Search marketing certification in the West is well documented and supported by most search marketing organizations. However, in China the search marketing industry is still embryonic, so the need for a certification program to establish a skills level and professional competence is the first steps in promoting skills, knowledge and confidence for employers and clients.

In the past month SinoTech has validated through this certification program more than 100 people (outside the SinoTech group). The multi-choice exams are conducted online in Chinese and the exam is time limited to 30 minutes. This exam leads to a Chinese search marketing certification and the questions are specifically aimed at the search engines in China. You can read more about our certification program by visiting http://www.sinotechgroup.com.cn/certification/certification1.html

One question that we are often asked here at SinoTech Search is how much resource and spend the advertisers and brands should devote to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) versus Search Engine Marketing (SEM). However, it seems to be one of those questions that you never get a direct answer from most Search Marketing companies.

One of the first considerations when it comes to planning integrated campaigns is that of timing. The nature of SEM makes it a very agile compared to SEO, which can be particularly important when it comes to running reactive or tactical campaigns. Getting exposure against new keyword groups will always be quicker via SEM.

While SEM may be a faster way to get onto the results pages of the Search Engines, the results and insights gained from the campaigns can and should then be used to underpin longer-term SEO strategies. Analyze the ad copy and specific keywords that delivered results through your SEM and then use those insights to inform your SEO.

On a similar note, you can consider using SEM as a way for testing keywords, the copy and landing pages before you embark on a full scale SEO campaign. Use tools to ensure that you closely monitor how you compare against your competition and, where necessary, redress any negative balances with adjustments to your campaigns. For your top keywords, and particularly in aggressive industry sectors or at key times of the year, you may even choose to run your SEM campaigns as a loss-leader until your SEO has time to catch up.

A final point to consider is that SEM also exists in the space beyond the search and meta-search engines. You can select to run SEM ads on the content networks that will reach parts of the web that SEO can’t, further extending your online reach. Of course, when it comes to running contextual SEM campaigns, you need to start thinking about how your campaigns integrate with your broader product/company branding strategy. But that’s another topic for another post.

I was reading the blog post by Tim Ash on Search Engine Watch where he talks about the handbook produced by the Marketing Sherpa’s called “Landing Page Handbook”.

Tim’s post draws on the results from the handbook exploring the average conversion rates for different marketing tactics. The survey data was drawn from over 5000 active online marketers in a variety of settings.

In-house managed PPC Search - 3.84%
Outsourced managed PPC Search - 5.40%
Difference: 40%

In-house Natural Search Optimization - 2.62%
Outsourced Natural Search Optimization - 4.76%
Difference: 80%

What this suggests is when outsourcing SEO/SEM to a specialist agency, the conversion rates are much higher. Please note that statistics are always simply a gauge, the statistics did not breakdown the results by industry or company sizes, or other critical information. However, at a high level the data makes perfect sense, since agencies must perform better to justify their fees and keep their client’s loyalty and business.

Agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients and should be able to do a better job. This post is not intended to criticize  in-house SEO/SEM teams but make the point that the Search marketing industry is moving very fast, and unless you have a whole organization focused on keeping up with the changes, it is very difficult to stay up on the latest developments.

Marketing activities are the engine of growth for a company. They are not administrative cost centers. Many companies mistakenly try to save a little money by running their programs in-house. They do not realize the real cost is in the lost opportunities that they can not capitalize on. If your in-house program is profitable, that is not enough - you must consider the scale of your program and always question how much money you might be leaving on the table. Giant conversion rate differences such as the above can be turned into strategic weapons that let you soundly trounce your competition.

So next time you consider the in-source / outsource decision, consider the opportunity costs as well as direct costs.

Every SEO (Search Engine Optimization) effort must be accompanied by a link building campaign to be effective. After all, the incoming links are the entry points into any website besides the links displayed during a search result on Google or any other search engine.

There are different ways of approaching a building link strategy… and undoubtedly the most preferred method must be the natural way of linking that attracts a visitor to your website in search of good content. However this is a slow process and can take much time and effort . I always promote the fact that content is king and good content creation is one of the best SEO techniques ever. However, another common route of developing links for a website has been the reciprocal link building method where two or more websites exchange links with each other or links are purchased via a vendor. This method of search engine optimization is not appreciated any more by Google and such a practice will result in the site being blacklisted or the websites ranking maybe lowered.

Another good practice is having your site listed in Web directories like Dmoz or Yahoo Directory. These Directories are human edited have a prominent element in the search engines ranking algorithms. There are many directories with well categorized listings that are referred by people. While Dmoz is a free directory, there are many other paid directories that can be approached and this process can help in multiplying the incoming links to our website. One thing to note: When submitting to paid directories you must also consider directories that have relevance to your site.

One of the most effective linking strategies is to purchase text link ads from other high ranking websites. It has got a double benefit as the advertisement itself will pay by bringing in traffic and the site will get good ranking on the SERP (search engine results pages). Business websites can also register or place an ad on online yellow pages and this also can generate good traffic besides generating business

So when is the right time to plan SEO? Many people try and SEO their website after it is live and when they find no one has visited…. If you are building a new website then you need to  start planning your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing strategy. This is the best time to introduce the SEO planning of a website is when the site design is being done and the site is ready to be launched but there is no content yet for the site.

I would strongly recommend you get the advise of an SEO consultant/expert to provide some suggestions about what keywords and key phrases you need to added into the site HTML as Meta tags and where those tags should go. Once the site is tagged and the design and navigation has been tested it’s time to add in content. Having SEO content on your site from the start will give your web site a big advantage in SEO optomization. However, it is important to note that this is not a one size fits all approach- Different engines require different forms of optimization.

Where a website is displayed on the search engine results page is critical to its success. It is well accepted that if your site is not found within the first three pages of results then it is most likely you will not be found. In order for the site to get a high ranking on the search engine results pages it’s imperative that the site is (search engine) optimized content that is ready to be part of a broad search engine marketing campaign.

If you have an existing site that is due for an overhaul or a design revamping then you should also take the time to review SEO requirements. Cosmetic work on the site is important so that your site doesn’t look outdated but changing up the content or using flash on the site will be very important considerations.

Your site is indexed based on the search engine spider ‘discovering’ your site and algorithmically determining your sites information (based on  the sites html information …among other things). Parting thoughts… Limited the use of flash.. text is king. Consider the engine you want to be ‘found’ on and research the ways that positively (and negatively) effect the specific engines .. but most of all avoid SEO consultants and companies that boast quick returns and guarantied positions on the first page….