SEO Expert, Anthony Yap

“If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it”

This is so true in marketing whether offline or online. Web analytics plays a major role in determining the success of any search engine marketing campaign.

Measuring the effectiveness of your search marketing helps you improve on your current performance and also helps to identify the online marketing activities that aren’t working so you can discontinue that campaign.

Many web hosting provides already include basic web analytics which provides some simple data on what users are doing to arrive on your site and what they are doing once they arrive there. If you run PPC campaigns, Google, Yahoo, and MSN provide statistics that can aid in your process of refining search marketing results.

Many webmasters, however, do not use it or use it incorrectly. Part of the reason stems from a lack of understanding and what to look for – especially if they invested in web analytics packages like Urchin, Clicktracks or WebTrends. These packages come with many bells and whistles and an experienced webmaster can be easily overwhelmed with the amount of data that can be collected.

To understand what you should be looking for, think key performance indicators. Every web business is different. And if you’re using free web analytical tools, it’s likely you’ll need to invest in professional tracking programs to get the data you want. To establish what those are specifically for you, consider these questions:

With web analytics, you can profile user behaviors that can enable you to also offer complementary products that would go well with their current selections. Amazon.com is an example shopping engine that does well at this.

Of course, if you’d prefer not look at the numbers, you can always have a search engine marketing expert take care of it for you. Success is measured differently for people. Your important metrics should be discussed along with your search marketing expert so you know that it is exactly the right metrics you want.

Traditional advertising has its place in marketing any business. In time to come, however, the balance of power will shift towards paid search engine marketing.

ClickZ News found in a JupiterResearch report forecasting the next five years in the U.S. paid search market that paid search revenues will outpace display advertising by 2010.

The category accounted for 34 percent of total online ad spending in 2004, or $4.2 billion in spending. In 2009, paid search will draw even with display advertising, with both bringing in around $6.9 billion. By 2010, paid search, including paid listings and paid inclusion, is expected to equal 40 percent of the online ad spend, or $7.5 billion.

And, here’s one that should be of no surprise given anyone who is familiar with the laws of demand and supply.

Cost-per-click is expected to increase from $.39 back in 2004 to $.58 by 2010.

To put things in perspective, being number one in paid search is not necessary for a successful campaign, regardless of your industry and competition. Instead of always targeting the top positions by being the highest bidder, a smart search marketer uses analytical tools and techniques to determine the best bid price relative to the return on investment. Just because clicks are cheap doesn’t mean one should be careless about it and throw money away. All too often, though, I see this happening with site owners. Search marketing is about the profitability of the campaign not an ego-trip. Be smart: test and measure your bids, positions, click-through rates(CTR), ad copy, and landing pages for best results.

As a business consultant, I’ve observed business owners who believe that more business will come from the internet space. While this is partially true for small businesses (especially those in local business) who have not tapped the online market, it is still important to remember that any business (whether based in cyberspace or in the brick and mortar world) can benefit from offline marketing. Many internet marketers such as myself, have used offline marketing like direct mail and print advertising with great success. Even with the growth of search engine marketing, do realize that some people are still not able to use computers and would still be potential candidates of our products and services. This is especially true of the older and less educated people out there who wouldn’t know how to use the internet. With the mad goldrush like behavior of businesses throwing more of their budget on online advertising, a business should still consider offline avenues to boost their profits. Considering that their competitors have shifted gears to online advertising, this could give them the added competitive edge offline while still keeping their watchful eye on online marketing developments. Google has realized this and is exploring this avenue of growth as you’ll read below.

Already a giant in online advertising, Google is quietly testing the waters of offline advertising. It is buying ad pages in established technology magazines and offering it piecemeal to its Adwords advertisers.

If this proves to be successful, Google can start to tout itself as the one-stop advertising solution – both online and offline. This certainly has caught the traditional offline advertising business by surprise as many businesses outsource such ads to large advertising agencies and let them take care of it. This would be good news for advertisers as the cost of advertising in such magazines could fall and be more reasonable to advertise in than at present.

More on the story here.