Search Market Positioning

The glory of organic search marketing is in attaining visibility with the search engines, but the end goal should be to position your business in search markets that create profit for you, not just visibility. It is not difficult to appear in search markets that return little or no reward.

With increased search visibility, businesses are able to tap in to search markets that have the potential to generate significant business for their organizations. For car dealers however, the road to attain this positioning can be a painful wait because many dealers want immediate results.

[tag]Pay-per-click advertising[/tag] can ease the pain a bit. [tag]PPC[/tag] gives dealers the opportunity to appear instantly in searches for markets in which they want to be seen and thus generate instant site traffic. But acquisition of sponsored ads does not necessarily equate to marketing positioning. You can purchase PPC ads all day long and get people to click on them, but if Internet users do not see what they are expecting upon arrival, then you are sure to see them bounce.

In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. It is the ‘relative competitive comparison’ their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market. Reference: Wikipedia.

With Organic Search, this is typically less of an issue. The reason why is because people are not likely to locate you accidentally or randomly because you have worked your way into their radar. Research on key phrases and search patterns must be well thought out and massaged over time, resulting in a more tailored experience for the end user.

Keep this in mind when reaching out to search markets. You want to position your site in markets that will respond to the value of your product, not the commodity. This can be accomplished mentally by appearing in numerous related search markets, e.g. saturation. [tag]Organic Search[/tag] inherently steers you towards this, but you need a persistent vision that is shared by your stake holders. Otherwise, they may want to change course for more immediate return.