Forrester Research analyst Hellen Omwando recently interviewed a variety of European companies in an effort to weigh the benefits of different search marketing tools. She said that as search marketing becomes more complex, organizations need to do a better job of matching the tool with the desired outcome -- whether it be branding, product marketing or simple site traffic generation. She offered these four examples of search marketing tools and the marketing goals they serve best.

1. SEO is best suited to branding. Search engine optimization (SEO) takes time, since the spiders and bots used by the main search engines take weeks sometimes to incorporate new pages and sites within their algorithms. Thus, SEO is a better tool for sites looking for more long-term benefits, such as building up their brands or raising overall site awareness. SEO is not the tool for organizations needing quick marketing results and it doesn’t work well for some content, such as the dynamic pages published by catalog retailers, she said.

2. Paid listings are best for sales. Paid listings, or paying to match up your site listings with keyword searches on Google or other major search engines, works best for boosting sales, especially for products consumers tend to research online, Omwando said. For example, comparison search engine Kelkoo claims a conversion rate of 90% in selling DVD players by buying keywords at Overture. Most marketers do best with some kind of SEO-paid search combination, however, she said.

3. Paid inclusions work for unique sites and pages. Omwando said that for some sites, especially those that search engines find difficult to find and spider, paid inclusions are key. This is where a site pays to be included in an engine’s search results, although placement is not stipulated. Companies that currently bid on keyword placements don’t need page inclusions, however, since their Web pages are already indexed and ranked accordingly, she said.

4. Contextual search works best for B2B marketing. Contextual ads are tough for companies in the consumer marketplace, since figuring out what editorial matches up with what ads is a difficult process to automate. Omwando says contextual search is better suited to the B2B marketplace, where organizations have more control over the content and tend to use online trade journals to build their brands.

For more information on search marketing, visit Forrester here.