Search engine marketing is about gaining visibility on search engines when users search for terms that relate to your business. For most companies, ranking highly in search results isn’t luck – it’s a result of solid effort in one or both categories of search marketing:
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Organic search (SEO): When you enter a keyword or phrase into a search engine like Google or Yahoo!, the organic results are displayed in the main body of the page.When your prospects search for information about your products and services, you want to rank highly in search engine results. By “optimizing” your site, you can improve your ranking for important search terms and phrases (“keywords”). You can also improve your rank by getting other important sites to link to yours.
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Paid search (SEM) enables you to buy listings in the “sponsored” area of a search engine. There are a variety of paid search programs, but the most common is called pay-per-click (PPC), meaning you only pay for a listing when a prospect clicks your ad.
In search engine marketing, companies focus on driving more traffic to targeted areas of their website. They understand how to use search engine marketing to:
- Generate new leads
- Sell products
- Build their brand
- Divert traffic from their competitors
Studies show that most business people research their problems, potential purchases and vendors online and use a search engine in the process. And the higher the price of the product/service, the earlier they search.
For many businesses, generating only a handful of additional serious prospects can make a substantial difference in revenue. Knowing how to use search engine marketing effectively may efficiently produce these additional prospects.
Best Case
You’re generating very targeted prospects through your search marketing programs.
Your site is optimized and you’ve built a lot of important incoming links, so you rank well in organic results for targeted searches.
You use paid search to supplement that traffic and you create custom landing pages for your campaigns to convert visitors into prospects.
Neutral Case
You’ve built a new website and it’s been optimized for search, but you don’t rank in the top 10 for anything but your company name.
You’ve tried some paid search with good success; your conversion rates on the traffic are okay but could be better.
You know that search marketing is a solid opportunity – you’re just figuring out how to improve your results.
Worst Case
Your website isn’t optimized for search and you’re nowhere to be found on search engines, even for much targeted terms.
In fact, you may not even rank for searches on your company name.
Unfortunately, your competitors show up on the first and second pages for the terms your prospects use; as a result, your competitors are winning new business and furthering their lead in the market.
Source: Marketingmo
