Search Engine optimization or the practice of setting up your website so that it ranks well in the search engines is no different than any other form or traditional marketing in terms of competition. You are competing, sometimes fiercely, for the most important space in your business categories. What is that space worth? The volume of monthly searches and the typical conversions for those keywords will give a more accurate picture of the true value.
Old Fashioned Marketing versus SEM
There is a significant difference between the potential customer in traditional marketing compared with search marketing. At the heart of the difference is motivation, as well as their place in the buying cycle. SEM allows one to measure and calculate costs and return on investment at a level that is not possible in traditional marketing.
Traditional marketing has become, to coin a popular phrase, interruption marketing. Let's say for example, you are at home watching your favourite television show. It's getting to a very climactic moment, then there's the break for a commercial. You know what that feels like. If you have not skipped through the commercial on your pvr, you may watch it with a kind of fog over you. In other words, you might go into "tune out mode" and then focus again when your program returns. Traditional marketing is like throwing out a big net into the ocean. You may catch a lot of fish, but you might not catch any. And you only have 30 seconds to do it in the case of tv ad buys. And when the opportunity arises to make a purchase in their product category, those advertisers are hoping that their interruption ad resonates and causes you to select their product out of the many that are available.
With search marketing, customers are actively engaged in seeking your products and services. They could be in the final stages of making their purchase decision. In either case, they are much further along in the buying cycle than the consumer who was earlier targeted by a tv ad. The really special thing, is that when they do enter your site, you can find out where they came from, what type of device they were using (smartphone, tablet, or computer), where on they page they were looking, how long they stayed and so on. The amount of actionable data you can gather is astounding.
Better Keywords Bring Better Visitors
Keyword research is always the linchpin in any campaign to build traffic. By picking the wrong keywords, you can find yourself working extremely hard and not having anything significant to show for your efforts. You may be showing up number one for "banana lollipop making ideas" but if this search term is, for all practical purposes, never actually searched, then you are in for some disappointment. Proper keyword research takes time and is absolutely enhanced when there is a wealth of experiential knowledge on what it takes to rank in a specific category and the time required for that to happen. It's not easy but having a long term view of your SEM goals is a vital component of your search engine marketing success.
Where should you emphasize your focus on your keywords? If you go for the most competitive words at the outset, you are likely not going to see results for a longer amount of time than less competitive words.
Mixing the levels of competitiveness for your terms is a more balanced approach and one that should be encouraged, especially for those new to search engine marketing. You'll get some results, some setbacks, and some data to take action. That is the risk you take when you have not managed hundreds of campaigns or seen movement, both positive and negative, on thousands of keywords. Gaining the proper perspective to evaluate what is working and what needs changing can be costly if you have not run a large volume search marketing campaigns in the past.
All of this can lead one to give up on the effort. Or alternatively, to seek out a strong partner to manage their search engine optimization campaigns.
Old Fashioned Marketing versus SEM
There is a significant difference between the potential customer in traditional marketing compared with search marketing. At the heart of the difference is motivation, as well as their place in the buying cycle. SEM allows one to measure and calculate costs and return on investment at a level that is not possible in traditional marketing.
Traditional marketing has become, to coin a popular phrase, interruption marketing. Let's say for example, you are at home watching your favourite television show. It's getting to a very climactic moment, then there's the break for a commercial. You know what that feels like. If you have not skipped through the commercial on your pvr, you may watch it with a kind of fog over you. In other words, you might go into "tune out mode" and then focus again when your program returns. Traditional marketing is like throwing out a big net into the ocean. You may catch a lot of fish, but you might not catch any. And you only have 30 seconds to do it in the case of tv ad buys. And when the opportunity arises to make a purchase in their product category, those advertisers are hoping that their interruption ad resonates and causes you to select their product out of the many that are available.
With search marketing, customers are actively engaged in seeking your products and services. They could be in the final stages of making their purchase decision. In either case, they are much further along in the buying cycle than the consumer who was earlier targeted by a tv ad. The really special thing, is that when they do enter your site, you can find out where they came from, what type of device they were using (smartphone, tablet, or computer), where on they page they were looking, how long they stayed and so on. The amount of actionable data you can gather is astounding.
Better Keywords Bring Better Visitors
Keyword research is always the linchpin in any campaign to build traffic. By picking the wrong keywords, you can find yourself working extremely hard and not having anything significant to show for your efforts. You may be showing up number one for "banana lollipop making ideas" but if this search term is, for all practical purposes, never actually searched, then you are in for some disappointment. Proper keyword research takes time and is absolutely enhanced when there is a wealth of experiential knowledge on what it takes to rank in a specific category and the time required for that to happen. It's not easy but having a long term view of your SEM goals is a vital component of your search engine marketing success.
Where should you emphasize your focus on your keywords? If you go for the most competitive words at the outset, you are likely not going to see results for a longer amount of time than less competitive words.
Mixing the levels of competitiveness for your terms is a more balanced approach and one that should be encouraged, especially for those new to search engine marketing. You'll get some results, some setbacks, and some data to take action. That is the risk you take when you have not managed hundreds of campaigns or seen movement, both positive and negative, on thousands of keywords. Gaining the proper perspective to evaluate what is working and what needs changing can be costly if you have not run a large volume search marketing campaigns in the past.
All of this can lead one to give up on the effort. Or alternatively, to seek out a strong partner to manage their search engine optimization campaigns.
About the Author:
Visit Vancouver Internet marketing blogs here . If you are interested in learning more about SEM, visit adwords campaigns here.
No comments:
Post a Comment