When we started off to run a business, we all knew having a website wouldn’t be enough- and that there’s more to it to make that business work.
While many of us didn’t even knew about having a website, let alone these terms SEO, SEM and SMM (let’s not embarrass ourselves in front of the crowd).
Before the dawn of social media, the only way the businesses could get traffic is to become the only focus of marketers.
After the birth of social media, the fantastic world of social media marketing has evolved, and now it helps marketers to connect to their audiences.
However, SEO, SEM and SMM can be put together- because that would turn up as the most effective way for creating digital marketing strategy.
Hence, let’s take a closer look on the importance of SEO, SEM and SMM for your business.
SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization is defined as a process of getting organic traffic that generates more natural results. More specifically, SEO means is a way of optimizing your website with different methods in order to rank on the search engine such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.
With the help of relevant SEO, your website will more effectively appear on the top results of the search engines, and your website will have higher chances of getting more traffic through clicks and visits. It helps you build a positive relationship between your website and the search engine algorithm.
Well, the consumer groups have already shifted en masse to the internet, and even many traditional businesses have realized the important to switch to digital. However, SEO is the most cost-effective way of marketing and reaches the consumers in the key moments. But, there’s more to it, here are a few major benefits of SEO for your business.
According to more than 60% marketers, SEO brings more quality leads to your table- and that’s one of the best digital marketing strategies.
The study published on Search Engine Journal, SEO leads have more than 20% of closure rate on every marketing effort, whereas outbound leads have only 1% of conversion rates.
These stats prove the importance of SEO for businesses and it can be crucial for your company.
Having a digital presence will help you get more customers, since majority consumer group has shifted their preference to online.
All you need to do is, just look for relevant keywords and you’re good to go! A decent keyword search will allow you to know the needs of your consumers and you can also do a bit of competitor keywords too- this will give you a clear idea about your right target audience.
Never underestimate the abilities of search engine- it can rank you up with the same speed to rank you down!
SEO takes time to give out the results, but it is also a long term marketing strategy that you wouldn’t have to switch from; also it doesn’t make invest too much for returns too.
However, SEO efforts doesn’t get you customers over night, but when it helps to build you a customers base, it would be long term results.
Also, the amount of money and time spent on ROI is less than the amount of these factors spent on SEO results.
There are many SEO services that you could opt for your business to spread it’s wings.
Well, if you have a website, good user experience is something that your customers would stick to. User experience plays a major role in Google ranking factors and it’s also a crucial part of SEO.
And you can’t fool Google in detecting user experiences, it has learned interpret a difference between a poor and a positive user experience.
If you’re providing a good user experience to your website/page visitors then you are already have impressed Google in terms of ranking- as in you need to have a favorable website that provides the traffic with accurate information and data.
Make sure that your website isn’t slow, is not spamming with irrelevant ads or too much ads and pop-ups- and never use black hat techniques.
If your website has everything your customer needs, and a proper SEO in place- then it works out as one of the best ways to promote brand awareness for business.
SEO helps to promote a higher level of brand recognition in the eyes of your potential consumers.
The times have changed now, as the buying process progresses- customers tend to ask a lot of queries- since the customers have a lot of information relevant to their needs at their fingertips.
There’s no point in building an amazing website if your potential audience can’t find it. But there are ways to make your website visible in the eyes of your customers.
How?
Think about the words or sentences that you would use on the internet to search for a product or service or information- remember, you’re also a customer to some brand.
Make a list of 30 to 40 keywords and then start exploring Google AdWords. Try to validate all the keywords that are generated by you and that are frequently used in the online searches.
There are many genuine tools to find the right keyword relevant to your content (your content must be engaging and original), such as UberSuggest, Keywords Everywhere, and Google Keyword Planner.
Remember to never over stuff your website or the content with keywords!
Nope, not you!
I mean your business and website be on you social media platforms. Social Media is ranked as an great ally when it comes to SEO strategies.
There are many brands that uses social media platforms as their search engines, and there are many customers who use social media as a marketplace, hence, getting social with your business could be a great start!
With a good SEO strategy on your social media accounts, high quality contents and being in touch with your audiences on these social platforms can be a great go for you to generate leads.
Measuring the results of your SEO performance is the most efficient way to understand your customers and know their needs.
You will find a lot of genuine and helpful tools such as SpyFu.com, Moz, SEMRush, RankMath, Google Trends, and Google Analytics to provide you with information and data about your website’s performance.
It will also help you know the performance of your SEO strategy on your site- whether you’re going good, or you need some improvements.
Using these tools helps you to stay in the trend, and also provides you with information about your website visitors (their demographics, searches, referring websites etc).
Majority of the audience won’t go past the first two pages of search results on their search engines. Most of your visitors would need their information and their demands fulfilled in the first few pages itself.
Keep optimizing the performance of your website, your SEO strategy- and start monitoring results from day one- but never expect instant results- you won’t get any!
Also, stay up to date with your SEO strategies and keep working on the latest SEO trends and try that too on your website!
Hence, in order to aim high for your traffic, you need to have a good positioning of your website on the search engines. Try to rank in the first three pages of search engines,
-And be patient!
SEO and SEM might seem quite similar, but they are totally separated by one factor: and it’s Advertisements!
Well, SEO is not all about advertisements or running ads, but instead it’s about optimizing your website in front of your audience. Whereas, SEM is about clicks ads- you might have heard the term, “pay-per-clicks”- it’s often used by many brands.
It’s a type of internet marketing strategy that’s used by advertisers to boost the visibility of your brand (website, products, services) through SERPs.
SEM comes in handy if you’re a small business owner, who’s looking to drive traffic to your website.
SEM is a paid marketing strategy that involves paying for every click that a user clicks on. You might have come across many such tiny banners that keeps popping up on your search results- for instance, a pair of newly launched branded shoes, or it could be about a smart watch, and many of us have clicked on those ads that takes us to that particular brand website to make the purchase.
And the best part about this strategy is, you are only paying for the impressions and the clicks that is bringing customers to your website- DIRECTLY!
If you want to boost your brand identity and want your audience to recognize your business, then SEM is the most effective way to go through!
The logic here is, the more your brand’s ads is displayed on search engines, the higher the chances of those to be seen and clicked by your audience- and this eventually leads to sales closures and conversions.
Once you reach the top of the SERPs, you are ready to make magic out of your business, because it drives trust, awareness, and quality promotion for your brand.
There’s more to the importance of SEM for your business- especially if you’re a small business or a business that’s freshly entered into the market.
Google says, it takes more than an year for a responsive website to level up with their rankings. SEO and Social Media takes a good amount of time to rank on the search results, whereas SEM is instant and quick with it’s ranking.
However, it also depends on the abilities of your brand, the Unique selling point of your product, and the strategies that you’re using to promote your business- with all of these it’s also crucial to do a bit of competitor analysis.
With best search engine marketing strategies you could make your business visible and get instant attention on the web.
In short, SEM positions your website either at the top or at the bottom of the search results.
All you need to do is have all systems in the right place, and soon you will see these visitors turning in as your paying customers.
SEM is incredibly measurable and with SEM it’s quite easy to start small. If backs you up even if you have a low budget to run ads- which means it’s quite convenient for small businesses.
You can increase SEM as your business turnover goes up, and then higher the number of ads, while removing the ads that aren’t generating any leads or that aren’t working.
You can always refine your ad campaigns and eventually increase your ad spends. In many PPC platforms, you can set of as low as $10 and just get let your ads get clicks. It’s that easy and you won’t even be surprised by that huge bill for advertising.
More than 80% of world’s population is online, and more than 60% of online experiences begin with search engines, whether it’s a shopping or just grasping information.
Did you know, search engines drive extremely higher traffic than any other marketing source?
No matter your brand category or the products or services you sell, these experiences start online- of course, with some rarest exceptions.
Well, don’t be disappointed even if that click from a user doesn’t make you an immediate sale, you have already gained the trust and it’s totally a touch point for your business to make that visitor as your sales closure.
Search Engine Marketing allows you to be focused on the right target audience that you couldn’t with traditional marketing.
We all know how insanely expensive is traditional marketing, and it isn’t quite a suitable strategy for many small businesses, start-ups and companies that’s just started off!
Your SEM (pay per click) ads won’t cost you until someone clicks on it, but ensure that you create ads that receive as many clicks as possible.
Experts say, a business needs at least 8 to 10 touch points for a visitor to convert.
In short, make at least 5 ads with a decent budget and place those ads in as many PPC platforms and Search Engines as possible.
With an exceptional SEO, your competitor is probably ahead of you and have coveted the top spot of the search results by your customers, but SEM can save you and get you your customers back!
Paid ads can sweep you right through your competitors and let you grab that top spot on the search engine.
And it’s okay even if they have a paid ads strategy in place, you can cancel out that too with the right and strong SEM strategy.
-because many businesses- even the top brands aren’t using the SEM strategies to their full potential- which means, they are paying more for their ads, but receiving quite less leads and even clicks.
Ensure that you have a compelling copy and a strong SEM strategy of your own, you can take up that front row seat on the search engines and obtain a good advantage over your competitors.
Finally, when you know what’s working and what’s not- you can attribute a sale as an ad- and it will bring you good conversions.
Maybe PPC have cost you a tons of money or it isn’t spending at all. Because, we don’t want you feeling that you can’t gain the benefits of SEM boost your business.
We have put together a few best cost-effective ways to try out for your business.
Sure, you’re selling something, but remember that SEM is more than just an ad for your brand, it’s more about knowing your customers and why do they use these search engines.
