Search Engine Marketing course

More than half of the visitors to high growth websites get there through search engines. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and online directories such as Ananzi, steer customers looking for solutions to websites that provide those solutions. If you do not appear in the top five to ten search results rankings, you don't exist. If you do appear, but nobody clicks to visit your site, you have blown a major opportunity. And if someone clicks to your site and fails to transact with you, you may never see them again.

Britefire's Search Engine Marketing course provides an up-to-date and thorough insight into search engine optimisation (SEO) and contextual search advertising (e.g. Google's pay-per-click ads). But the course goes way beyond these tactics. SEM is the set of strategies and techniques that increase your visibility on search engine results pages, increase the click-through rates to your site, and maximise your conversion of visitors to customers. This course will teach you the skills to do that, and a lot more.

Any business with an online presence has to have a search engine marketing strategy, and the skills and processes to implement it. If potential customers don't find you on search engines, they will find your competitors.

It's a noisy marketplace. At last count, there were more than 20 billion web pages in which your website can get lost. In South Africa, ten people out of every hundred have web access, and they account for a significant chunk of purchasing power. Worldwide, there are more than one billion active online consumers, and last year they spent R42 trillion. Search Engine Marketing is not only for ecommerce companies, it is a vital part of the marketing strategy of any offline business as well.

Many organisations opt to outsource SEM to specialists. Outsourcing SEM is very different from abdicating it. But if you don't understand SEM, then you will not be able to select or manage an external specialist critically.

The SEM landscape changes constantly, as do the algorithms used by the engines and directories. Staying current is critical if you want to maintain the high rankings you work so hard to attain. SEM is not easy, but it's not rocket science either. If you have an emarketing responsibility, you simply have to ‘get it'.

Why Should You Attend?

To succeed online you need more than just a great looking website with state-of-the-art functionality. You need to be seen. Britefire's Search Engine Marketing course provides you with the insight and tools to use search engines to drive visitors to your site, and to turn visitors into customers.

You will discover the secrets of search engine optimisation (SEO) - how to structure your site's layout, coding and content to help it score high in search rankings.

You will understand how to effectively use low-cost pay-per-click contextual advertising, triggered by searchers, that will drive qualified traffic to your site. You will understand and develop linking strategies that get other sites to boost your search rankings. You'll find out how to exploit social media such as blogs and social networks to further improve your search rankings.

You will learn how to test and continually improve your selection of keyword search terms, the wording, positioning and timing of your ads, and the quality of their landing pages and conversion funnels. You will become familiar with the analytical tools that help you make smart search marketing decisions.

And you'll learn how to pull all of these elements together into a manageable effective search marketing strategy.

Who Should Attend?

This course is a must for anyone who makes tactical or strategic marketing decisions about online initiatives, or has to interact with those who do, including:

* online strategists
* marketing managers, product managers
* new product development people
* advertising and marketing services agency personnel
* website developers, information architects, and creative personnel
* e-commerce and e-marketing personnel

Well-illustrated insights into today's hot issues such as web 2.0 and social media are woven into the core topics. The course gives you the know-how, skills, confidence, and comprehensive web savvy that you need to pump up your site's visibility and its ability to build customers!

What Will You Learn?

You will leave this course not only with a great understanding of how search engine marketing, search engine optimisation, pay-per-click and linking strategies work, but also with a practical ability to create and implement your own SEM strategies and tactics.

What is more you will be equipped with an arsenal of best practices, inspiring and enlightening examples, and guidelines for staying in tune with developments in the future. You will learn:

* how to structure your site's layout, coding and content to help it score high in search rankings
* how to research and choose the best keywords for your site
* how to register with the directories that drive search engine listings
* how to effectively use low-cost pay-per-click contextual advertising to drive qualified traffic to your site
* how to develop linking strategies that get other sites to boost your search rankings
* how to exploit social media such as blogs to further improve your search rankings
* how to test and continually improve the effectiveness of your SEM tactics
* how to use analytical tools to make smart search marketing decisions
* how to create an effective search marketing strategy for your site

And you'll be totally psyched to take charge of your own search engine marketing initiatives!

Contact us for further information.

What previous attendees have said:

'Life and Business Model changing experience. Thank you Godfrey! - this has been an awesome experience….I am inspired.' J. Davies

'Course content is relevant to our environment, practical, useful and will benefit any website.' H. Korsten

'It is a very important aspect to any business online to ensure you are keeping on track with regards to strategy, and understanding the web traffic needed for conversions.' H. Smithard

Date: 04 March 2010
Venue: Johannesburg
Cost: R 2600 incl VAT, incl lunch & refreshments (Group & Early Bird discounts apply)