Whoast, Inc. is one of Chicagoland’s leading search engine marketing firms. They work with B2B and B2C clients across a wide range of industries. The demand for their services is growing by leaps and bounds.

I recently interviewed Whoast Vice President Ian Stevenson about SEM trends as they relate to small & medium companies. Here’s what he had to say.

It seems that interest in search engine marketing is exploding. Why is that?

I feel that the reason that SEM is exploding is because it works. The
marketing industry, those who use marketing services to increase sales, have
been dying for real-results with accountability when spending money on
marketing initiatives. The real reason that SEM is so powerful is that
people are actively looking for a provider for products and services versus
marketing in a magazine or radio and hoping that someone in need is
looking/listening to your ad. It is somewhat similar to the yellow pages
concept, though so much more. People use to, and some still do, turn to the
yellow pages to find a provider of product or service which is the concept
of search. However, a Web site is SO much more than a little static ad with
your address and phone number. The interaction and image that you can
present to someone online blows everything else out of the water. With the
improvements in local search, the small business owners are starting to pull
their marketing dollars from the printed directories and putting it into
search which is a paradigm shift of sorts. The industry is still in its
infancy and when you look at mobile and GPS technology, the future is truly
bright.

How does a business know when it needs help with SEM?

A business first knows it needs help with search engine marketing when
they aren’t doing any at all. If they are already engaged in some level of
search engine marketing, they will know they need help when they are not
getting the results they were expecting. A solid search engine marketing
program can drive all of the relevant traffic to a Web site, though if the
Web site itself is not hitting that visitor with what they just searched
for, you will lose the battle. Search engine marketing involves Web design
and development to optimize campaigns whether they are organic or paid. I
know of many “optimized” Web sites that sit on prime real estate on the
major search engines and when you visit their sites you are utterly
confused. A truly optimized Web site is one that drives tons of relevant
traffic to it and drives that visitor into fulfilling a call-to-action.
This may be placing an order online, filling a contact form, making a phone
call or signing up for a newsletter are just a few.

What are some of the mistakes companies should avoid when developing their SEM plan?

The number one mistake that I see are that business owners that have
their Web sites designed and developed before they ever think about search
engine marketing. For some reason, people seem to have a “Field of Dreams”
mentality that if they build it, they will come. This couldn’t be further
from the truth. Google, Yahoo! and the other major search engines have no
idea how to index your pages if you don’t design and develop with their
needs and preferences in mind, let alone grant you with high organic ranking
for competitive keywords. The other main pitfall is allocating a sufficient
budget for search engine marketing. Since SEM is without a doubt has
highest ROI in marketing today, why would you spend more money on a lower
performing medium? I think this boils down to education. There is a lot of
gibberish in our industry and ridiculous claims of achieving top positions
on the major search engines in 48 hours and the like. Search engine
marketing can bring amazing results very quickly, though the best campaigns
understand that it takes persistence and dedication over time to get the
best results possible.

There seems to be a big difference of opinion about the value of paid search. What do you think?

I feel that paid search has a ton of value. For instance, let’s say I
own a real estate office in Chicago. I have pursued a SEO campaign with a
solid company and I am now enjoying top organic positions on the major
search engines for the keyword “real estate Chicago il” which received
approximately 153,250 searches in the month of May. I am now enjoying a
steady flow of relevant traffic for people looking for my services. No
problems now, right? Wrong! What about the approximate 12,500 people who
searched for “real estate agent Chicago”. My web site is not on the first
10 pages and these people are searching for my services, though they can’t
find me. The English language has several nuances and people are very
different. Synonyms are a big part of our language and this is where paid
search really shines. The best SEM campaigns revolve around optimizing a Web
site for the highly searched relevant keywords and filling in the holes with
paid search.

Where do blogs fit in to SEM?

I feel that blogs are an extension of public relations. By allowing
people to post their opinions about your industry, company or whatever on
your blog, you allow the general public to see how the rest of the world
feels about your business versus just taking the salesperson’s view you just
spoke to. Search engine optimization is not just about achieving the number
one organic position on the search engines, though it is becoming more and
more about your messaging, your site’s conversion capabilities and your
ability to give the people on your site everything they want in an
easy-to-find package.

Technology and the Web are evolving at breakneck speed. How will SEM change over the next 1-2 years?

I see local search expanding into mediums like your in-dash GPS and more
growth in all mobile technology. I envision your car running low on fuel and
triggering the local gas stations ads competing for that $150.00 fill up
and the restaurants sending you messages about their specials as you are
driving down I-70 at 4:10 PM. Think about the music industry and the
possibilities of downloading music on-demand as you are driving through the
border of Tennessee and Alabama and the trip cannot be complete without
rocking out to “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynrd Skynrd. The future is going to
be very cool!

Thank you, Ian!