There are few certainties when it comes to marketing, digital or otherwise. Marketers – myself included – are notorious for answering “It depends” when clients ask if a particular strategy will work.
But when it comes to potential customers finding you on search engines like Google and Bing, there are just two choices. One, you can influence the search engines by building a website that contains useful, interesting,
authoritative information and that attracts links from other websites. Two, you can pay for advertising.
Let’s take a quick look at the difference between the two. Understanding this can help you see how search engines decide what to show, whether you own a business or are just searching for a local pizza shop or household cleaning service.
Search engine optimization
Option 1, building a website full of useful information, is part of a strategy known as search engine
optimization. After someone enters a search term, search engines crawl the internet to find websites that are relevant to the search, contain recent content, answer questions, have clear navigation, and load quickly on a mobile device.
And there’s more. When lots of other websites link to your website, search engines take that as a sign of authority. If you’re searching for a cleaning service, search engines will only show you websites for businesses near your location.
Successful search optimization can result in a business ranking higher in “organic” results. These are the non-advertising results, based on how well a business
meets the search engines’ ranking guidelines.
Even though you don’t pay Google for ranking in organic results, the process of search optimization takes planning and time and is expensive in its own way. However, search optimization is always beneficial and even helps with the second option.
Paid search advertising
Option 2 is paid search advertising. In search advertising, businesses bid to have their ads shown when people use particular search terms – keywords. Paid
ads are labeled with the word “Ad” in bold, but small, type.
Ads typically appear at the top of a search results page, a substantial advantage given that most people don’t scroll far when they search. For businesses, the more money they are willing to bid on a keyword, the more likely it is that its ad will appear at or near the top of the page.
There are other factors, too. If your ad and your website are not relevant to the search term – even if you bid for it – search engines will not show your ad.
If your business needs to drive traffic to your website quickly, paid search ads are the best strategy. Search engine optimization can take months to build a substantial amount of website traffic.
Combining paid ads and SEO
A website that’s well built for organic search is likely to be successful with search ads. The search engines’ prime directive is to serve the best and most relevant results to searchers, whether with paid ads or organic results.
Using paid ads and search optimization at the same time is ideal, although together the investment can be substantial. A less expensive but effective approach is to do some basic SEO work and run paid search ads at the same time.
After your business has built some traffic, you can move ahead with more advanced optimization tactics.
I appreciated the support and was happy that some attendees were referred by acquaintances within my business network. More than 30 registered, and about 20 attended. On top of that, seven have scheduled calls to learn more about
how I can help.
In my last newsletter, I asked readers to submit a good joke because Aug. 16 was National Tell A Joke Day. Here’s the best of what I got:
“Adam and Joshua go out to celebrate Adam’s birthday and have too much to drink. The bartender takes their keys and offers to call an Uber for them. They refuse and say they can walk the few blocks to their homes.
“They set out but get lost and wind up in the zoo. They wander right in front of the lion’s cage, only a couple feet from the bars. The lion sees them
and comes running over right in front of them and lets out a huge ROAR! Adam looks at Joshua just as the lion ROARS again. He says “we better get out of here!” Joshua answers, “What do you mean get out of here? The movie is just starting!”
Thanks, Joe!
Until next time
The next newsletter arrives Sept. 9. This coming weekend, the U.S. marks the waning days of summer. Sunday, Aug. 30, is both National Beach Day and National Toasted Marshmallow Day. Monday, Sept. 1, is
Labor Day, when we celebrate hard work by taking a day off – well, many of us get the day off.
Sept. 4 is a National Newspaper Carrier Day, a day that may soon go the way of National Coopers Day and National Blacksmith Day.
Thanks for spending some of your time with me, . I appreciate you. Mark
P.S. - This newsletter was 100 percent created by me, a human.
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