Byline: Nikki Oakley
Rodale is working on search engine optimization (SEO)and has seen some progress. However, it is nearly impossible to accurately measure the direct impact on Men's Health and sports titles in the position of its sites relative to rankings.
There are two kinds of Search Engine Marketing, Organic (or natural) and Paid. Organic includes SEO of one's own sites. We have undertaken SEO in Men's Health and sports titles, and have optimized the content, metatags and alt tags accordingly to improve the site rankings based on the keywords and terms search engine consumers frequently use.
Another important part of SEO and relative ranking is the number of sites linking to yours. We have developed and continue to work on strategies to improve this. Again, it's impossible to tie results directly to one activity over another due to the algorithms at work in the search engines.
We've tried the CPC (cost per click) model and the results have been less than stellar. We're now working with an outside brokerage firm to develop search-friendly marketing tools based on search term optimizaton to drive subscriptions. We are paying them on a cost-per-order basis based on a two-tiered commission structure.
The sites that have been best able to monetize search are the e-tailers, because their sites are built around converting sales. It is harder for our content sites to use Google AdWords, for example, to drive traffic and then as step two, monetize via consumer sales or registrations, because the draw of our sites is editorial content.
We're working on using search engines successfully. It's an ever-evolving, time-intensive, nevertheless important process.
Nikki Oakley is in charge of online consumer marketing for Rodale's sports titles.
Author: Array
Previous news: 30 April 2007
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