Search Marketing

Search marketing is something businesses know they should be addressing, but rarely know how to address. It consists of two main categories: paid search, also known as pay per click (PPC), and organic search, also known as search engine optimization (SEO). Each of these are ways to provide visibility for your business when customers search queries associated to your business but operate very differently.

PPC is the ‘pay to play’ option, where you pay for visibility whenever customers click on your advertisement. Visibility in search results is fast, as you do not have to expend the effort for organic ranking. The downside, of course, is that when you stop paying for visibility, you lose it, as well.

SEO operates the opposite of PPC in that visibility is earned, not paid, and is long-term. In order to rank in search results organically, businesses optimize their web pages and content to be relevant to what customers search. Unlike PPC and the short-term visibility it provides, visibility achieved from SEO efforts can take months to be realized, but is long-term.

Local search marketing is vital for small businesses. For small businesses like shops and services, it can be the difference between making-or-missing potential customers when people search for the places ‘near me’ on their devices. Local search marketing hinges heavily on Google Maps result optimization. So, ensuring that your business is accurately and uniformly listed on Google makes a big difference.

A lot of businesses go for both paid search (PPC) and organic search (SEO) marketing, and for good reason. Since they synergize well, PPC can gain visibility for you when your business is still working on SEO. Improving your SEO can mean you can run your business without running paid search campaigns as often. Things change on a business industry basis, and a lot of times that’s not the case.

In terms of search marketing, do expect a long wait, especially with SEO. Distance from result to effort is quite notorious and can be discouraging. Consistent effort in making small changes to your ads and site, big or small, will deliver better results than false hopes of an instant one.

Running a Successful PPC Campaign

Christina

If you are committed to managing it properly, a PPC campaign can be one of the most effective ways to generate results by bringing in more traffic and customers. It requires a number of elements to succeed though, which include:

  • Effective ads. Your ads will need to be targeted and using the right kinds of keywords for your business. Google, or any other PPC platform, will select ads in an auction and if you want your to compete successfully, they need to be clear and relevant.
  • Good copy. The copy needs to be compelling to encourage people to click on your ads. Make sure you write content for your ads that is straight to the point, but also highly appealing so customers know what your services are and want to know more.
  • PPC landing pages. People who click on PPC adverts are more likely to be ready to buy. Design landing pages for them to arrive at, selling to them quickly.

Completing your Keyword Research – And Using It

Christina

When you embark upon an SEO project, the keyword research you carry out is essential. It will inform everything that you do on your website to boost your rankings, as you will know which keywords to target.

Look at the keyword volumes, but don’t just use the keywords with the highest search volumes. Remember that these are going to be very competitive, so it is perhaps better to have some more local keywords in the mix, along with others that have search volume, but aren’t already saturated with big brands targeting them.

Once you know your numbers, you can build up an SEO strategy that uses them. Decide which keywords you are going to target, and why. Then work out which pages you want to use to target them. This should always be the page most relevant to your keyword, not your homepage. Aim to give people the information they need, so that when they arrive at your website, the bounce rate isn’t high.

What is Search Marketing?

Christina

Search marketing is a very clever tool, used by savvy business people to generate leads. It uses the power of search engines to help websites rank on search engine results pages (SERPs), meaning that brands can be found when people search for their products or services.

The whole point of search marketing is to make a website searchable. In order to do this, it needs to be seen as highly relevant to search engines. There are lots of different processes involved – these include:

  • On site optimisation
  • Off site optimisation and link building
  • PR
  • Content
  • Social media

All of these things give ranking signals to search engines, showing them how relevant a website is to someone’s specific search. By making sure your website is perfect for your target audience, you are already a long way towards getting it noticed by search engines, because they will try to show people the websites they want to see.

Sharing Responsibility for Leads with your Web Marketing Agency

Christina

Your web marketing agency can do a lot of things. However, what they cannot do is convert your leads. Once you get a lead, the conversion process is entirely your responsibility. You need to remember this when discussing strategies and take full ownership of your lead conversion process.

You can certainly ask your marketing agency for help in this process. They will be able to offer you advice on how to retain customers if your traffic is good. For example, they may recommend that you improve the quality of your website, so that people are more likely to get in touch when they see it. They can also recommend amendments like adding in more calls to action, to help improve your customer journey.

Make sure you have a comprehensive process for lead conversion. Look for ways to optimise the process so that your potential customers know they are in good hands.

How to Decide on your SEO Aims

Christina

SEO can be very beneficial for your company. You need to have a solid strategy in place though – it is not something that you can put together haphazardly. SEO is complex and also ongoing, which means it will not take effect immediately. You need to be able to have a good idea in mind of where you are going with your plans and what you want to happen.

Choose a good SEO strategist or agency to help you put your plans together. Decide on some key phrases and words to start off with. Make sure these are relevant to your business and will bring in business from the right places for you. You may also want to target specific areas with local key phrases. This will direct business to you from certain areas. These keywords also tend to be less competitive so it is easier to achieve good results from them.