Organic Search Marketing Solutions

There are two types of search marketing solutions; organic search marketing and paid search marketing.

Organic Search Marketing

“Organic search marketing” refers to free search engine listings your site may receive when your site is found by the major search engines, and is listed for particular keyword phrases the search engines feel your site is relevant for. It is called organic because your site is either found relevant or not found relevant for the keywords important to your business. It is free traffic that you receive for providing relevant keyword rich content that search engine visitors are looking for.

Paid Search Marketing

“Paid search marketing” refers to “bidding” on specific phrase that you want or feel your site is relevant for. A certain number of advertising spaces are available for each keyword; you and your competitors can bid on a price you are willing to pay for that space. For each visitor that is sent to you by this advertising space you pay the current going rate for each click that results in a visitor coming to your site.

When these two forms of online marketing are used to create an online marketing strategy, it can result in highly targeted traffic, increases in sales and leads; as well as a large increase in your return on investment.

Creating a Search Marketing Strategy

Both types of marketing help to answer short term and long term goals. Paid search marketing (also referred to as PPC or Pay Per Click) can be used in a strategy to deliver highly qualified leads through the use of highly qualified phrases, ad copy that helps to pre-qualify the potential visitor before the click, creation of compelling copy and strong calls to action and utilizing an analytics program to track traffic and conversions. A Pay per Click campaign can be up and running, sending you traffic within 15 minutes; however it should be managed, maintained and optimized to ensure that you are maximizing conversions.

Organic search marketing is done over time and should be implemented with short and long term goals in mind. Proper research of keyword phrases, analysis of competitors, possible creation of content, implementation etc. can take up to 8 weeks if a site lacks the important areas within the site design and structure. Once completed an organic search marketing campaign can lower the reliance on pay per click as the driving force of traffic to a website. With a monthly fee rather than a cost per click, the return on investment is much higher.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (commonly referred to as SEO) is simply ensuring that the search engines (Google, Yahoo! & Live.com; formerly MSN) view your site as being relevant for the words and phrases that searchers are actively using when looking for products and services that are important to your business.

What is involved in SEO?

The search engines look at over 126 different areas of your website and server to determine what your site is about. Search Engine Optimization is the act of making those areas search engine friendly to further organic exposure and traffic from the major search engines.

Below are many of the key areas that are looked at during a search engine optimization campaign:

a) A site that has a high percentage of server uptime (preferably 99%)

b) Having a custom 404 error page to notify visitors and engines that a page is missing or unavailable and provides alternative links to other relevant pages within the site.

c) Having a unified domain name, ensuring that your site and content is only found in one location; essentially closing the loop to ensure duplicate content issues are not encountered.

d) Using friendly redirection methods when needed that accurately tell the search engines whether the page has moved permanently or if it is temporary.

e) Having a sitemap in place; essentially one central location where all pages are easily accessible and grouped by theme/category.

f) Having Title, Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags available on each page and relevant to the content located within the specific page.

g) Utilizing Headings and Sub-Headings to accurately describe topics and sub-topics within web page content.

h) Using image alt tags to describe images that are used in conjunction with web page content and copy; tying it into the theme and message being conveyed.

i) Utilizing textual links throughout your content as an alternative navigation method and tying together related content and webpage throughout the site.

j) Utilizing the important words and phrases that are important to the campaign and relevant to your pages within the web page body.

k) Placing emphasis on important keyword phrases to ensure that the engines can differentiate general words from targeted keywords.