Over the years, there have only been 2 ways to win in search engine marketing on sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing:
- Work your way to the top
- Buy your way to the top
So, let’s break it down.
Working Your Way to the Top
Hard work always pays off, and working your way to the top of keyword searches is no exception. Working your way to the top is generally call Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the practice of making sure your website pages have proper “on-page” and “off-page” optimization.
Google’s (and Yahoo & Bing’s) goal for search is to find the best result for the keywords that are being searched. Google ranks every single page online and then compares them to every other page in the world. Google used to give you a nice snap shot of your rank through “PageRank”, but today they look much more at content triggers including location, social, and hundreds of other triggers.
At the root of winning in Search Engines Marketing are two key concepts:
The First key is Content. You have heard that “Content is King” for a long time, and that is absolutely true. You must continually build content on your website, blog and social media outlets. If you aren’t creating content, you are falling behind.
The Second key is Authority. You need to be recognized by your peers, as well as online, by having other websites pointing to your site. This transfers authority from one place to the other, just like if you refer a company to a friend. By referring, you are saying that you endorse their product or service, so Google picks that up from the Internet and places more authority on the context of the keywords.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is part of our Inbound Marketing Campaign. If you would like to pull more prospects to your site, find out what is included in our Inbound Services.
Advantages to SEO
- Leverage content effort from Press Releases
- More long term value than Pay Per Click
- Combines all content efforts
- Social Media contributions
- Builds authority, not only online, but helps build a culture in your organization
- You can save money
- Overtime you become a market leader
- You crowd out your market crack, creating emplacement
Buying Your Way to the Top
Buying your way to the top is pretty straightforward: you simply buy ads on keywords that are relevant to your marketing plan. Anyone can start buying, and there are some great tools to help you. You do need to do some homework on what kind of budget and the value you are looking to gain from buying keywords.
The interesting thing about buying keyword ads, also known as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, is that you are competing in a live auction. I have always explained this live auction just like my Econ. 101 professor would have:
Supply = Demand
The more people bidding for the keyword, the higher the cost. In this case the supply is the amount of Internet viewers looking for the keyword. The demand is the amount that you are willing to pay to be in front of the demand.
Advantages for Advertising
- Quick uptime
- Exact keyword matches
- Exact calculations on the Return on Investment (ROI)
- Targeted advertisements
- Landing Pages for the Keywords
Search Engine Marketing is part of our Inbound Marketing Campaign. If you would like to pull more prospects to your site, find out what is included in our Inbound Services.
At RedFusion Media, we have more than a dozen years of Search Engine Marketing experience. We understand SEM and have a winning track record online, so give us a call (909) 798-7092 if you need to hire your marketing department.
