Search Engine Marketing - PPC Management Services

Search Engine Optimization, Google, And The Reptilian Code

Search engine optimization dominates the thinking and to a large degree the marketing efforts of many small and medium-sized companies, but have you ever noticed that many of the largest and most profitable companies in the world ignore many SEO techniques.

Of course these companies have large advertising and marketing budgets that drive traffic to their websites and generate leads, sales, and most importantly customers; and they achieve these results without having to twist their Web-marketing message out of shape in order to satisfy search engine criteria.

Their prime interest is in delivering their finely crafted, focused marketing message to their audience, not to search robots. Last I heard search engines are in the business of selling you their stuff not buying yours. But these companies also know something that you don't; they have a secret that makes their marketing work without the need for search engine appeasement. This secret is not much of a secret, in fact it is out there for all see; unfortunately most search engine crazed entrepreneurs choose to ignore it and instead look for an easy fix, a magic bullet, search engine nirvana.

Google's Mission

Google's success is based on two very simple facts: one, it is the best way to find what people are looking for on the Web; and two, it has parlayed this ability into a series of paid-for services. Pretty obvious stuff until you delve deeper into why and how this works. Google understands the same thing most extraordinarily successful companies understand and that is they know what you really want. The keyword here is 'really:' they understand the unconscious primal need to survive, to be the alpha-ape, to be first on page one of a search for whatever it is you do, because in the SEO game, if you ain't on the leader board you ain't in the money.

The Google Paradox

Here's the problem: Google can only be successful as long as they deliver relevant search results to a vast Internet audience. If they fail to deliver appropriate search results people will stop using them and their paid-for services will decline. On the other hand, you as a business executive want access to Google's vast audience, and the only way you think you can effectively gain this access is to appear on that first search page as close to the top as possible; and you really don't give a damn how you get there. Enter the search engine optimization gurus, boffins, and Svengalis who provide the promise of survival of the most index-able.

So now we have Google who's success is based on delivering relevant searches and SEO companies intend on manipulating this ability to place their clients on page one near the top. Google of course being a smart bunch of guys foils the SEOs by constantly changing their methods and algorithms and trumps them by placing paid-for results in the most prominent places. And the game continues, bringing in huge profits to Google and wonderfully large fees to the search engine optimization experts, leaving you paying the shot with little to show for it.

Just as an aside, I can tell you that most of our website traffic and subsequent inquiries and worldwide clients come from Google searches, and our website is mostly Flash, concentrates on Web-video and audio, and basically ignores most search optimization tricks. We rely on providing our audience and Google with relevant material.

Back to Basics

The lesson here is clear: sound marketing practices based on the way people think and act should be your number one priority, not blind faith in the manipulation of some constantly changing mathematical formula that is increasingly playing second fiddle to paid-for placement.

Persuasion Techniques

The ability to make money on the Web is not based on traffic but rather on your ability to communicate. High volume expensive traffic that leaves your site within seconds serves no financial purpose. You should be spending your marketing dollars on methods that grab visitors' attention and deliver a focused, informative, entertaining and memorable marketing message that resonates with your audience's unconscious desires formed in the primitive reptilian portion of the brain.

The Lustication-Justification Process

Sales are generated by creating what Clotaire Rapaille, the reigning superstar of market research, refers to as the process of lustication and justification. Lustication is the psychological trigger of desire that makes your audience want to buy your product or service, while justification is merely the rational excuse used to expend resources.

Decoding the Motivating Triggers

Rapaille's work is all about decoding the motivating triggers that prompt a purchase. Once found, the job of the marketing effort is to stay on code. The major research effort is to get past the excuses, the justifications, the rational left brain thinking that appeases the accountants, engineers and programmers, and to get down to the nitty-gritty, the elements and primal coding that make us tick.

Rapaille believes words carry more than their literal meaning and are ripe with unconscious associations, not a surprising revelation since all communication whether verbal or nonverbal is based on the associations we make over a lifetime of experience. These shared associations form the basis of the code we are looking to play upon in our marketing.

Where most corporations and advertising agencies use focus groups as an exercise designed to cover their collective asses, Rapaille takes a different approach. As a trained psychiatrist, he organizes his version of focus groups in stages. During the first stage he allows his subjects to gain a sense of accomplishment by justifying their reasoning through logical and rational thinking that he completing ignores. In the second stage, he pursues the more relevant hidden aspects of desire, and that's the ultimate sales trigger he's looking for.

An Affordable Solution

Most businesses certainly can't afford the fees of someone like Clotaire Rapaille, but if you free yourself from conventional thinking and the need to justify and rationalize everything you do then maybe you to can find the hidden triggers of desire that form the code you need to base your marketing on.

Humans have two fundamental needs, survival and improvement; these essential requirements are subdivided into our need for food, shelter, reproduction, acceptance, community, status, and knowledge; these are motivational triggers for everything your audience does and for every cent they spend. While you're knocking your brains out competing for top spot on a Google search, the big boys are delivering what people really want, and laughing all the way to the bank.

If you want your share of the Internet pie, you best discover what really satisfies your audience's hunger, because that's the basis for a marketing message and website presentation that works.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

MORE ARTICLES:

Why PPC And SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Are The Most Popular Web Site Promotion Methods
There has to be a reason why PPC (pay-per-click) ads and SEO (search engine optimization) are the two most popular website promotion tools on the World Wide Web today. As a matter of fact, it is not too difficult to figure out why these two website promotional methods are so popular. It is quite simple ? they work. Actually they are very fast and effective in getting traffic to a web site. Internet Marketing can be overwhelming for some but if you leave it to the reputable professionals you can expect great results. Picture this situation. You select a few keywords come up with some attractive headlines and then launch a PPC ad campaign with Google Adwords. The next thing you know is that your site is receiving a steady flow of traffic...

Internet Marketing Agency Reveals Search Engine Optimization Secrets
If your web site doesn't have a Top 10 search engine ranking, you're missing out on approximately 85% of the Internet users who are looking for the exact products or services you offer.

Search Engine Optimization Firm, Brick Marketing Revises Search Engine Optimization Service
Brick Marketing, an internet marketing company, has recently revised and re-launched their search engine optimization services to adjust with growing trends. Brick Marketing has acknowledged that a revision of this product and the way it was offered to our clients had to be revised in order to stay competitive with other agencies. Potential customers can now be accustomed to similar pricing strategies has other players in the industry. The online marketing industry is a very fast moving industry with changes occurring sometimes over night. In order for firms and consultants to stay in a competitive range a watchful eye must be kept on all offerings in order to be able to provide only the best solution for clients.

Search Engine Marketing Agency Launch Mobile Search Marketing Service
With close to 3 billion mobile device users worldwide, Search Engine Marketing Agency Neutralize has responded to client demand with the launch of Mobilize.

Internet Marketing Expert Shows How Search Engine Optimization and RSS Can Boost Public Relations Visibility
TopRank CEO Lee Odden to Speak at Bulldog Reporter's Advanced Public Relations Technology in Practice Event

Search Engine Optimization Company Announces Expansion in Business and New Marketing Strategy
Within the past two years Keyword Performance LLC, a creative search engine marketing firm, has tripled in size, offering new services and gaining large company recognition.

PPC Summit Workshops: Learn Search Engine Marketing in Two-Day Seminars from Search Industry Experts
PPC Summit unites some of the foremost minds in the pay per click advertising world to change the way the subject is taught. Targeted at a range of skill levels and suitable for a wide variety of professionals, participants acquire new skills and leave with a solid understanding of search engine marketing. The team is bringing their seminars to cities all over North America, as well as London in the UK, in 2007.

Search Engine Marketing Firm iProspect Wins at Search Engine Strategies Awards
iProspect Client Microsoft Small Business Center Wins Award for Best Business to Business Search Engine Marketing Campaign

Icelandic Internet Marketing Firm Invited to Speak at London's Search Engine Strategies Conference
Nordic eMarketing's Director of Internet Marketing, Kristjan Mar Hauksson, has been invited to present at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2007 in London, England.

Bill Casey Opens Full-Service Web Site Design, Development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Firm
New Atlanta web site design and SEO firm gives small and medium sized businesses a simple and effective path to creative, profitable web sites. Bill Casey Consulting provides all the web services a business needs, gauges its success on the profitability of its clients' sites, and streamlines the development process to lessen client burdens.

Search Engine Optimization Firm, Epiar Inc., Unveils New Paid Search Advertising Service
After months of testing, Epiar has taken pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to the next level with the launch of its new service to the general public. Epiar is introducing the service at the New York Search Marketing Expo Conference Oct. 6-8.

Engine77 -- Search Engine Internet Optimization Firm Unveils New SEO Technology and Service
Infinidigm, Inc., a search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and software development firm, announces its cornerstone search engine marketing and search engine optimization technology-based service called Engine77. Engine77 is a robust software platform and service used to optimize web sites, perform market research, and develop sites based upon the analysis.

Local Search Engine Marketing Expert to Speak at Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago
Janet Driscoll Miller, a local leading search engine marketing expert, will be speaking at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago on Monday, December 4, 2006. Miller is the president and CEO of Search Mojo, a search engine marketing firm.

SpiderSplat.com Expands Search Engine Marketing to Include Social Media Optimization Services (SMO Consultant)
SpiderSplat, a leading provider of Search Engine Marketing, Pay-per-Click marketing and Keyword syndicated press releases, has expanded its offering to now include Social Media Optimization services. This new service called the SMO Consultant, offers clients the ability to have the opportunity to dramatically increase traffic and turn visitors into paying customers when used with SpiderSplat's SEM services.

New Law Firm Marketing Subsidiary Combines Web Design and Search Engine Optimization for Lawyers
For over a year, Adviatech has been providing web design and search engine optimization for lawyers. Now they have launched a subsidiary to specialize on the niche service.