SEO and SEM: Working Together for Better Results
How do you tell whether your website would benefit more from being displayed in the organic or cost-per-click listings on the search engine results page?
Every company has different targets, keyword rankings and goals that it is striving to achieve with their website, so undertaking in one or the other can be sufficient for your site’s traffic, enquiries and sales.
But if you want the best of both worlds, put simply, your site can benefit from both as there are numerous advantages of appearing in both paid and unpaid listings.
Around 55-65% of users will click on the organic search engine listings, and around 35-45% will click on the paid search engine results (depending on whose research you believe).
The unpaid, organic listings can increase a site’s keyword rankings by undertaking Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The majority of users will choose to follow the organic listings, as these results are seen to be less biased and can be perceived as being more relevant to the keywords that the user is looking for.
The catch for engaging in SEO is that most companies do not guarantee results and it can take months to start seeing traction on keywords, especially in competitive industries. Online competitors could have an authoritative advantage in the search engines if their sites have been around for longer and hold the keyword positions that your site is trying to target.
This is where dabbling in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as well as SEO, is handy.
SEM creates the paid, “sponsored” links that appear usually on the right-hand side of the search engine results page and are virtually instantaneous. This allows your site to emerge on the first few pages in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines, while SEO is doing its ground work to get noticed.
The benefits of creating an SEO and SEM synergy include:
Market Penetration
Engaging in both SEO and SEM allows search engine users to be ‘captured’ at all stages of the buying process. Users that are in the problem recognition or information search stages of the buying process are more likely view organic listings. On the other hand, users who are closer to making a purchase decision or are evaluating alternative products and services are more likely to click on SEM advertisements.
A Stronger Web Presence
SEM paid listings provides visibility for competitive keywords that a site may find hard to rank initially through SEO.
Greater Measurability
Having a site’s SEO keyword ranking statistics and the SEM traffic, keyword and conversion statistics allows for a greater level of accountability and the ability to cross-reference results. These results can also be measured and reviewed over time and can help drive traffic and sales for your site by focusing efforts on top-performing keywords.
Build Credibility
Research shows that users associate the ‘Top Ten’ organic page results with companies that are the industry leaders. Couple this with some catchy Google AdWords or other cost-per-click advertisements and a site will appear to have the online industry covered.
Popularity: 22%
Read MoreOptimising AdWords for Australia Day
When managing an AdWords account, foresight is imperative.
Understanding upcoming seasonal events and trends and how they relate to the product or service you are selling is a vital skill for any AdWords marketer.
Consider this; you own a lawn mowing business and are currently advertising online. At the moment you are only running generic ads, yet you are still getting a steady amount of enquiries through your website.
Although it is fantastic that you have optimised your campaigns to the point where they are generating a stable revenue stream for you, now is not the time to rest on your laurels.
Google AdWords campaigns require continual optimisation and maintenance in order to maximise any opportunities that may be missed with a ‘set and forget’ style of AdWords management.
For an example of how your mowing business might leverage itself off some major holidays and events during the year, you might consider running ads like:
You can also create new keyword lists, adjust your daily budgets, create new landing pages for your ads or utilise a variety of other common AdWords techniques in order to help you capture some of the increased traffic and online spending that occurs during these periods.
The trick however, is not just to simply capture the extra traffic, but to harness the ‘spirit’ of the event, holiday or season in your strategies.
Remember: Sell the sizzle, not the steak.
Popularity: 20%
Read MoreNew Years Resolution: Be the top of Google!
As the economy recovers from global recession, businesses will continue to explore alternative ways to market their business. Also, as more people get easy access to fast internet connections there is plenty of scope for online business to expand rapidly.
However, getting visibility through the search engines is critical to success and one of the most cost effective marketing approaches available.
As search engines becomes more complex with the introduction of social networking feeds (Twitter) into their results, it’s high time for businesses to optimise their websites. Hence the New Year’s resolution for a business should be to get to the top of Google.
The power of search engines can only be experienced once your site is optimised and ranking well in the search engines. As the competition becomes fiercer amongst search engines in the coming year, it is very important to make sure your business is visible on all the major search engines.
This year is all about entering new markets and reaching the unattainable heights that is only possible through digital marketing. The success rate of SEO Marketing is higher compared to almost any other form of online marketing. Each and every single day, several billion users log into various search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo to locate business services and products. SEO can help your website to gain higher Search Engine Rankings and thus help in improving online visibility of your website.
SEO marketing is surely one of the ground-breaking marketing techniques which will help your website to gain more exposure on various search engines. It will also help you to reach out to a large number of potential customers resulting in increased revenue and ROI.
This is a New Year’s resolution you need to keep!
Popularity: 16%
Read MoreEmployee of the Month: Your Website
Your website has the potential to be the most profitable employee in your business, but you need to make it work hard!
This statement may have some scratching their heads, but the similarities between a business’ website and their employees makes it more than achievable.
Let’s firstly look at initial costs. Most websites cost between $5,000-$30,000 to build, which, depending on your industry, is also around the amount it can cost to recruit and train new staff.
But once you’ve recruited a new staff member, the job’s not done. In order for that employee to become a valued team player you need to invest in training, resources and time, as well as pay them a yearly salary.
This goes for your website as well. Once it’s built, you need to invest in continually improving its effectiveness. This often includes both search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) on an ongoing basis as the website’s salary, and ongoing usability improvements as their training.
Like an employee, websites also work best when there’s an ongoing buy-in from managers, spending time actually trying to improve the work that they’re doing, rather than being left alone to twiddle their thumbs and cost the business money.
Popularity: 18%
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