Whenever people search for a product or service, most of them go to Google. If you are doing business, your business must show up on the first page of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) of Google or other search engines so that people click on your site and visit it. This is where you need search engine optimization (SEO) marketing. Before we discuss the importance and types of SEO marketing, it is necessary to understand what SEO marketing is.
Defining SEO Marketing
SEO marketing is a part of digital marketing that helps to improve a company’s visibility by ranking the company website higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO marketing is done by using search engines to promote products and services. It increases the chance that when potential customers search for related products or services, they will click on your site. Once they visit your website, there is a high chance that they will buy your products or services. So, as your website traffic increases, your revenue will eventually increase which will lead to business growth. The goal of SEO marketing is to improve brand visibility, drive organic traffic, and increase conversions. SEM is an integral part of SEO marketing that uses paid advertisements to get a higher website rank. With SEM you can display your website on top of the first SERP page.
SEO vs. SEM
In SEO organic strategies are used to get a high ranking in the SERPs. On the other hand, SEM uses paid techniques. You must remember that SEM works well when you have an SEO strategy. Business owners sometimes find it difficult to decide whether to use SEO or SEM for their business. It depends on the budget and the situation. If you want long-term growth then SEO is appropriate; on the other hand, if you want fast results then SEM like paid-per-click (PPC) is recommended. SEO is more cost-effective than SEM and in the long run, SEO generates more organic traffic. This is because SEO can improve credibility, brand awareness, functionality, and user experience.
Importance Of SEO Marketing
Most people use Google If you search for a product or service on Google, you will notice that you will get many pages of results related to your search. If you don’t do SEO then your company might be listed on the 15th page of the SERPs, for example, and no one will even know about your products. So, the potential customers must find your website. By following a good SEO marketing strategy you can rank your website higher and attract more traffic to your site. You will get quality leads and so the chance of conversion will be higher. People also trust companies that are ranked high in the SERPs, so you get better brand awareness and high credibility. SEO marketing is cost-effective and can give you great results right away. For local marketing, SEM is one of the best things to do. You will get good conversions even on a low budget. SEM offers flexibility; you can customize the ad according to audience, location, and other factors. You can start with a small budget and get good results.
Types Of SEO Marketing
SEO marketing is a very effective strategy to get the attention of prospective customers. It can help your business to grow and stay ahead of the competition. There are different types of SEO marketing and here we are going to discuss them.
Organic SEO
Organic SEO will display your business on the organic search results. You don’t need to pay anything for it, so it’s cost-effective. The search is not location-dependent. Organic SEO takes time to generate effective results. You need to implement various strategies for organic SEO. These are discussed below.
SEO marketing has evolved over time and now you can incorporate many elements in your SEO marketing strategy to stand out from the competitors. Here we are going to discuss the various elements of SEO marketing.
On-Page SEO
In on-page SEO, you need to optimize your website text, images, and also videos. The different search engines then analyze SEO factors like a slug in the webpage URL, meta information, keyword relevance, and others. These factors help to understand the content and decide whether the content is of high quality or not. This helps them to rank the websites accordingly.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO includes backlinks; that is other websites referring to your website. The more quality backlinks you have, the better will be your domain authority and so people will trust your brand.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO happens at the backend and it improves the search performance. Your website will load faster and become mobile-friendly. Your website will be better indexed well by the search engine crawlers.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the words or phrases that people use to search for their desired products or services. You should choose keywords that have low competition and high search rates. Try using a mix of short-tail, long-tail, and local keywords in your content. You should optimize the titles and URLs with the appropriate keywords.
Content
Content is the main element of SEO as it will help you to reach your prospective customers. If you provide quality content on your website then people will visit your website and get valuable information from it. Contents can include infographics, listicles, how-to guides, blogs, videos, social media posts, and other things.
Competitive Analysis
You should know the competitors’ strategies so that you can beat those. You should find out the top-performing pages of your competitors and the sources of their organic traffic on those pages. You can use different tools like Brand24, SE Ranking, or SEMRush for doing the competitive analysis. Then you can craft a good SEO strategy for your website.
Image Optimization
Search engines not only look at your content but your image as well. You should optimize images by including keywords in their names and alt attributes. Make sure that your image is displayed at the optimum size and format. While large images look good, they affect the website’s loading time. You can use plugins to compress the website images so that the loading time is not affected.
Link Building
When other websites provide links to your site, it builds the authority of your site. For this, you need to have a strong social media presence and list your website in the local business directories.
Mobile Optimization
As most people now search for products and services using their smart devices, mobile optimization is important. You should optimize the functionality and design of your site for mobile phones and other devices. This will increase search engine visibility and provide a better user experience.
People find organic SEO most reliable and they are likely to click on the businesses that appear high on the organic search results. As it is cost-effective, many businesses prefer using this strategy over the others. Organic SEO, however, requires a lot of dedication and patience. You should constantly improve and update your content to get the best results. You will also not get any quick results from it.
Local SEO
Local SEO targets are specific geographic areas. Local SEO helps a business to be found online and offline as well. The business will appear in Google Maps results. You will see the local search results in the middle of the SERPs and they have a map. Unlike PPC, local SEO won’t give you quick results. You may need up to 8 months for your business to be shown in the local search results. Several factors affect the positioning of your business in the local search results. These include business listing, proximity of the user to the offline business location, business category, online reviews, mobile friendliness, and others. Local SEO is reliable and has less competition. So, it is more likely that your business will show up on the first page of the SERPs. However, the geographic location reduces the visibility of your business. Also, your privacy will be compromised as you will need to give the address of your business to get a better ranking.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
In this type of SEM whenever a prospective customer clicks on the online advertisement, the advertiser will have to pay a charge. PPC is also known as sponsored ads. The concept ‘ad auction’ is used to display the ads. The search engines have an automated bidding system to display ads on the SERPs. The advertisers must bid on the keywords that they want to be displayed along with the search results. They have to tell the amount they will pay when a person clicks on the ad. The more you pay the more chance you have to bid on the demanding keywords. PPC ads are displayed on the top and bottom parts of the SERPs. Google gives a quality score to rate the commercial intent and quality of the keywords and based on it they come up with the cost per click (CPC). Your ad rank will be based on the quality score and the maximum bid amount. PPC ads are very effective as they get noticed fast. Google Analytics will help you to analyze the results of your ad campaign and accordingly, you can modify your campaign. On the downside, PPC ads are expensive. Also, many people trust organic search results than paid ones.
Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)
This is the latest technique used in SEM which uses Google’s machine learning algorithm to create and display ads depending on the website content. Unlike the other types of SEM, DSA doesn’t need any keyword research. Google’s system scans through the business website and finds relevant content to create appropriate headings and descriptions. DSA saves time as you won’t need to do any keyword research. The ads are updated automatically as the content of the website changes. So, it is hassle-free when the business has frequent offerings and the ads need to be changed accordingly.
Remarketing Or Retargeting
This is an SEM strategy to reengage the customers who had previously visited the website but didn’t purchase any product. This technique displays ads to these customers so that they remember you and come back to your website. To do this, a remarketing code snippet is installed on the website. This code tracks the customer behavior and creates custom ads for them. Remarketing helps to improve the overall conversion rate.
Video Search Advertising
When it comes to advertising, videos are the most engaging formats. SEM today involves video content on YouTube and other platforms. This SEM strategy attracts customers through compelling ads. It helps to deliver the message concisely and attractively. Businesses can easily demonstrate their products through video search marketing. It is a very effective tool for increasing conversion rates. When creating the ads, the advertisers must use keywords to optimize the title and description of the video to improve visibility. Video search advertising can create an immersive and memorable experience for customers.
Social Media Advertising Integration
Social media advertising integration is now common in SEM strategy. The social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others provide great advertising tools that help businesses to reach more audiences within a short time. With social media ads, it is possible to target specific users. The ads support images, videos, or other interactive elements.
SEM Tools
Search engine marketing (SEM) helps a business to be more visible online using search optimization and advertisements. You can use different SEM tools to craft your SEM strategy. Using these tools, you can manage various aspects of your SEM campaign. Some of these tools are discussed here.
For Organic SEO:
SEMrush: content creation, online advertising, social media, SEO, and keyword research.
SurferSEO: content creation, keyword research, and SEO.
Hunter: domain search and email.
For Local SEO:
Moz Local: local listing, directory submission, review monitoring.
Bright Local: monitoring existing citations.
For PPC:
Google Ads: setting ad budget, creating and managing ads, keyword planner.
Optmyzr: bid management, one-click optimization.
Conclusion
In SEO marketing, data analytics plays a big role in crafting strategies and decision-making. The analytics help to measure the effectiveness of the marketing campaign. Businesses now use AI-powered analytics tools to improve data analysis to understand trends. SEO marketing is one of the proven strategies to improve the visibility of businesses and thus increase the customer base.
