The Foundation of Search Engine Marketing
The Foundation of Search Engine Marketing
Have you ever wondered why your website doesn’t appear at the top of search engine results? If this sounds like you, then you’ve come to the right place!
In many cases, the problem comes from lack of strategic keyword planning from the beginning. Keyword research is the foundation of a successful Search Engine Marketing strategy. Without laying the groundwork, it’s impossible to harness high quality Organic or Paid Search traffic.
Keyword Research is the practice of strategically selecting the specific search terms that you want to target in your SEM Strategy. To do this research, we collect and analyze historical search data to answer specific questions, such as:
Upon answering these questions, we can determine which keywords have the most opportunity, and should therefore be prioritized in our SEM campaigns. We can also use these insights to predict and anticipate consumers’ behavior and build our strategy accordingly.
Once we know what your most valuable keywords are, we can optimize your website around them. We do this by strategically infusing your website content with these keywords. This process is called On-Page SEO.
When done correctly, this process will help you increase your ranking on Search Engines for these keywords, therefore bringing more high-quality, organic traffic to your website.
Many people believe that by using an excessive number of keywords, or putting these keywords in places where they don't make sense (keyword stuffing) they will be improving their organic positioning. However, it’s just the opposite. Google penalizes website that don’t prioritize the user experience, so keep in mind that Quality is always more important than Quantity when it comes to SEO.
Paid Search Campaigns (often called Search Engine Advertising, or SEA) is similar to SEO in that it is based on a selection of target keywords.
Regardless of what your product or service is, the goal of Paid Search is always the same: only invest in the keywords that will bring you qualified traffic. What is qualified traffic? These are users who are actually interested in buying your product or services. After all, who wants to spend money unnecessarily?
However, not all keywords are created equal. Depending on your industry, you can find keywords that cost anywhere from $.02 - $200 per click. During our keyword research, we also analyze how much the average cost of each keyword relative to its sales potential. That way, we can build a custom strategy that is the most efficient use of your advertising budget and maximizes your Return on Investment.
Whether you are looking to get started with Organic Search Engine Optimization, or want to run some Paid Campaigns, it’s important to remember that keywords are not static. Search patterns are a direct reflection of the market. Shifts in the market landscape can result in major changes to online search behavior, monthly search volumes, and costs per click (CPCs). Therefore, it should be done regularly to ensure that you are effectively reaching your target customers.