SEO Importance & Benefits By: Faruq Hasan. 2 Today's Coverage Types of SEM Targeted search engines...

SEO Importance & Benefits

By: Faruq Hasan

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Today's Coverage

• Types of SEM• Targeted search engines• Putting Search Engines to Work for You• Popular Search Engine & their Importance• Understanding Why You Need SEO

● others

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

• SEM – Search Engine Marketing• Search engine marketing (SEM) is the primary method of

driving traffic online for the majority of businesses. According to Forrester Research, on average 73% of website visits originate from a search engine. If you haven’t tapped in yet, search marketing is a massive opportunity – and even if you are already making use of SEM, there are always way to improve your results.

• Let’s take a look at the two main types of of search marketing: paid and organic. We’ll also look at the third factor which will determine the effectiveness of both strategies: the conversion rate of your website.

Paid

If you’re not familiar with this type of search engine advertising, here’s a graphic to show you what we’re talking about.

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Paid

The placement of ads is determined by a few things. One is an auction system – if you want to show up for, say ‘red shoes,’ you will have to place a bid on the keyword. Your placement on the page is based largely on your bid – but that’s not all there is to it. Google also dishes out a Quality Score for each keyword you’re targeting. This score is calculated based on factors like the relevance of your ad and landing page to the keyword you’re bidding on.

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The biggest advantage of PPC: you can get onto Page One on Google immediately, as long as you’re willing to pay the price. Downside: it can get very expensive very quickly, and as soon as you stop paying the traffic turns off. It’s also prohibitively expensive for small companies in competitive markets, since some high-competition keywords can cost upwards of $10 per click.

Organic Search Engine Marketing

• Now we’re getting to the other way of generating search engine traffic. The organic or natural search listings are not paid for. They are what you probably think of when you talk about ‘The Top 10 on Google.’

• Getting good organic rankings is all about keyword research, competiton research, getting your keywords in the right places on your website (on-page SEO) and building the right kind of links to your site from elsewhere on the web (off-page SEO).

• When people use the terms ‘SEO’ and ‘SEM,’ generally they are talking about organic when they say ‘SEO’ and paid ads when they say ‘SEM.’ SEM can also be used as un umbrella term to describe all forms of search marketing, which is how we’re using it here.

• SEO has one big disadvantage compared to paid advertising: it can take a while to get your website to Page One on Google, depending on how competitive your target keywords are. But in terms of return on investment, SEO wins hands down against Pay Per Click over the long term.

• When you build strong organic rankings, you can get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of targeted visitors to your website every day without having to pay for each and every click.

The Other Factor: Conversion Rates

• Of course, the return on investment you get from both these kinds of search engine marketing won’t just depend on how much it costs you to generate traffic – it will depend on how many visitors you can convert, and how much each of those visitors is worth to you.

• Many business owners focus only on traffic, without considering their conversion rate. But it’s definitely worth investing in, when you consider that a jump from a 1% conversion rate to a 2% conversion rate effectively means doubling your revenue.

• Higher conversion rates mean you can afford to bid higher on PPC clicks while still making a profit, meaning you can bid on higher-traffic terms and effectively raise sales volume. The same applies to SEO spending – higher conversions mean you can afford to invest more and grow traffic and sales even further

Why you need SEO

1. The Results are Low Cost (In Comparison to Adwords and PPC)

• Organic listings are essentially free. When you are listed at the top, you don’t need to pay per click or allocate a budget for advertising, one of the main benefits of SEO is that it is the gift that keeps on giving. With a little bit of effort (and some money upfront to pay for SEO costs) you can watch your website get consistent traffic

• 2. Definite Increase in Traffic• With Analytics and reporting tools, you’ll see a

clear cut increase in traffic. This is a definite way to maximize your business efforts. SEO will give you results (not immediately but rather quickly) and as soon as you start your SEO efforts, traffic will increase at a steady rate. Using tools to track traffic to your site you can clearly watch as more people visit your site and sales go through the roof.

• 3. Higher Brand Credibility, People Trust Google• People trust that the first listing in google is a

reputable company, by doing SEO, your website becomes THE brand name. You’re the guy the competitors want to beat. The further back you are in rankings on Google the more people are skeptical about your website. If google has a spot dedicated to you at the top especially if it is a top tier listing with other subpages listed below the main home page it gives your website credibility that no ad can top.

• 4. Better ROI (Return on Investment) Than Normal Ads• When you buy 1000 visitors from a paid ad, 2% of

those visitors might convert into a sale. When you get 1000 clicks from SEO, 4% of those visitors will convert into a sale, leading to a better return on investment. This higher conversion rate is just another one of the benefits of SEO that cannot be matched by any other form of marketing. Google searches actually get people who searched for the tag in your website. These people are actually looking for your product.

• 5. Your Competitors Are Doing It• SEO is a rising field and it is gaining ground. More

people are starting to realize that the benefits of SEO are extremely high. Your competitors know this and are starting to take advantage of it. If your competitors are using it then they will appear before you on Google and get all those hits that can lead to sales before your website will. Even if your site offers better services or prices.

Seo benefits at a glance

Targeted Search Engine Marketing• Analysis has shown that search engines bring more traffic to your

site than any other mechanism. Targeted search engine marketing can be a very effective way to bring visitors to your website, as this tutorial will show. What is Targeted Search Engine Marketing?

• Targeted Search Engine Marketing is essentially marketing or targeting your site to a narrow, specific audience, and doing so using search engines themselves. So what are some ways you can utilize vertical marketing, i.e. targeted advertising for search engines? Well, let's be more specific--for Google, after all, it is by far the most important search engine to be listed on (although these techniques will also be effective with other search engines such as Yahoo, etc.).

Getting search engines to work for you

• Before users reach your site, they must first know that it exists. Search engine visibility is a must for organizations who wish to communicate via the internet.

• There are a number of search engines in use -- altavista, excite, lycos, yahoo -- but far and away the most popular is now google.com. Search engines use robots known as 'spiders' to crawl the web on a regular basis and find sites for inclusion in their indexes. Google's spiders crawl the web monthly.

• If the spider can't find you, you won't be listed.

What to do

1. DO MAKE YOUR TITLE DESCRIPTIVE. Every HTML page has a < TITLE > tag -- this is the name of the page; you can see it at the top of the browser screen. If you run a project concerning inclusion of children with disabilities in public schools, don't title your page "NIDRR Project": that tells the search engine spiders nothing about the content. The title "School Inclusion for Kids with Disabilities" will ensure you'll show up in search engines when someone searches for "inclusion"; "kids with disabilities"; "school inclusion" and so on. If your website has more than one page, make sure each individual page has an appropriate and explanatory title. And make sure every page is linked to every other page (see below).

What to do

2. DO USE KEYWORDS. HTML coding also allows for "meta tags". Be sure your web page designer puts in appropriate keywords in the meta tags rather than leaving them empty. For your web page on school Inclusion, some keywords might include "P.L. 94-142"; "mainstreaming" and "special education." "If you pick a keyword that is not used by the people hunting for your product, you won't get traffic," says NetMechanic. "You must pick popular keywords to be found." You can use as many keywords as you want; the more the better! A typo in a keyword -- or a incorrectly placed keyword (they belong in the < HEAD > part of the HTML code) -- will mean the spider overlooks that keyword entirely

What to do 3. DO MAKE YOUR LINKS DESCRIPTIVE. Spiders search

for links on your site -- the more links to your site, the higher your ranking in the search engines. What will a spider do when it finds a link called "click here?" Links need to tell about the content to be useful. A link called "inclusion in middle school education" gives the spider something to put in the search engine. Google follows links from one page to the next, so pages that are not linked to by others may be missed. If your site's internal link structure does not provide a path to all your pages, Google's robot may not see all the pages on your site.

Popular SE

• A very important point to keep is mind is that there are, in actuality, very few search engines that are worth bothering with. There are dozens of lesser search engines out there that used to be relevant back in the 1990s. You might consider submitting to them, but usually they aren’t worth your time. Concentrate on the engines I’ve listed below, as these are the ones that most of your search engine traffic will come from.

• Submitting to a search engine is easy — simply find their ‘Add URL’ link, and you’ll land on their site submission page. Type your address into the box, check that it’s correct, and send it in.

SEO Importance & Benefits By: Faruq Hasan. 2 Today's Coverage Types of SEM Targeted search engines...

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