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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is also known as traditional Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It involves the act of tweaking a web page in order to achieve higher rankings in a search engine which uses an algorithm as opposed to a financial bidding system for ranking web pages.
The most popular search engine which requires SEO is Google.
SEO is a relatively inexpensive option in that payment is not provided to a search engine for ranking. While payment is not made to a search engine directly, many companies choose to outsource their SEO campaign to a company such as Ecom Access which has professionals on board who stay on top of industry changes on a weekly basis.
There are a few downfalls to SEO:
- It can take a long period of time to get a site indexed
- Spider-based search engines tend to update their listings every few days at best. If your website changes frequently, viewers of search result pages may see outdated information about your site
- Some companies might have difficulty getting their deepest pages indexed within a dynamic website or a very large website
Pay Per Click (PPC)
In a PPC agreement, the advertiser pays only f or qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. Most search engines are employing PPC for at least some of their search results - these results should be identified with a heading such as "Sponsored Listings".
In simplistic terms, the more you are willing to pay per click, the higher on the page your ad will be shown. And of course, the more it will cost you each time a searcher clicks. Thankfully, some search engines such as Google reward customers who achieve high click through rates by ranking their ad higher than a competitor who is paying more money!
The most popular search engines which employ PPC for at least some of their results are Google, Yahoo and MSN.
The benefits of PPC are:
- Quick inclusion (days or minutes)
- You can pay for a top position unlike in traditional SEO
- You can appear in several search engines with just one listing
- Easy to track Conversions (whether a searcher signs up for a newsletter, downloads a file or makes purchase from your site.)
The downside of PPC:
- Can be very costly
- Can be very time consuming to write ads, monitor position, etc.
- You must continue to pay for placement - when the money runs out so does your ad
Benefit of Outsourcing
SEO and PPC can be done in house, as long as you have someone with the proper knowledge and skills.
If you are planning to perform your own SEM in house, don't pass off these duties to just anyone. If a current employee already has many other functions within the company, don't add the SEM duties on top of everything else. This is especially true if this employee has never done SEM before.
If you want someone in your company to learn SEM from scratch, find an employee who is interested in it and make the task his or her sole duty. Give the employee time to read, read, read and practice, practice, practice.
Consider hiring an experienced SEM specialist to come on board full-time if you are unable to fulfill the position with current employees. This specialist may not be able to fulfill all of the tasks required in a SEM campaign so the services of a copywriter, programmer and designer may still be required.
Outsourcing can alleviate many headaches associated with performing this type of work in house. The cost of creating such a position goes well beyond the individual's salary and can reach thousands of dollars before their salary is even factored into the expenses.
Process by Which We Work
We start your campaign by getting an understanding of your industry. We then brainstorm some keyword phrases that potential customers or clients might enter into a search engine if they were looking for the product or service you offer. Through the use of several keyword research tools (best one being the human brain!), we decide which keyword phrases are best for your industry and assess the competition for those phrases.
Depending upon your budget, the industry you are in and the goals of your website, we will propose a strategy based on a variety of Internet marketing techniques including Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, and Affiliate Marketing.
We may use PPC to test how successful various keyword phrases are at converting your visitors to buyers and then execute a SEO strategy based on the results of the PPC campaign.
As part of your SEO Strategy we will implement a link building campaign, perform manual submission of your site to the search engines, track the success of all of our campaigns, and report back to you on a weekly or monthly basis to keep you informed of our activities and the success of these activities.
Contact us now to discuss your search engine marketing needs.
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