Ryan MacMillan

I’ve been chatting to people who I think know something about search, in an attempt to pull together some thoughts. These are my notes.

It’s not about “search”, it’s about “find”

Clients need help putting their products and services in front of people who want to buy them. Search engines are only the most common way that people find what they’re looking for. Who’s looking at the comparison engines? The directories, the consumer review sites? Who’s covering off the distribution deals? Too often this can be left to affiliates…

Furthermore, what happens when they reach your site? Can they find the answer they were looking for?

“The best way to improve SEM margins is to improve the usability of your site” says Tom Hopkins at VCCP digital.

Search businesses are service companies. (But they’re only as good as the technology they employ.)

Ben Poole at MediaCom says “it’s about service and technology going hand in hand - they are inextricably linked in search”

David St John-Tradewell at Spannerworks notes: “Good search businesses are both service and technology companies - one cannot function effectively without the other. Some service companies may find that outsourcing development is a cost-effective solution, but in all cases, the technology is only ever as good as the people who use it.”

Show me the money.

If you can’t put a value on a transaction, you can’t optimise your search.

David St John-Tradewell: “If you can’t put a value on a transaction, then throwing money to drive more traffic to your site, whether through search or any other route, is shooting in the dark.”

Good search businesses can’t afford to have all their staff in London offices

Good search marketing is very labour intensive. It requires bums on seats. It’s also a margins business - overheads have to be kept to a minimum. More and more people are looking outside London (and the UK) to buy their search programme optimisation.

Ben Poole: “Search is a hugely labour-intensive business, so out-of-London shops have emerged with some success”

“London teams are expensive when you need people on the ground,” agrees Pete Robins.

On the other hand, Spannerworks intends to open a London office very shortly.

Something makes people search…

“Too many people forget that, and just concentrate on search…” says Pete Robins.

Graham Hansell at SiteLynx “Search is a key response channel for offline media. It doesn’t have just to be your own campaigns, competitors will increase generic response!”