| For golf pro shops, the upcoming months will be | | | | when searching for golf products. When a search |
| critical for a profitable 2007. If sales were below | | | | for those keywords is conducted, the pro shop's |
| par last year, search engine marketing, or SEM, is | | | | ad appears on the search engine as a "sponsored |
| the way to reach the top of the leaderboard. | | | | link." No cost is incurred unless the consumer clicks |
| Americans conducted more than 5 billion online | | | | on the ad. |
| searches in 2006, and that number will grow by | | | | One variety of PPC works particularly well for pro |
| double-digits in 2007. The most common | | | | shops. Local search, also referred to as |
| consumer search? Product-plus-location. | | | | "geo-targeting," allows merchants to display ads |
| Since shoppers are flocking to the Internet, pro | | | | only when consumers in a specific geographic |
| shops can drive big sales for golf merchandise | | | | market conduct searches. Since 36 percent of all |
| with a balanced SEM campaign. Here are the key | | | | searches are for local products, the likelihood of a |
| elements for success. | | | | "click" turning into a sale are much higher when |
| Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the art and | | | | the pro shop focuses close to home. Google(TM), |
| science of boosting a Web site's position on | | | | Yahoo!®, and MSN® offer powerful local |
| Google(TM) and the other search engines when | | | | search programs that are improving every day. |
| shoppers conduct a search. Selecting the right | | | | Since golfers tend to be a sociable group, |
| keyword phrases is essential, because competition | | | | pay-per-call advertising holds great promise as an |
| is fierce. Note the number of Web pages found | | | | SEM technique. Pay-per-call ads work much like |
| by Google(TM) for these searches-- | | | | regular PPC, but instead of asking consumers to |
| "Golf balls Chicago"--11.9 million; | | | | "click," ads invite them to phone the merchant. |
| "Golf balls Dallas"--3.2 million; and, | | | | Consumers often prefer live conversation -- |
| "Ball retrievers Cincinnati"--204,000. | | | | especially when shopping for golf equipment, |
| Yet, because merchants rarely give SEO the | | | | where price is a factor and product options |
| attention it deserves, the few that optimize their | | | | abound. |
| site properly outrank the competition and attract | | | | Perhaps the best feature of SEM is that |
| substantial consumer traffic. | | | | "mulligans" are allowed! Using Web analytics |
| Paid search campaigns perfectly complement SEO | | | | programs, pro shops can evaluate advertising |
| once a keyword strategy is in place. Although | | | | results and continually improve campaigns. And, |
| merchants have many advertising options to | | | | merchants need not wait for a stroke of genius |
| choose from, various forms of pay-per-click, or | | | | to tee up an online marketing program. By |
| PPC, generally work best. With PPC, the pro shop | | | | selecting an experienced and versatile SEM |
| bids on keywords it expects consumers to use | | | | partner, they can swing into action immediately. |