Auctioneers shouldn’t be any different in using SEO strategies in promoting their brand and their auction events.
Myers Jackson, CAI, AARE, ITS, CES, promotes the fact that by using the
proper marketing strategy, he can sell his clients’ properly faster than
99 percent of agents in the real estate market. He’s sold land,
commercial property, cattle farms, hunting property and many others, and
he does it through knowing how to attract buyers.
“What do Auctioneers want?” Jackson asks. “We want to be seen. We want to be visible.”
Choosing the right keywords is important, but so too is the placement of
these keywords. For instance, if you write a blog about an upcoming
auction for Civil War artifacts on your business’ website, and your
research supports that your target audience will use the keywords “civil
war artifacts auction” to land on your page, it’s important to use that
exact phrase in the title, subtitle and in the first paragraph of your
blog, due to Google’s algorithm for ranking pages.
“The number one cardinal rule is don’t guess your keyword,” Jackson warns. “You might get lucky, but you want to be exact.”
Jackson advises that Auctioneers use research tools to find the right
keywords, such as SEMrush, which allows users to run free reports that
show the top keywords in any domain that you enter. If you’ve got
competitors out there (and what Auctioneer doesn’t?), you can use
SEMrush to get a sense of the various terms they’re using to gain their
ranking.
“We start out doing our keyword research,” Jackson said, “and you have
to think about it – you have to think about it before you blog, before
you put up a description for a YouTube video, you think about the
phrase.”
The most trusted search is organic search, meaning, you aren’t paying
anyone to promote your ad or your content – you’re properly using
keywords in your content to drive traffic your way. However, paying to
gain better search rankings is also a strategy that can work, at a
price. It’s called pay-per-click.
“Pay-per-click is a search engine marketing tool that allows an
Auctioneer to receive immediate search results depending on the keyword
phrase,” Jackson explains. “Constructively administered, an asset may be
at the forefront of the search results using pay-per-click.”
This business model is referred to as search engine marketing, or SEM.
Using platforms like Google AdWords, Bing and Yahoo, Auctioneers get a
chance at a higher ranking, perhaps at the top of a search engine
results page. However, because you can’t control how often or how many
people click on the ad, you set a limit so you won’t go over budget.
Once you’ve hit your maximum clicks, the ad goes away.
“Most companies that provide pay-per-click as an option (like Google and
AdWords),” he said, “function in an ongoing auction atmosphere, and
users have to bid for the best positions in order to stay on top.
“As Auctioneers, we all know what happens if we do not bid high enough.”
If this sounds like a viable marketing tool, Auctioneers simply have to
open an account with a search engine product provider, like Bing, Yahoo
or Google. Jackson said there are other providers out there, but these
three hold the market share.
He advises Auctioneers to engage in a pay-per-click campaign research
and study the analytics day-to-day. He’ll even check in on it multiple
times a day to see where the bidding is on various keywords. If someone
outbids you, your ranking will drop in search.
“Remember,” Jackson warns, “Google is in the keyword auction business.
They encourage bidding on popular keywords. Use outside sources like
SEMrush, Wordtracker, or WordStream.
“These companies may charge a little more, but they may give you better
insights that deal with your specific campaign and your competition for
the same word.”