Start by asking yourself: Who can do a better job considering time, knowledge, budget and tools?

Time: Any type of search engine marketing initiative is never a ‘set it and forget it’ fix. Online efforts require constant care and time to guarantee that you are doing it correctly and your campaign is working properly. Considering search engine algorithms are continuously changing, it’s best to make sure the person in charge understands the shifts of online.

Knowledge: As stated above, search engine marketing is constantly changing and also a highly competitive market. Expertise is non-negotiable with your online marketing efforts. So the questions here are, can you find someone with the knowledge necessary in order to successfully maintain a campaign? Do you know what knowledge is necessary to hire this person? Whether you use a company or hire someone internally, they need to specialize in online marketing.

Budget: Obviously it’s a no brainer that you need to calculate cost, so start by comparing the cost of one or two full time employees, plus benefits, along with all of the other miscellaneous costs of employment, and the monthly marketing budget. Also think about the longevity of an employee versus a no contract SEM firm. Although SEM firms have set up fees (usually one time only) and management fees, it’s included in the monthly budget and taps into how your money is being spent to the penny with complete transparency.

Tools: Your in house expert can use different platforms, such as Google AdWords to track and report how well your campaign is doing. However, this goes back to the ability (knowledge) of using the tools provided and interpreting what it means, because you can’t really pick up the phone and ask Google. SEM firms work on platforms with real time reporting, call recording capabilities, and keep track of what you deem a call to action (web events, calls, contact us forms etc.), and they know the in’s and out’s of the system. If you outsource, you will still be able to check up on the performance if you wish.

If you do decide to outsource a company to take care of your online marketing efforts, make sure they have the credentials, expertise and proven results first.

The newest social networking technique presented by Google has search engine marketers on the edge of their seats, waiting to see if it takes off with consumers because it has the potential of being a lucrative tool in their world. Depending on whether consumers sign up for Google accounts, +1 may or may not be an advertisers dream. The key is getting people to sign up for Google accounts.

Once you have a Google account, the process of “+1-ing” seems pretty simple. In order to recommend something in a Google search to a friend, you simply click the +1 on the object you choose and it will appear in the Google search results.

Search Engine Land reported today that Google assures advertisers that +1 “improves click-through rates,” but continues that it will not be used as a ranking tool just yet. Google is also reporting that it will track traffic from the +1 system in AdWords.

On Wednesday, in an official Google blog post, Google product manager Rob Spiro said of +1, “It’s digital shorthand for- ‘this is pretty cool’.”

That is, of course, unless you get your lessons from this gentleman.

But there are still basic concepts of what is right and what is wrong. In the SEO world, these are called white hat (good) and black hat (bad) optimization techniques.

This past weekend, the New York Times uncovered one example of the latter. Department store chain JC Penney was outed for using link schemes to artificially get top rankings for a variety of terms on Google.

This occurs when an SEO firm creates websites that cross link to a client’s product or service site. The links to the created site are placed in a word or phrase and distributed anywhere and everywhere on the internet – most commonly found in reader comment sections. You may know this as “spamming”.

Google picks up on how frequently these links are found and asserts them to the top of its rankings accordingly. That explains why JC Penney had top billing for terms as varied as “furniture”, “tablecloths” and “area rugs” throughout the winter.

JC Penney was punished and can now be found in less-ideal positions (many pages deep) in the rankings as manually placed by Google itself.

The firm in charge of JC Penney’s search engine campaigns, SearchDex, was promptly fired and the retailer now vehemently denies any involvement in the tactics.

No system is without its flaws but for those who take their searching seriously, this is very disappointing news all around. For Google to be gamed so easily for so long (this went on for months) makes you question when or if you are actually getting the best results.

By the same token, Google’s punishment of manually placing JC Penney links deep down in the rankings seems quite dubious as well. What if a searchers best result really turns out to be for JC Penney but they never see it because it’s buried in the rankings? That’s not organic either.

I think the lesson learned here is…well don’t cross Google, for one.

But the true lesson for companies looking to expand their profile on search engines is to really understand your SEO firm’s practices and make sure they are doing things the right way.

With this in mind, it’s important to market your products and services through SEM; however for the newcomers and busy business owners who either lack the industry knowledge or necessary time may find SEM to be overwhelming. That being said, I decided to put together a few tips to help potential online marketers navigate through the SEM terrain:

Industry Experts- If you’re not SEM-savvy, make sure the people you hire (either in-house or through an agency) know what they are doing. It’s important to remember that not all digital marketing companies specialize in search marketing. Make sure the person or team you hire has enough experience, knowledge, and focus specifically in search engine marketing.

Tools and Reports- SEM is 100% quantifiable, meaning  results can be measured clearly with numbers down to the penny. Whether you’re hiring someone in-house or an outside SEM firm, make sure the right tools and reports are in place to monitor the campaign’s performance. Also, make sure the person in charge of your campaign knows how to interpret and use these tools.

Phone Call Tracking- This is especially important for small businesses considering most conversions start with a call. Phone call tracking helps the SEM expert decide how the campaign should be optimized, and also gives the business owner complete transparency to see performance, conversions, and a return on investment.

Landing Page- This is the first thing a prospective customer sees when they click on an ad on a search engine. Review the landing page where searchers are directed when the advertisement is clicked. Even if the homepage is rich with useful content, it may not convert well. A landing page should be focused and hook the searcher into wanting to learn more about the company and eventually lead to a conversion.

Keyword Selection- When selecting keywords, brainstorm words that you think potential customers would use to search for the product or service you provide, including misspellings. The less competitive the keyword, the lower the cost per click.

Please contact us to learn more about search engine marketing as well as our personally managed eZanga SEM platform.

He uses the article to describe why elements such as tools and reports, keyword selection and phone call tracking can be most important to the SEM campaign of a small business as well as why paid search is a must for small businesses.

Said Kahn, “Paid search puts a company’s advertisement directly in front of the right audience, rather than relying on the search engine itself to decide how a company should rank on the organic listing.”

The case study gives an overview on why Ride-Away chose to advertise with eZanga, what services eZanga customized for Ride-Away and how that partnership worked for Ride-Away over a five-month period.

The SEM campaign was able to significantly increase Ride-Away’s lead generation within a four month optimization period. Compared to the initial campaign performance, Ride-Away’s leads increased:

*     30% by Month Two

*     49% by Month Three

*     56% by Month Four

Ride Away’s cost per lead drastically decreased going into month five, providing the company with a more cost effective marketing forum with granular reporting and results.

Be sure to take a full look at this interesting read by heading to Adotas or by clicking links provided by blogs at Google Australia, Twitter, MediaPost, Internet Advertising and Buzz Tracker.

eZanga client Bedco Mobility has figured out one way to do it, however. And in About.com’s ‘Entrepreneurs’ feature this week, the accessibility and mobility company made no bones about giving some of the credit for its recent success to its successful search engine marketing campaign with eZanga.com.

Bedco Sales Manager Tim Pelton took on the questions from About.com and told the story of how eZanga.com was helping to turn Bedco Mobility into even more of a household name.

“One of the ways we’re growing our business through technology is by utilizing search engine marketing, which makes us more visible on the Web. Prior to advertising online, we advertised exclusively in local newspapers and Yellow Pages, with no online representation other than our web site. Since our in-house staff does not know much about Internet marketing, we hired search engine marketing company eZanga to run the campaign. After just four months of running the campaign, our lead generation more than doubled.”

View the rest of the article at About.com for more on Bedco and eZanga.com’s partnership and why it has changed the way the company thinks about marketing in today’s landscape.

“When people are looking for treatment advice, they often begin their search online,” said Bob Cabaniss, Jr., Executive Director of Williamsville Wellness. “This is why it is essential for us to implement a search marketing campaign. We are already beginning to see a spike in traffic to our site and are excited to see the continued results that eZanga’s services will provide.”

“We are glad to have Williamsville Wellness on board with us as a new client,” said Rich Kahn, CEO of eZanga. “We are a team of search marketing veterans and feel confident that we will increase site traffic for Williamsville Wellness, which will heighten their visibility and business.”

News of the deal has quickly landed on notable sites such as Forbes.com, CNBC.com, Yahoo Finance, Market Watch, Hoovers, Wall Street Select and a host of ABC affiliates among other notable outlets.

Thursday, Adotas.com, a website which focuses on the businesses of online advertising and media, featured a commentary on metasearch by eZanga.com founder and CEO Rich Kahn which aims to answer all questions. Rich lends his near two decades worth of expertise on the industry in his piece entitled “The Nuts and Bolts of Metasearch Engines.”

Rich dives in to topics such as “good data” and “bad data”, what sets certain metasearch engines from each other and why metasearch engines are appealing to marketers on the web.

The article was also linked to from the “Search Engines” section of Business Week’s Business Exchange, a web site featuring business-related topics from around the world. Check out all of what Rich had to say and be sure to check back with eZanga News for more information on appearances, mentions and all the goings-on at eZanga.com!

The survey asked over 100 users “Which second tier search engine produced the best results for you?” and eZanga.com turned up in the results, garnering 1 percent of the vote as one of just seven search engines named in the responses.

The report, which can be read here, also includes a chart depicting the results.

“To generate supplemental traffic, leads, and revenue, these search engines can be a useful resource (if managed and optimized properly),” it reads. “Also, diversifying your search marketing efforts can help stabilize your performance just in case you should incur any fluctuations in the “big 3.” And for certain advertisers, these search engines may even work just as well as Google (gasp!). This is some food for thought when creating a strategy to expand your PPC efforts beyond Google, Yahoo or MSN.”