What are SERS?
Trent Blizzard | 25 February 2010 | 6 Reviews »
Search Engine Results Saturation (SERS) refers to how many spots in the search engine results are about you.
The more spots in the search engine results that are about you, the better! We already know that:
- If you have an organic AND a PPC ad on the same page, you get a lot more clickthroughs.
- Consumers reached across multiple publishers were twice as likely to convert as those reached only on a single publisher
- Sponsored search clickers were 22 percent more likely to convert if they were exposed to display ads
Managing a stable of high quality listing sites not only drives you qualified traffic and helps you in the search engines, it also improves your click-through rate and your conversion rate. Search engine saturation works!
Listings sites like VRBO, Bedandbreakfast.com and TripAdvisor will all help you garner more spots in the top-10 and improve your brand recognition. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Flickr are also excellent resources for increasing your search engine results saturation.
As you go out and build links to help you rank better in Google, don’t forget the other key benefits of getting listings that will rank directly in Google:
- Increased brand recognition and online visibility
- Increased Click-throughs to your website
- Increased conversion rates
- Increased interaction with your visitors
February 25th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Trent,
Great article.
I was with you until, “Listings sites like VRBO, Bedandbreakfast.com and TripAdvisor will all help you garner more spots in the top-10” .
That is exactly what you do not want. Those companies, obviously, have their best interest in mind. Why send them the traffic, when you are doing all the work? Especially sites that take you have to pay a commission to.
To really saturate search, it needs to be done through social media and other “non-purchasing” sites. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Flickr are excellent ways to dominate search results with your brand.
These sites get good rankings AND ultimately send the user back to your site for booking. They support the brand, not compete against it.
-John
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:57 am
John,
I think you are right about social media, but not about the major listings sites. My logic is as follows:
a) many companies don’t have a “brand” yet… and need these sites to actually build it.
b) these listings sites are often “authority” sites in Google’s eyes and being represented on them is important
c) these listings sites attract millions of potential buyers and send a lot of high-quality and qualified direct buyers to my client’s sites
d) my analytics show that traffic from many of these listings sites is very high conversion and can create a powerful ROI
So, I say do both!
The area I would agree with you on are those websites that take your listings, but don’t link to you or give your phone number… because their business model is to capture a percentage of your revenue, not send you qualified visitors. Even with that said, the can also create a powerful “halo effect” http://hudsoncrossing.blogspot.com/2009/11/expedia-billboard-effect-cornell-agrees.html
Thanks John!
March 4th, 2010 at 10:27 am
I like to do organic result for the long term.Because there”s no cost from search engine.Not like PPC.
March 5th, 2010 at 10:46 am
David,
So do I! I like the quick ROI from PPC but the long-term ROI is a lot more profitable. It dismays me to see people throw money at PPC (I think they do it because they have a blind-spot for Google and irrationally spend money with Google) and not invest in seo and link building. PPC is like Crack… you will feel good now, but the long-term benefit isn’t there. Organic SEO is like going to the gym… if you keep at it regularly , the results are impressive. Too many people are not willing to take a long-term view of success… they want results NOW.
March 27th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
I also agrees with the David that organic results are better for the long term and also very effective and efficient…
April 12th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I have to agreen with Trent/David on this one. I am looking for a long time life maintenance on the web. If I want to pay oodles of money to the big G then PPC is the way to go. I think steady wins the race with internet marketing!