BUS572 - 1

Concept 1: Search engines are craftier than they appear.

     This week's readings covered the basics of eMarketing and how both search engines as well as pay-per-click advertising function within an overall online marketing strategy. One of the first subjects covered in chapter 5 was the concept of how a search engine actually works, something which I feel is very important yet not very well understood by the general public. So much of what happens online involves search engines and the utilization of the results they show you, thereby proving why knowing how the search engine functions is such an important thing. For example, you want to find a local dog groomer. Instead of using the phone book like you would have 20 years ago, you go online and type 'dog groomer in Pittsburgh, PA' into Google's search bar. The results you see are the result of the search engine's algorithms and will help you to select a new dog groomer. A search engine is comprised of four separate parts: The Spider, the Index, the Engine, and the Search Engine Results Page or SERP. The spider is an automated bot which goes from page to page, following links and recording what it finds; the index is the library of information that the spider creates; the engine is the part that does the actual searching by checking the index and giving the user the most relevant pages that it finds; and the SERP is the ordered list of results for the user's query. Knowing how the search engine works is important because it allows a marketer to understand the types of keywords and other searchable phrases that will be helpful in making a website more 'search engine friendly'.  Without this knowledge, e-marketers may be focusing on the wrong keywords and may end up with unfavorable results. A key question though is what more does an e-marketer need to know before they can successfully create keywords for an online search. It is one thing to understand how a search engine works, but is it the only thing? A side-note personal question: Where is the index stored? At some point the index must become massive; how do search engine websites handle so much data?

Illustration of a Search Engine (source: FoodieSEO)

(FUN FUN!)

Moz is a blogger who teaches about technology in a way I can appreciate: by being funny. Linked below is his blog about a conversation with his mom about how she thinks search engines work. I have to admit I answered like mom did until this past week!

Moz Blog: How My Mom Thinks Search Engines Work

Concept 2: Your keyword searches are someone else's brilliant idea already

     A second concept brought up in this week's readings is the idea of match types in pay-per-click advertising. In general, there are 4 main match types: The Broad Match; Phrase Match; Exact Match; and Negative Match. Match types allow an e-marketer to be either very specific or very general about when their advertisements will appear in a search through the keywords they use. According to our eMarketing textbook, a broad match means that your advertisement will appear for the keywords you have entered, as well as search terms that contain your keywords and any other words in any order, as well as some variations of your keywords (misspellings and synonyms). A phrase match,which is denoted with quotation marks around the keywords (“phrase match”) means that your advertisement will appear only for search terms that have your keywords in them, in the same order, though other words may also be in the search term. An exact match, which is denoted by square brackets ([exact match]), means that the advertisement will only appear for search terms exactly the same as the keywords selected. And finally, a negative match, which is denoted by using a dash in front of the keywords (-negative), means that your advertisement will not appear in searches using that word, no matter what other words are used.

     To give an example of the four match types, say you were an advertiser for blue coffee cups and you wanted to direct the search engine about when you want a users search to bring up your website and when you don't. If you used a broad match type, any user typing in any variation of 'blue coffee cup', including misspellings and synonyms, would see your page as a potential result. Using a phrase match, users would specifically have to type in "blue coffee cup" to see your page as a result, however extra words may be added such as "shatter-resistant blue coffee cup". With an exact match, only users typing in the exact phrase [blue coffee cup] will see your page as a search result. And finally, in a negative match you can set the preference to have anyone searching for red coffee cups not show your page in the results by typing '-red' into the keywords selection. Utilizing match types allows advertisers in a pay-per-click advertising system to control how many potential clicks result from searches. Match types also allow advertisers to ensure that the quality of clicks they are getting on their advertisements from a search engine are accurate and guided in order to ensure that the advertiser is not paying unnecessarily for unwanted or unwarranted clicks. Along this line, I would be curious to see if there were limits to the amount of match typing an advertiser could implement. Is it possible to restrict keyword searches too much? Besides simple trial-and-error which can be a laborious and time-consuming process, are there any other ways to see which match types work for your advertisements and which need to be revised?

Illustration of Match Types (source: Convertiv)

Skill Set 1: The tactics and flexibility behind various marketing strategies.

     Having no real eMarketing skills before now, the last chapter we read this week on strategy was a really important and fundamental skill set to capture. The chapter introduced us to the various outcomes a marketer can expect when using different marketing techniques, and the skills required to determine which type of marketing were most appropriate to achieve your desired outcome. Such a skill set is vital if an advertiser wants to accomplish their desired goal and increase both visits to their website as well as products sold. For example, if you were interested in branding your product, as an advertiser you would focus more heavily on online advertising and social media. If you wanted to obtain new customers however, you would want to focus more on search engine optimization and email marketing. Without having the skill set to determine which route of marketing is best for your product, you may be spending valuable resources expanding into an area which that goal is not linked to. This chapter taught about flexibility in marketing as well. Not only do you need to know which type of marketing is best for your desired outcome, but you also need to have flexibility in your pursuits to know when changes need to be made and what type of changes are necessary. In the end, it will take a decent bit of trial-and-error before you figure out which marketing techniques work for your business and which don't. I would be interested to know how many of the techniques overlap in their defined outcomes and if using more than one technique, for example for branding your product, would be more effective.

Illustration of Tactics and Outcomes (source: eMarketing Textbook)

Reflection: Where is this emarketing journey heading?

     So far my journey into eMarketing has been pleasant. I have already learned many new skills and I finally have an understanding of how Google works! (As a graduate student I would say it's about time.) It has been very rewarding to learn about concepts and skills that I utilize every day without ever realizing, particularly in terms of how advertising works and how my keywords get me to the pages I'm looking for. However I still struggle with the vastness of search engines and the idea that all of this information isn't sitting in hard copy somewhere in a far off library. I am excited to continue learning about the subject and to begin putting my skills into practice: I have a good idea of the strategies my team needs to employ for our marketing campaign and a good idea of the most effective ways of implementing that strategy. My goals for next session are simply to continue learning the subject and expanding upon the knowledge that I have learned here.