An introduction to the basics of search engine marketing
There are many search engine agencies that promise instant results, website optimization and search engine success, but what does it all mean? In addition to this, how can a focus on optimizing your online marketing for search engines achieve your business goals and generate revenue for your organization? Read on if you want direct answers to these questions.
When you talk about search engine marketing (SEM), you are referring to two main activities and what are now essentially two main search engines. SEM can be divided into two key areas: organic or natural search and paid or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
Organic search involves ‘normal’ listings on search engines, that is, non-paid listings. There are a number of factors that determine your search engine ranking position (SERP) on major search engines. These factors can be categorized under two main headings, on-page optimization and off-page optimization.
On page optimization includes factors related to your website or blog itself, examples of this would be:
- The text (or copy) you use on your website
- The way your website is built in terms of design and information architecture.
- The coding of your website in terms of certain tags and structure
- How often your blog or website is updated
Off-page optimization includes factors outside of your website, for example:
- Links to your website or blog from other relevant websites
- Links to your website or blog from relevant news sites or articles
The process of optimizing your blog or website for a high SERP is known as search engine optimization (SEO). The SEO process and achieving success in major search engine rankings can take several months and should be seen as a long-term commitment and strategy. This is especially true when there is intense competition for certain key words and phrases; More on this later.
Paid search engine marketing or PPC involves bidding on certain keywords and phrases that you would like your website or blog to rank high for, those who bid the most get the top spot. Paid search can be used to good effect to achieve quick results and can be seen as a good tool to take advantage of in the short term. It is questionable whether this alone, without paying attention to natural search, is a good tactic in the long run.
To get the most out of any search engine marketing campaign or long-term strategy, keyword analysis should be conducted to establish the most relevant and productive terms that your target audience will use to search for your products and services. There are a number of methods used to carry out such analysis and these range from old-fashioned brainstorming to the more sophisticated use of software.
One school of thought focuses on the use of longer search phrases containing a series of words, known as long-tail search terms, for example “golf clubs north of Leeds”. Because you are using more targeted phrases, there is often a better chance of ranking high in search engines due to improved targeting and reduced competition from the untargeted masses.
When the use of relevant keyword phrases has been confirmed, then it is possible to use on and off-page optimization techniques to feature the phrases talking about “North Leeds golf clubs” on your site, in articles and across other sites. .
In terms of major search engines, we’re only really referring to two companies now: Google and Yahoo/Bing, a recent merger in which Yahoo will retain the front end of its search engine with Microsoft’s Bing (formally Live Search) as rear engine.
Finally, the last important part of search engine marketing websites is to monitor all the activity you are doing as well as your SERPs on Google and Yahoo search engines. There are various free and paid tools available to help you do this, from very simple to highly sophisticated. Some good free tools can be found on the Google Webmaster and SEOBook websites.
I hope this article has been useful to you and has shed some light in the area of search engine marketing.