The Value of Search:
Don’t Let Your Online Business Suffer!
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has been on a roller-coaster of a ride for a while now. Its initial appearance in marketing blew up quickly and then a few years down the line it was labelled “dead” leaving a question poised on everyone’s lips: Is search engine marketing all that it’s cracked up to be?
Most businesses will consider investing in SEO at some point but there are still many who don’t believe it’s worth the money. Yet with the SEO industry being worth $65 billion (and growing!) it is clear that search marketing has become a pretty big deal…
To get to grips with the effectiveness of search, let’s highlight a few areas of SEM that emphasises just how valuable digital marketing is for businesses.
Without it, you are invisible
OK maybe that is a bit over dramatic, you aren’t totally invisible. Of course, if people know who you are then your customers are more likely to just search for your brand.
For smaller businesses with a brand that isn’t well-known, it isn’t so simple. One search query in Google can provide millions of results from various different companies all offering similar services or products. Yet through SEO, PPC and other search marketing techniques, your site will be found by customers that may not necessarily know who you are but are interested in what you are offering.
Not only do you have competitors to consider but also the millions of potential customers searching all the time. Google revealed that they process 3.5 billion searches per day which equate to 100 billion per month! Not only this but 80% of customers search online before purchasing a product, so getting your voice heard amongst the noise is essential for your online business.
However, even for companies that are well known, they might even struggle to keep their customers mainly due to the vast amount of online content available to users across the globe. A prime example is from an article by Search Engine Watch, where
So how to solve this issue? A combination of social media, SEO and great content will keep your customers entertained and by tracking the number of visitors to specific pages or visits to your blog, you can get an idea of what works best.
You can keep track of your site’s performance
So you’ve started your search marketing campaign and some services/products are selling well and some are not. What do you do now? Well, that’s where your account manager will analyse where these pages need some TLC.
Keeping track of your sales is also vital! Conversion tracking is a powerful analytics tool that you can see where your conversions are coming from, let it be organic, AdWords or social – you can see which traffic source is driving your sales.
Ensuring your website is performing to the best of its ability will ensure that you are getting a steady stream of sales and increase brand awareness simultaneously.
Local SEO gives businesses a chance against the big leagues
Take a car garage, for example, they are the perfect company to utilise local search. With competitors from big companies such as Kwik Fit, garages can really benefit from an optimised local search result to increase their brand awareness and expand their presence in the local area.
Research from Search Engine Land shows that “local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day” – that’s pretty impressive! So get your business registers on Google My Business sooner rather than later.
SEO & PPC are the power couple of search engine marketing
Seeing the benefits of SEO takes time. PPC on the other hand has an immediate effect, although it is at the expense of paying for each click. But by putting both practices together gives you the best of both worlds; whilst the SEO is building to something great, paid traffic can drive conversions in the meantime.
Why not get in touch with us today to get a quote about our SEO + PPC service packages.
User experience is key – SEM optimises this
The best aspect of search is that it keeps evolving to adapt to user’s needs and the way users interact with websites. By keeping track of user experience, businesses can understand the user journey and develop their website to encourage customers to convert. Therefore, this practice needs search marketing to stay up to date with latest practices, understand user interaction and in return get the sales that your company needs.
Final thoughts
SEO can often be a marketing tool that companies consider but don’t necessarily invest in. However without it, your sales will be hindered and with technology always improving and thousands of more users are utilising the web more each day, it has become critical to your marketing strategy.
One of our clients uses our SEO services and after a year their traffic has increased by 60%! That is the power of search for you. With the right practices in place, your business can get found by your target customers and generate plenty more sales through SEM.
Front Page Advantage have a range of services to help improve your website’s visibility, such as SEO, PPC and Social Media – we have you covered. And because we value your needs above our own, we create bespoke reports that are perfect for your company and your desires.