Business and Finance Magazine October 2009

Eternal optimisation
Driving sales for today and building value for tomorrow using search engine optimisation is how IEG helps companies to get the maximum mileage out of the internet.

Driving traffic to websites is one of the biggest challenges businesses are faced when it cames to bringing in potential customers and building brand awareness. As more customers search for products and services online, appearing high
up in search engine results is an important business goal that has resulted in the evolution of a brand new industry: internet marketing. As with any industry, there are plenty of three-lettered acronyms, but the key acronym in internet marketing is SEO or
search engine optimisation, the art of optimising a website so that it will rank higher in search engine results. Or, as Padraig O’Connell, founder and managing director of IEG, a Limerick-based business specialising in SEO simply puts it, “We drive traffic and
results to business via the web.” Although online marketing has moved from being an optional ingredient of the marketing mix to an essential tool, O’Connell feels that few businesses are “anywhere close to getting maximum mileage out of the
internet.” Maximum mileage, he says, is about using SEO as part of the internet marketing strategy to “drive sales today while also building value for tomorrow”. O’Connell and his team of experts add something different to the mix of SEO
services available. IEG, which was established in 2002, is a software organisation that specialises in SEO. It comprises a team of programmers that have developed in-house software modules to deliver search engine results.
“What makes us different is we are a team of programmers who write our own software – therefore we are not using outside sources or software to optimise clients’ websites,” says O’Connell. “We can analyse a website within the hour and we have over eight
different software modules that we can run based on the company’s needs. We concentrate on organic search engine listings i.e. free listings, and don't concentrate on increasing traffic, we concentrate on results.” Results are important, acknowledges
O’Connell. “In the current climate especially, business owners and decision makers want results that are measurable, tangible, and highly cost-effective. Our approach to SEO gives that to them.” “We’re here to create lasting marketing
assets for our clients. We know that their marketing euros, pounds or dollars aren’t just an expense, they’re an investment. That’s why we offer proven, performance-based online marketing strategies and tactics that start delivering results right now, while
building profitable customer relationships that add real equity over time.”
IEG also operates Google AdWords (costper - click) campaigns on behalf of clients but are great advocates of organic listings, which have no limit on the amount of key phrases and are live 24-hours a day. IEG’s ‘Google experts’ generally work with
decision makers or heads of marketing and assess each customer by completing a needs analysis. O’Connell explains that his organisation’s online marketing strategists use a combination of creativity and technology to apply clients’ online business
objectives: intelligent planning, content development, information architecture and media tactics. “We find out what their current position is online and where they want to get to; we then create result-driven milestones to guarantee results. Our results are organised
on a three-monthly basis – depending on the milestones.” It’s also important to O’Connell that his clients understand the product offering and what SEO involves. “We coach all clients on SEO. The more informed a client is, the more we can have a detailed knowledge of what
we can do for their organisation’s website and online marketing strategy. This directly  impacts how the project progresses and comes to fruition.” IEG’s internet marketing programmes, he adds, connect online and offline advertising with back-end tracking and marketing
applications. “The end result is an online marketing infrastructure that has greater utility, accountability and return.” While many people associate advertising spend with billboards, print and broadcast media or ads on websites, SEO, says O’Connell, is a form of advertising. “With
target-driven deliverables and results, SEO becomes the most cost-effective and resultsdriven form of advertising. Our clients understand how much each lead and each sale will cost every month (buying your customers); there is no other media that can deliver results with such precision.”
IEG’s employees are graduates ofprogramming or computer science and have worked for software companies around the world. This is reflected in the business they do today. As well as catering for SMEs and organisations based in Ireland, IEG works with a variety of organisations in the UK and
the US, and boasts an impressive client list.“Whether creating an e-commerce site, a network of mini-sites and landing pages, or deploying a complex data mining or tracking application, our development staff provide the bridge technology so often needed to
connect a campaign's creative, messaging and business objectives to the actual capabilities  of the client’s website.” For more information, log on to www.iegmarketing.net or call 1890 466 453.