Search Engine Marketing Tips – What It Is And Quick Tips

Search engine marketing (SEM) comprises of the two main ways of getting traffic and potential customers to your company’s website. These are PPC (pay per click advertising) and SEO (search engine optimisation). There are some people who mistakenly refer to search engine marketing as only PPC, however this is not correct.

If you wish to get customers from search engines (Google, Bing etc.) then the ideal situation is to have a strong search engine marketing campaign which results in your website being listed at the top of the natural listings (not paid for, well at least not directly paid for) and on the pay per click ads. The concept being that when potential customers search for keywords which relate to your services or products, that you will appear to be a serious, trustworthy player.

What Common Ground Is There Between SEO & PPC?

The common ground between the two is the keywords that relate to the content on your site and are placed strategically on your site and in the ads and keywords of your PPC campaign.

There should be continuity between these keywords, what shows in ads and what is on your website visibly and in the code, which tells the search engines what each page of your site is about.

In both PPC and SEO your search engine marketing approach should be to give a good experience to potential customers. There should be continuity in both cases. The website needs to be clear, informative, user friendly and show that your company is one of the main experts, if not the top expert, in your niche.

SEO – keywords – best landing page on website – page should have some keywords, but not be overloaded – it should have the main keyword in both the page title and meta description – the page should have a call to action

PPC – keywords – ad that contains keywords – directed to most relevant landing page on website – this page should have a call to action

Our Services Are Customised To Your Needs And Start Off From £275 per month for Google Adwords Management and From £450 per month for SEO – click here or call us to get some initial free advice

What Are The Differences Between SEO & PPC?

PPC is paid for directly. You bid on keywords and once someone clicks on the ad that shows in relation to a keyword, you pay for that click. This is why some people refer to it as cost per click advertising.

SEO is not directly paid for. However to reach a top position on the organic listings (natural listings) you will have to pay indirectly. This will either be your own time, if you have enough knowledge to do it well, an employee’s time or paying an SEO agency to do the work.

PPC is very quick to yield results when set up correctly.

SEO can take a while to start showing results. Depending on your industry and how competitive it is, the length of time will vary. Other factors also influence this such as the age of your domain (website name: www.cwa-europe.com). It could be that you’ve had a website for quite a few years but never actively done SEO. Then you can reap the benefits of the age of your website domain.

Does It Makes Sense To Use The Same Agency To Do All My SEM?

Yes it does, assuming the agency has the appropriate expertise in both PPC and SEO. The keywords, your company’s niche, website, and marketing aims apply to both areas. If you work with an agency that can really get to know your business inside out, then this is the ideal situation.

What About Social Media Marketing, Is That Related?

Social media marketing is strictly speaking not part of SEM. However as Google has been taking social signals into account as part of SEO, there is an overlap because of this.

How Important Is My Content?

The content on your website is incredibly important. As is any content that relates to your business that is found elsewhere online – press releases, articles, guest posts, social media content etc.

During 2013 it is believe that Google will integrate Google Authorship more fully into its algorithm. Google Authorship gives authors of websites, blog and articles etc. the opportunity to claim this content as theirs. This looks set to play a more important role in SEO and online content in general.

Content that is unique, extra informative, makes it clear that the author is a respected expert in their subject, that contains links to authoriative references, includes media such as photos, infographics and video – is the way to go.

What Is The Best Way To Plan My SEM Campaign?

The very best possible way is to plan it at the same time as you are planning a new version of your site, or a new website. Of course this is not always possible, in fact mostly it isn’t.

However let me explain to you why it is ideal. If at that stage you can define all keywords that are important to you, what the menu on your site should look like to incorporate the various subjects, what excellent pages of content need to be written – it is a great way to plan both the SEO and PPC. As most likely you are not in that position, then check these quick tips below.

Tips To Plan Your SEM Campaign

1. The first step is to get the keywords analysed.

2. Let an agency or an expert look at what you currently have – check how is your PPC campaign performing and what type of SEO rankings you have. You can often get these types of audits for free.

3. Check through analytics how long people stay on the site, which keywords get people to stay longer and of course most importantly, which keywords bring conversions (sign ups, enquiries, sales etc.)

4. Next check your website. Do the pages within your site offer what users would hope for?

5. How is the content – is it sales speak or is it content that gives valuable, expert information to those who visit the website?

6. Did you ever define your USP (unique selling proposition) – if not, do it now. What makes you stand out from the crowd? Whatever it is it should be clear on as many pages of your site as possible, without being overkill.

7. Does the site have an obvious way for potential customers to get quotes, more information, or whatever it is you desire potential customers to do?

8. Look at websites of other companies in your niche. Define what you like and dislike. Try to do this from a customer’s perspective (not a competitor’s perspective).

9. Now draw conclusions about what are your main keywords and what longtail keywords you have – eg. Zanzibar holidays (main keyword)  or tailormade Zanzibar holidays (longtail)

10. Use a good old fashioned spreadsheet and pop them on. Next add on the urls of the website’s pages which relate to each keyword. Ideally you will have one very strong page on each important keyword which can be accessed in one, or two clicks from the homepage. There may be other pages also, but they should be like children of the most imporant page.  If this is not the case, consider doing a small restructure.  It will pay off.

If you and others who can give you honest opinions feel that the content on your website is authority, expert content that couldn’t be better – then give yourself a pat on the back, and have a beer or something. However there are very few websites that fit into this category, and even when they do, they will always benefit from more great content.

11. Work out what needs to be improved.  The structure, the keywords, the content etc.

12. For SEO once all pages and keywords are set up as well as possible, you will want to ensure that every single one has a strong page title and meta description.  The meta description is in the code but is that couple of lines that shows up under the title on the natural listings.

These are so important.  Both the title and description should include the main keyword of that page, but should also encourage potential customers to click through to the page.

Once this is done you have basic SEO foundations.  There are other elements that we’ll talk about in another article, such as H1, H2, H3 headers, alt txt, and so on.

13. You will then need to plan how to attract in links which come from other sites linking to content on yours. This is discussed on attracting links  You will also need to consider what social media can help your brand and in turn your SEO.

14. For PPC it is best if you have done the SEO as above. The very simple reason is that you will want the pages to be strong for when you start paying for each click on one of your ads. You can ignore this, but at your own peril.

15. PPC planning basically involves knowing where your geographical market is, what messages in your ad and landing pages will entice them to do what you need (buy, sign up, enquire etc.) and what budget you have per day, week or month to invest.

16. Depending on the budget you can set up campaigns with separate budgets for day and evening, if this is relevant. The reason to do this is not to run out of budget in the evening.

17. If you have a product range or a few different services the ideal way to set up the campaign is to group them into themed campaigns, which will contain themed ad groups, ads and keywords. So let’s say you sell toys and have 5 different brands, well then it would be best to have a campaign per brand.  The reason for this is to be able to see the performance per brand, and make educated decisions accordingly.

18. However if the budget is low this can be a handicap, say each only can have £5 per day and the clicks are somewhere between 50p and £1, well then you’ll only get few clicks. If that is the case it is then easier to start with one campaign only, and as your business becomes profitable you can then copy those ad groups and have a brand campaign (remembering to pause the original ad groups).

19. Always direct those who click to the best landing page, so this can mean having a variety of landing page in the campaign/s.

20. Ensure you are using some form of analytics, otherwise you don’t know anything about the behaviour of those coming to the site.

21. Apply conversion tracking.

22. In PPC or Google Adwords, the position of the ads is very important.  Depending on the competition and industry, sometimes positions 3 and 4 can be good, as 1 and 2 get lots of clicks, but some of these are more casual purely cos the ad is in a high position.

23. You need to keep a close eye on your Google Adwords or PPC account performance.  Look to include negative keywords, to change bids, to try different ad creatives, test different landing pages.  You need to cut out keywords that are wasting budget, ie. With enough information you can see people don’t stay hardly any time on the site, well then don’t pay for these.  Hone the keywords that work.

Our Services Are Customised To Your Needs And Start Off From £275 per month for Google Adwords Management and From £450 per month for SEO – click here or call us to get some initial free advice