What is Search Engine Marketing and is it important?
With so much hype and continual spamming by organisations trying to sell you over priced under performing Search Engine Optimisation, Google Adwords, Guaranteed Results …. many web site owner adopt a do nothing approach to marketing their web site. So lets start at the beginning and understand what Search Engine Marketing really is.
Search Engine Marketing is the use of various on and off site factors to enhance your ranking in both paid PPC (pay per click) or free (organic) search engine results. Like any marketing plan a search engine marketing plan should look at all the options that are available and use the ones most suitable for your business. A reputable marketing organisation will want to know about your business, your products and your target audience before they try to sell you a solution. You may recieve calls from telemarketers promising the number one position on a google search for you. It’s always best to check reputation, cost and credibility with these callers.
There are, however, businesses out there who can help you, and at an affordable cost. They are as much interested in your bottom line as their own, and yes Search Engine Marketing is important. Depending on your business and web site, it is possible to make significant, positive changes to your organic search engine results for just a few hours work.
Search Engine Marketing includes but is not limited to the following techniques;
- Search Engine Optimisation of the web pages so the pages rank well for the chosen key phrases
- Use of Social Media to create qualified, context relevant inbound links
- Articles that establish you as an industry expert on relevant sites
- Quality context relevant inbound links from suppliers and partners
- Pay Per Click advertising with a well written, relevant ad copy and a landing page within your site that contains a call to action
Some of these techniques can be accomplished by you as an individual at very little or no cost.
If you don’t haven’t considered serious Search Engine Marketing then now is the time to do it. More and more people are using the internet to search for goods, services and information than ever before. Good site setup and search engine marketing will ensure that you are getting the best out of your web site.