It’s just not that easy I’m afraid. With increasing competition online and growing sophistication in how search engines display their results, research and planning is absolutely paramount to a successful online strategy. The introduction of blended search, personalised search, social search and real-time search demand a much more holistic approach to search engine optimisation (SEO); an approach that combines traditional activities, such as keyword selection and link building, with more contemporary tactics in social media and content marketing.

But a more holistic and sophisticated approach to SEO in turn demands a greater focus on research and planning. Research is essential in providing insight, focus and direction for your digital marketing strategy. Planning ensures your digital strategy is aligned with your objectives, internal time and resource, offline marketing and budget.

So with this in mind, what do we suggest you look at as part of a detailed research and planning phase? Well, here’s an insight into a few of the things we focus on during the first few weeks of a new project, and review at regular intervals thereafter:

Competitor analysis

For any new project, we ask a client who they consider to be the their key competitors. We then analyse the online marketing activity of these competitors, including SEO efforts, Paid Search campaigns, content and social media. By carrying out analysis of your competitors it provides insight, focus and direction for your own online efforts. Have you ever heard the saying, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer?’ That’s why you need to analyse the competitive space and know exactly what you’re up against before you get started.

Prospects and customers

A number of sophisticated tools allow you to discover where your prospects and customers spend their time online, what they talk about and how they interact with one another, as well as who influences their purchasing decisions. This research allows you to create a community map; a visual representation of the websites, blogs, forums and social networks where your target audience is most active. In turn, this map dictates where you need to be pushing content along with the social media tools, such as Twitter, that you need to use to engage with your prospects, customers and those people who influence them.

It’s also well worth scouring the web for published research, reports and studies on the audience you are targeting. For example, if you’re market is 17-25 year olds there is bound to be some freely available research that provides insight their use of the Internet, such as the social networks they frequent most regularly. If not, you may even consider commissioning your own research!

Content brainstorming

The research that goes into creating a community map will highlight the problems, issues and concerns faced by your target audience. Analysing a number of your key competitors will also highlight where you can gain an advantage by creating content they may not have considered or by bettering what they are already doing. It is therefore important to audit the content you already have (digital assets) and then brainstorm new content ideas that may include additional resources on your website, articles, press releases, blog posts, images, video and audio. Creating and marketing content on an ongoing basis is essential in making your website a stronger resource, building authority and in entering social spaces with something of real value to the target audience.

Site architecture planning

One of the most important elements of creating a great website is information architecture. A site that is well organised and intuitive will set the foundations for search engine rankings, as well as benefiting visitors to your website with a clear and intuitive path to the point of conversion.

In researching new content ideas it is important to plan how this content will be integrated into your website. During the research and planning stage it is therefore a good idea to map out your existing website and then, on the basis of continually adding new content, also map out where you expect the site to be in say, 3, 6 and 12 months time. This helps to provide direction and a clear goal of what you are working towards, therefore forming the basis of a content schedule.

Link research

In-bound links to your website from other sites of relevance and quality is a crucial factor in determining how well your website ranks on the major search engines, as well as driving traffic and increasing online awareness of your business.

Activity in content marketing and social media will yield links to your website but it’s a good idea to spend time researching specific websites, such as directories, organisations and industry bodies that you would ideally like a link from. Once you have your list you can then figure out the best way of gaining a link, be it a direct request, the offer of content, product trials or dare we say it, hard cash!

Benchmarking and setting up of reporting/tracking solutions

Traffic driven to your website from search engines, social media activity and content marketing should be measured by its impact on revenue. Search engine rankings and traffic alone are not appropriate measures of success for your digital marketing efforts; instead focus on conversions to calculate ROI and therefore the impact on your bottom line. At the research and planning stage consider the tools you need to use to measure ROI before setting realistic benchmarks and targets based on the research you have carried out above.

In summary, what I am trying to demonstrate is that when it comes to implementing a successful digital marketing strategy you can’t just jump straight in. Research and careful planning will allow you to maximise your reach, targeted traffic, online conversion rates, levels of customer retention, as well as the number of brand advocates. In an increasingly complex and competitive online space, meeting these objectives doesn’t just happen. Don’t abandon the thinking and methods you would usually adopt when investing your budget offline because although many so called SEO agencies and ‘consultants’ will fall over themselves to tell you so, there are no magic formulas when it comes to achieving long term, sustained success online.

Some of these systems allow you to take control of your profile, and edit and update it. The business models used by these sites can also be interesting. Some are free, and offer premium services for an extra fee. Some only allow you to take control of your profile for a fee. The information collated on the site may include details that are correct or incorrect; and the information may be current or out of date.

One that I have registered with is ZoomInfo, which allows me to log in and take control of my profile free of charge. I have been able to clean up the information there – although more info of dubious accuracy is added from time to time, and my name has also appeared on a separate profile. (Some of the changes I made today may still take some time to appear on the site!) This site also keeps cached copy of the content that they found my name in – some of which is now up to four years old, and no longer exists at the original site. I have no control over what they keep in their cache.

This has mostly been a positive experience, although I don’t remember seeing a lot of security to stop anyone else (whether of the same name or not) taking control of a profile.

I did once have a similar experience with a site called “Spock”, which seems to now have been subsumed into “Intelius“, purporting to be “The world’s largest and most accurate public record source.” Although this does still provide links to some relevant sites on the search results, it no longer gives me any control over a profile, and all of the “more detail” links refer to a name only vaguely like mine, and all results are within the USA. This seems to me to be a rather limited view of “the world” – as I understand it, the USA only accounts for 4.5% of the world’s population. However, for those in the USA, the sort of information stored here can supposedly include criminal records and “background checks”, which you have no apparent control over.

This trend highlights the great benefit of occasionally searching for your own name on the net – that’s how I found out about ZoomInfo. It’s worth occasionally finding out what others are saying about you online. However, this is easy for someone with a name like mine – a Scottish first name and a French surname. So far as I know, I am still the only “Keith De La Rue” on the net. I pity all the “John Smiths” out there, and those with names of similar popularity of other ethnicities. (The secret is to choose your parents wisely – or change your name!)

The appearance of sites that gather personal info without allowing you any control is a disturbing trend. Given the nature of the Internet, I don’t see that an awful lot that can be done to directly stop it. I don’t believe that there is any particular “authority” that can regulate this somewhat unethical behaviour globally. Would Identity 2.0 help?

In the meantime, I believe that it is worth taking control of your own online identity on these systems where possible, provided that you are not exposing yourself to other forms of unethical behaviour when you do.

Without wanting to make light of the topic, I wonder if there will be a trend in future to give children more unique names to help them to have a globally unique online identity? Maybe ICANN should take a role in personal names as well?

When online marketing came to the fore a few years ago, the benefits and how to implement PPC were almost immediately understood while SEO was portrayed as a mystical black art, with a bunch of geniuses sitting in a closeted room deciding the movements of Web sites up and down the rankings. Even now with more and more knowledge emerging it seems that PPC still has the advantage on SEO in Australia by a large margin.

Specific search spend figures for the Australian market are a little hard to come but IAB reports that the total search spend was around $900 million for 2009. Of that figure, the brain’s trust at Bruce Clay Australia believes that approximately $100-$135 million is spent on PPC management fees (that doesn’t include the actually money spent with Google and other services for actually buying the keywords) while roughly $30-$40 million was spent on SEO billings. SEMPO International 2008 data indicates that out of 100 percent of search spend, 87 percent is spent on paid placement (PPC) while the remaining 11 percent was spent on SEO (the remaining budget was spent on paid inclusions and SEM technologies). Yet PPC is said to yield a much lower volume of traffic. It is estimated that it is that 70 percent of Google’s search enquiry click-throughs are to search listings provided by the ‘natural’ search results. So people are more likely to click through to ‘natural listings’ and it has a significant long term ROI benefit so why do companies and agencies insist on using the majority of their online spending budget on PPC .

Well for one PPC is a lot easier to explain and understand than SEO, especially when you are trying to explain the differing concepts to a client with limited expertise. Spent $5,000, made $20,000 is a lot easier than explaining that the new optimised content you have written had gained 1,000 visitors and 875 uniques with a decreased bounce rate due to the longtail traffic targeted. Another reason for the promoting of PPC over SEO is that the ROI is actually easier to measure with PPC campaigns. PPC is more like traditional billboards than SEO so traditional advertising agencies have an easier time understanding it as an old fashioned media spend and it’s easier to recommend and deliver to their clients.

SEO also needs more feedback and initiative from the clients’ side. It means working with the client to conduct keyword research and may even require substantial technical investment on the client’s Web site to make it ‘SEO friendly’ whereas with PPC, clients can have a more peripheral role with the running of the PPC campaign with less demands placed on their time and resources.

Yes, PPC results are immediate and the budget can be controlled. Yes, you can geo-locate advertisements to appear in certain states and towns. Yes, PPC campaigns are relatively easy to implement and fairly easy to measure. However, many reports indicate that the long-term ROI of PPC campaigns are limited, while the opposite occurs with regard to natural or organic traffic (as can be seen from this graph to the right from elliance.com).

The good news is the tide is turning, a quick Google trends search worldwide shows how SEO has slowly eroded the lead that PPC has had and even overtaken it (red is “PPC” while blue is “SEO”):

The chart below is for Australia and shows a similar phenomenon as to what is happening worldwide (red is “PPC” while blue is “SEO”):

A report from Eyeblaster in October 2009 found that “Australia and New Zealand are among the least likely nations to click or dwell on online display advertising”. The explanation given by Eyeblaster was as follows "In less mature markets, where users are novice in online advertising, they receive ads with more open arms. When the market matures, the users’ fatigue together with increased competition for their attention reduces engagement significantly. The users’ propensity to engage with ads should be taken into account when comparing benchmarks between geographies and verticals."

Essentially Australia is becoming more ‘ad-blind’ and this is extending to PPC advertisements. SEO has traditionally been giving a bad rap, and the constant flaming efforts by some people in the industry to create linkbait certainly have not helped. However, there is a movement growing behind the art of SEO these days and education is the key. More and more CEOs and CMOs are becoming educated due to more and more SEO information filtering into the mainstream news. More SEO companies are also taking it upon themselves to educate potential clients through free and paid training sessions. The decision makers are beginning to see the value of SEO over PPC, if they need some further proof, here is a great infographic from DIYSEO.

PPC is also becoming more expensive. With more and more companies becoming active and visible in the online realm, more bids on terms will push prices for high visible PPC positions higher and higher, good for Google, bad for companies using PPC to advertise their wares. In fact research suggests that the cost of popular keywords on Google has increased by up to 300 percent in the last three or four years in Australia. SEO has been criticised for its lack of transparency in the past, i.e. how and what exactly we do to help our clients achieve SEO key performance indicators. The industry as a whole has recognised this and most reputable SEO services providers have tried to make their workings as clear and transparent as possible to appease any uneasiness associated with the so-called "smoke and mirror" approach of the past.

I have a dream. I have a dream where PPC and SEO can exist peacefully and co-inhabit our online world; where these two technologies will be used together to create a symbiotic relationship that will increase ROI for the companies and agencies using them. A recent report by Frost & Sullivan states that “Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) continue to attract advertiser spend in Australia and in a change to previous patterns, the two strategies are becoming more widely adopted simultaneously rather than exclusively” and I think that’s a pretty good direction for the Australian online market to be moving in. Studies shown by iCrossing show that clicks, actions, orders, page views, visitors and time on site all increased when SEO and PPC were used together in a complimentary fashion.

I myself am an organic search evangelist. It’s something I live and breathe every day. Sometimes I want to shout from the rooftops Gordon Gecko-esque “SEO is good”, and a strange shift is slowly happening. Many other people around Australia are starting to feel the same way. We can see that by the way that SEO is catching up to PPC in not only ad spend but searches and mentions around the Web. The more transparent we make the SEO process and the better the education and news around SEO becomes, the more traction it will get and I can’t wait for SEO attain its true place alongside PPC in the Parthenon of online spend.

Name: Luke Janssen & Oliver Palmer

Works: TigerSpike

Job Title: CEO, and Head of Innovation

1. How, where and when did the digital industry find you?

I (Luke Janssen) used to work for KPMG's information risk management department (essentially IT consulting) for the Information, Communication, and Entertainment service line in London and then Sydney, so many of my clients were in the media and publishing industry. It wasn't until I quit KPMG (in 2003) and Oliver and I set up TigerSpike that I got into the industry with both feet.

Oliver had been working for a start-up dot com company and the transition from web to mobile seemed a natural progression in early 2002 / 2003. TigerSpike's focus right from the start was on rich media on mobile devices and from those early days, it has maintained it s forward thinking approach to the mobile and digital industry as a whole.

2. What is your current role and what do you actually do?

I am the CEO of TigerSpike globally and run the USA business from New York along with Alex Hall who is Head of global strategic relationships. Oliver Palmer is based in Sydney and supports the Australian business as well as driving the innovation side of the business. Put simply, Olly comes up with innovative digital solutions in Sydney and we sell them in Asia, Europe and the USA, with me focusing mostly on the USA market.

On a day to day basis I (Oliver) focus on understanding where each market is at, and what new and innovative products might be applicable to each location. A lot of innovation, particularly in mobile, comes out of Asia and I spend a lot of time in Singapore and Hong Kong, attending ICT conferences and trade missions to those regions. Understanding the cultural nuances and intricate relationship between technology and culture is critical in ensuring that the technologies we bring to our clients are relevant and applicable to those markets.

3. Can you give us some insights into TigerSpike, how you started, your market position and your forward plans?

We started as a mobile technology company in 2003, and are now the worlds leading personal media business. Initially Oliver and I set up the company in his sunroom in Pyrmont. Dean Jezard came on board soon after and started to build what is now our Service Delivery Platform, Phoenix. Our intimate understanding of mobile has given us an edge as the boundaries between desktops, laptops and portable devices has blurred. Understanding how to deliver personal communications and marketing initiatives to consumers regardless of the device they are using, and most importantly optimising the experience across all those devices, has meant that TigerSpike has become the partner of choice for a variety of blue chip companies.

4. What trends do you think the digital & mobile industry will see in the next 12 months?

Advancing technology is still the driving force behind advances in the digital and mobile industry, new devices such as the iPad and the gPad are capturing consumers imagination. As these technologies become standard, the applications that sit on the layer above the device will start to take centre stage. Today it is not enough simply to have a cool phone like the iPhone, you have to show off the applications you have downloaded. It is the same in the marketing and communications industry, just because you can build applications for these devices doesn't mean you should! You have to understand in detail how consumers interact with, share and fall in love with applications and services that sit on top of the devices that are becoming the norm in everyday life.

5. How do you see the digital, mobile and other media evolving in the next 5 years?

The further you go into the future the more interesting and fantastical it can get. Mobiles are already being incorporated into clothing and other trends such as advancement in speech and even thought recognition will mean that one day we will have mobile enabled telepathy and head up displays on glasses or contact lenses.

Furthermore, over the next 5 years the first "mobile" generation (people who have never experienced a world without mobile phones) will enter the work force, start delivering ideas, building companies and developing applications. This will herald a range of new services that are as revolutionary as web 2.0 style innovations such as Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare are today. Our focus on innovation and cutting technology as well as R&D partnerships with Universities, internship programs and employment practices will be instrumental in ensuring that we are able to continue to stay at the forefront of technology and deliver amazing services for our partners and clients.

6. What does the digital & mobile industry need to do better, right now, to position itself in the broader media landscape?

It needs to stop doing gimmicky things that don't work, and start doing the right things that do. For example, and particularly in the USA, there are many venture funded companies who are trying to push an obscure piece of technology without thinking of what people are actually using. Clients are buying from overpaid sales people and doing the wrong things. Augmented reality for example is something that we are working with on in the Innovation Lab, but for many clients, and especially agencies, the driver seems to be "we want to do something cool that no one has done before!", instead of ‘will this actually solve any problems and add value to the client'. It's ok to do things that no one has done before, but that is not a reason in itself. Augmented reality is a fascinating technology that can enhance a range of media applications; however it is not the be all and end all of each and every marketing application.

In much the same way that the online advertising industry is grappling with issues around measurement, the mobile industry has to establish clear and easily understood metrics around consumer engagement. Only then will media buying companies take mobile seriously and start allocating significant budgets to drive traffic to mobile executions.

7. Is 2010 the year of the mobile - and what has taken so long?

Every year since 2003 has been the year of mobile so its no surprise that 2010 will be too!

What is different this year is the iPhone, which is head and shoulders above the competition and makes mobile browsing so easy, that people who have never browsed the mobile web before are now. The iPod as really lit a fire under mobile which is why 2010 really IS the year of the mobile.

It is also the (Chinese) year of the Tiger. J

8. Where do you get your industry information from?

We have campaigns running all over the world and because everything we do is linked to our Phoenix platform, we have a great picture of mobile behaviour from all of our campaigns running all over the world on everything from iPhones, all other mobile devices, web, etc... At the moment we use this information internally within our Innovation Lab to gain insights that we then apply clients.

In addition to blogs and market specific publications Oliver is an active member of the Twitter community in the Australian digital industry, follow @oliverpalmer for an insight in to a range of industry events and opinions.

9. What industry groups or networks are you a part of?

Here in Australia, we are active participants in MIG (Mobile Industry Group) and sit on the ADMA Digital Council. We are also alumni's of the ATS (Australian Technology Showcase) and have been working with AusTrade from very early in our history. TigerSpike also operates its own incubator program, helping early stage start ups and entrepreneurs develop their ideas to commercial reality, recently we have been mentoring participants in MEGA (Mobile Enterprise and Government Alliance). TigerSpike also actively supports Mobile Mondays and a range of other industry focused events.

Nic Newman our Managing Director of Europe and Head of Strategy sits on the board of the MMA in Europe and each TigerSpike office is actively involved in promoting the industry as a whole in each location.

Thanks for your interest in Digital People. Know someone you would like to see profiled? Please get in touch - denise@mediascope.com.au or Phone: 0424 100325 and don't forget to check out my start-up - MediaScope - a directory connecting advertising buyers and sellers with a focus beyond mainstream media. (there are categories for mobile media and advertising opportunities)

For an update on mobile usage, the advertising and commercial market in Australia, please see the most recent AIMIA mobile report here

Then something started to happen. People began to use the web to actually interact rather than broadcast. More and more people started being creators of the content rather than just a small number of writers.

A gradual shift occurred. Ben Ramsey, Senior Software Architect at Schematic, states in one of his blog articles:

“Web 2.0 represents the second decade of the Web (2000-2009), which is characterized by a shift in the use of the Web to not only connect to a company’s or product’s constituents by giving them information but also allowing users to connect to the company/product and to each other. This is often called the era of the read-write Web.”

This is where the web became more of an open forum. People began to speak up and speak out. Communities were being built online and leaders were starting to emerge. Organisations began to listen and interact with its consumers and connections were made. Social networks such as Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, and You Tube became major platforms for social interaction and sharing. Web 2.0 users made full use of blogging, tagging, and social networking. The key to Web 2.0 wasn’t just about information; it was about its users. None of this could have happened without them…you…us.

Okay, so this is seemingly where we are at, right? So what is this about changing again? What does it all mean?

Web 3.0 or the semantic web means we now have social networking with a purpose. It means we change from having one separate computer device, to the web being visible in everyday things we use such as our vehicles, mobile phones, and much more. It means we build artificial intelligence into our platforms. It means we have social networking with a purpose. Where we’re headed is to personalisation of online services in a way more so than what we are used to today.

Eric Schmidt, chairman/CEO of Google describes web 3.0 as a different way of building applications:

“Web 3.0 will ultimately be seen as applications that will be pieced together. Some characteristics will be applications that are relatively small, data will be in the cloud, applications can be run on any device, be it PC or mobile. Apps will be very fast and very customizable, and the applications will be distributed virally through email and social networks rather than being purchased at a store.”

Jonathon Strickland, senior writer for ‘howstuffworks.com’ wrote a piece about How Web 3.0 will work:

“Some Internet experts believe the next generation of the Web -- Web 3.0 -- will make tasks like your search for movies and food faster and easier. Instead of multiple searches, you might type a complex sentence or two in your Web 3.0 browser, and the Web will do the rest. In our example, you could type "I want to see a funny movie and then eat at a good Mexican restaurant. What are my options?" The Web 3.0 browser will analyze your response, search the Internet for all possible answers, and then organize the results for you.­

That's not all. Many of these experts believe that the Web 3.0 browser will act like a personal assistant. As you search the Web, the browser learns what you are interested in. The more you use the Web, the more your browser learns about you and the less specific you'll need to be with your questions. Eventually you might be able to ask your browser open questions like "where should I go for lunch?" Your browser would consult its records of what you like and dislike, take into account your current location and then suggest a list of restaurants.”

Because of the gradual process of this shift, we've been building web 3.0 and artificial intelligence into our platform to not only separate conversations, but making sense and relevance of the conversation within communities is the key both for the participant and also our clients. By doing this, it will save time, money, and energy.

There are exciting and unique opportunities to be had in this next web generation. It won’t be something that just happens. We’ve already been gradually evolving that way. As for terms, we are now living in Web 3.0 space. Welcome to the continuation of the future.

What are your thoughts on web 3.0?

This article was originally posted on the Community Engine blog.