Feature Article:
Budgeting for Search Engine Marketing

One often-overlooked aspect of search engine optimization is preparing a budget that matches your objectives. There are plenty of sales pitches that promise spending little money to get big results, which can provide both valuable and questionable services. We are not going to challenge or question these programs, but recommend you plan before you spend. Having a budget guideline for search engine marketing will help avoid costs creeping and stay focused on matching objectives to results. Market-Vantage has developed a simple budget guideline that targets the top ten search engine sites.

Why the top ten search engine web sites? The potential audiences from the top ten search engine sites should be the foundation of your search engine marketing program. They represent the largest and broadest base coverage of search users. Of course the results you get from some sites will be better suited for your company demographics then others. This represents the classic shotgun marketing approach of targeting the biggest audience. This doesn’t mean ignore the many other market specific or smaller search or directory sites that support your business market, for most likely they may be the ones who bring in the best quality leads. Search engine marketing should be a way of life for your normal business operations, so create a separate line item in your company’s budget plans.

These guidelines are a starting point for companies who are new to planning process of making search engine marketing a standard tool in their company. The number of products or services you are marketing will of course affect the amount of money spent. Having more multiple search keywords you are marketing to could double the necessary budget or have little effect. Creating a hard science in this budgeting area will remain a challenge.

Who are the top ten search engine sites in the US? According to a recent Jupiter research (March 2002) these are the top ten search engine sites with their audience reach. Note, because users will perform searches from multiple sites the totals will exceed 100%.

Budget Guidelines for Top Ten Search Sites

Plan for no free lunches to get into the top ten. As these sites build up their popularity as key web properties in the Internet, their profit motive will require someone pay for their services. The most likely candidate will be businesses. These guidelines are divided into three parts, No Budget (using only free listings), Starting Point, and finally the Fast Track. The “No Budget plan” is only listed as an option to highlight the negative effects of not taking search engine marketing as a serious tool. In many key sites such as MSN, the only way to have your search results appear is through backdoors to Inktomi.

The following budget costs are only ”out-of-pocket” expenses and do not include manpower costs associated to submission or management of the listings. The FastTrack budget is of course only provided as a rough estimate based on a company with a modest product or service offerings where they wish to jump to the top of the rank or visibility in a matter of weeks.

Previous Articles

• Predicting Ranking
• Reacting to the Google Dance
• 4C's of Internet Marketing
• Developing Trust
• Compelling Web Content
• Permission Marketing via Search
• Internet as Research Tool
• Gap between Sales & Marketing
• Budgeting for SEO
• Measuring Marketing ROI
• Building Brand
• Define Internet Marketing