In the afternoon I found myself in one of the offices of Oxclove Workshop, a Web development company where CEO and founder, Ric Dragon has been doing a lot with search engine marketing  (SEM), which is a combination of search engine optimization and other tools. SEO, which has been around since the Web is the alchemy of getting search engines to put you nearer the top of the list — whatever the is for the topic being searched.  "The SEO industry has been rife with charlatans," says Ric. In addition to that, "large expensive organizations providing the service but doing very little. The tragedy is their clients don’t know the difference."

Well, it always pays to shop around.

But, I’m interested in SEM because of how it can support a dynamic communications campaign built around the New Laws of Web 2.0 Marketing and Communications.  To communicate effectively, it’s essential to follow "new" procedures. One law is that communications has shifted from placement — through ads or publicity using mass media — to publishing on the Internet.

In a nutshell, it’s about providing content that your stakeholders or audience will find useful and making that material easy to hook when they set about fishing with their favorite search engine. The content, as David Meerman Scott points out so effectively can be in the form of a news release, a white paper offered on your Web site, or a blog, just to name the most popular three vehicles. It’s not just one-way push communications. Another of the new laws requires you — the organization, brand, person — play full out. That ranges from responding to those getting back to you through site e-mail "contacts" to blogging and replying to comments.

Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI)

How do you make sure people can find what they are looking for? Here’s were SEM comes in, Ric explains. The answer is we need to use words and phrases that they would type into a search engine box. We can use common sense and intuition to identify these phrases, or to go one better we can employ a structured keyword effectiveness process, which will generate a keyword effectiveness index (KEI). The KEI process is an organized sifting through presumed search words to locate the words and phrases .that are actually being used. The end result is a list of 20 or so words most used by people looking for what you have to talk about.

Using KEI is smart and it’s an investment. The investment pays off, of course, in the measurable response back to your Website. Used heavily in pay-per-click advertising, we’ve begun experimenting with, using KEI to help guide news releases and blog copy. It should be far better than using common sense and intuition to identify keywords.

Gallery Exhibit?

But out discussion takes an unexpected turn when Ric says, "I am amazed with myself getting into this business." His passion is painting. We talk about the art world, and I learn of Ric’s show October 13 -24 at the Brooklyn Artists Gym Gallery. The conversation drifts into the art world, some people we know in common. He hands me the catalog. Monoprints of bodies rollicking across the frame, colorful playgrounds of the imagination. Far, far from the rigor of KEI. A lot more fun too!

Check out the show 168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Phone 718 858-9069