judy Yublosky | January 17th, 2008 at 6:13 am

Great article. I wish I had read this a year ago, it would have saved a lot of time and effort. But, I guess you learn from your mistakes.

Thanks for the information and keep it coming!
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37. Tom | January 17th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Just curious,, Isn’t against Internet law that the people who write US currency amounts as 100$ must never use a computer again until they learn by Looking at their welfare checks and understand the $ sign goes BEFORE the digits IE: $100

I agree having the #1 spot in the ads isn’t always best, And just drives up costs to you. Staying on the front page is helpful though
38. Julia | January 17th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Nice tips!!

I just hired a professional who suggested some minor changes in the website. I got them implemented and the conversions have increased Same number of visitors. Same spend on PPC. But MORE Orders !!
39. MJ | January 17th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

Mike,

Thanks for re-inforcing the “conversion” aspect of SEM. So many clients miss this fact and get upset because I am always harping on the conversions, not the clicks. “Clicks” to me are the same as “Hits”. LOL

I’ll be pointing people to your post. Thanks again!
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41. meo | January 17th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Great Article,
Is it advisable to have many keywords in one adgroup? keywords are related to Ads.
42. Justin Seibert | January 18th, 2008 at 6:46 am

Good stuff, Mike. #1 and #2 are so true. Related to both is the “ego keyword” effect – having to rank #1 or top 3 for certain keywords whether or not data shows that those folks buy!
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44. Mike Moran | January 18th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

So many great comments. Thanks, everyone. I agree with those who added more mistakes as well. Eric’s right about trying to get links in the wrong places and it;s also been pointed out that failing to do keyword research for your target market is also a killer.

I agree that personalization is a factor for only some of the keywords now, but I believe it is growing.

I also understand how people can make these errors. Sure, you want to be ranked highly and you want to get traffic. I am just pointing out that you need to look at more than that. It is a mistake to look only at those metrics.

Too many comments for me to reply to each one individually, but thank to all for posting them.
45. Ron McCoy | January 18th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

Mike. Interesting points, thanks. If a rank amateur (your words) can deliver a search engine #1 position rather than #17 … I guess I’d have to throw in a supporting word for rank amateurs. There are so many places in the value chain that businesses can harm themselves. The specialist who can focus on rankings and get them would seem to have a place in today’s online business environment.
46. Marius | January 19th, 2008 at 8:47 am

Thanks, i am busy learning all these things and this really made me think again about the approach i should take.
47. 6arab | January 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am

good lessons, i never thought that there facts important like that… thanks
48. 6rb | January 19th, 2008 at 9:41 am

also,,
put us some other tips on mistakes people make in sem.
49. lyrics | January 19th, 2008 at 9:42 am

I would be interested to know other facts,,, please send me ur newsletters.
thanks again.
50. Michael Greenland | January 19th, 2008 at 11:22 am

We affliate marketers want to open new account for our affliate pages but we saw on some forum sites that you have some technical difficulties with search marketing accounts especially on Content Match Network. Some users are also reporting that they have problems in SS as their ads dont come online. Is these issues resolved? We want to make business with a problem free system.

Best Regards
Michael Greenland
51. 6arab | January 21st, 2008 at 3:05 pm

nice ideas
keep good work

thank you.
52. Roger Park | January 24th, 2008 at 10:01 am

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for all the great feedback on Mike Moran’s article!

For the folks posting questions specific to their account, please contact Yahoo! Search Marketing Customer Solutions:

feedback-ysm@yahoo-inc.com.

Monday – Friday: 5am – 7pm
Saturday: 7am – 4pm
Sunday: 8am – 5pm
All times Pacific.

Thanks,

Roger Park
Manager, Marketing Communications
Yahoo! Search Marketing
53. Sucirst | January 24th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

Yeah, The 3 problems have puzzled many SEOer or Online Marketer in China for a long time.

By now, still few business owners and marketers awared about these wrong understanding of search marketing. It leads to that many SMEs consider SEM/SEO’s target as a few keywords’ ranking or more traffic only.

More and more websites masters have waked up to know the truth: the huge traffic, they paid lots of time and money to gained, always aren’t able to transform into cash flow!

The formula, traffic = $ , has been not that right.
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[...] Recently Yahoo enlisted the help of Mike Moran author of Do it Wrong Quickly to do an extremely poignant blog about the most common pitfalls of SEM. These ideas are perfectly on target. Yahoo is suggesting not to target by position, not to focus on clicks, and giving advice about quality landing pages. Maybe it’s the fancy purple flexible keyboard they sent, but I’m starting to have some positive feelings towards Yahoo. Below is a short summary of the post, that can also be found here. [...]
57. SD Personal Security - Chuck | January 28th, 2008 at 8:00 am

Thank you, Mike Moran and Roger Park for your help. I am new to the internet SEO world but I have 20+ years in sales and marketing. The basic sales cycle is always the same. You must solve a problem before you can close the deal. I am still having problems getting links to my site and getting all my pages indexed by Yahoo. Maybe, you can provide some help in your next article. And yes, I will send this request to “Customer Solutions”.

I advertise on the 3 major SEs and Yahoo is providing the best results.

Keep up the good work,
Chuck
58. Michael J. Fitzgerald, CPA/PFS, CFP, MsT | January 28th, 2008 at 11:10 am

Great feedback on what not to do with search marketing. I agree with many of the posts, a coordinated marketing effort tied to search terms and to content specific searches is a good pairing.

Michael J. Fitzgerald, CPA/PFS, CFP, MST
100% Retirement Income Replacement Strategies
http://www.fitzfp-llc.com
59. Tech News | January 31st, 2008 at 8:42 pm

This post is a real eye opener. Especially the first point describing how personalized search will make sure you don’t know your rankings. I never thought of it but it makes sense.
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61. Alan Pattinson | February 18th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Good comments.
62. craig | March 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 am

Poor keyword research is the crux of the matter

Craig
http://www.theprintedbagshop.co.uk
63. Austin Web Design | May 6th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

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64. promotional balls | June 11th, 2008 at 8:18 am

nice topic, before that I didn’t know personalization means I don’t know the exact ranking of my site
65. Moving Costs | July 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Ranking is not that important. Content is important.
66. SEO Article Scribe | August 12th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

I learn something new every time I visit. Thanks for the great post.
67. shawerma | August 13th, 2008 at 8:10 am

me too, i learn something when i visit yahoo something…
68. Free Lyrics | November 4th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Thats great, We should avoid that mistakes to make more profit,
69. Mike | November 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Ranking well and getting traffic are quite hard but converting visitors to customers is the most important thing.

SliQTools Invoicing Software
70. tv on mobile | March 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 pm

Using analytics software could help find conversions and wasted traffic, so one can know which website refers high quality traffic.
71. arab programs | March 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm

ranking good in serps needs good testing of seo but you can use ysm to get high ranks in paid advertising.
72. unlimited | October 19th, 2009 at 7:28 am

Great post for beginners. Some people like me had to learn these the hard way and lose money to learn. This blog is very good to know what the advertising business is all about and how to make the most with the resources we need. A critical error like the three mentioned above may end up in our campaign being a failure and losing money. I think ranking good is the most important on the first page, very little people take a look at the second or further pages.
73. printed carrier bags | November 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 am

A great read, completely agree about the landing page it’s a very important aspect of online marketing and if you don’t get the landing page right you won’t convert that traffic.
74. heartar | January 30th, 2010 at 8:33 am

send free arabic sms
thanks 4 sharing this info

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