Improve how your site interacts with search engines, so your target audience can find you.
What is search engine marketing ?
Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to the overall process of marketing a website on search engines. This includes submitting the right ad, optimising it well through style and placement, and ensuring it ranks highly in searches by paying for priority positioning where possible. But it doesn’t end there.
It’s also about improving how your site interacts with search engine overall so your target audinec can find you. SEM is a continual process and not a one-off task. For that reason, while many samll business owners choose to manage their own SEM, some may decide thie is an area better left to experts.
What are search engines ?
Crawler/ spider-based search engines, such as Google create their listings automatically. They « crowl » or « spider » the web according to the search request and present the searcher with a list of all releted links found. People then search though thier findings for the most relevant results.
How quickly is your business found, and where your business ends up in search results, will generally depend on how closely matched your business is to the search query and how easy your website is to find by the crawler or spider. Changing your web pages can impact the way you are found and listed which is one reason why sometimes you might suddenly have more traffic after a change to your site. Page tittles, text and other elements can all play a role.
Search engines can also make changes to the way their crawlers begave which can also impact the way you are found- this is one opf the reasons why search engine iptimisation is one a one-off task.
How search engines work
When you search for anything using your favourite crowler or spider based search engine, the search engine sahll sort through the millions of pages it can find and present you with the results related in some way to your topic. The matches should also be ranked, so the most relevant ones come firts.
Of course, the search engine don’t always get it right. None- relevant pages make it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what you are looking for. Crawler/ spider- based search engines go about determining the relevancy by following a set of rules, known as an « algorithm » search engines are unlikely to share their rules or algorithms because it is a key ingredient in determining which search engines work better and who has the most successful search results. They can change the way their algorithm is set which can affect the way the crawler or spider behaves as mentioned earlier. This in turn can impact the way your site is listed and ranked. One way to help ensure your listing is not impacted by these changes is to pay for your placement.
Search engine submission : listing your business
Search engine submission means having your website listed with search engines. This does not neccessary mean you will rank well every time, but search engines shoud be able to locate your site.
Two ways you can get listed with search engines are :
- Search engine optimisation (SEO) – This means adapting your site and employing methods to help increase your chance of being found for free.
- Paid-for listing , also known as « pay-per-click » or « pay-for-performance » we will call them P4P.
Search Engine Optimisation
The location and frequency of keywords on your web page can help or hinder your listing on search engines. An Algorithm may assume your website is more relevant than your competitor’s because the search them is in your website address or at the top of your home page whereas the same search term does noyt appear until your competitor’s third page. This means every word on your website can impact your business chances of being found. So it is important to ensure you consider the relevance for information when you are designing your website.
Frequency can also play a role in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine might analyse how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page, Those with a higher frequency might be deemed more relevant than other web pages, Some search engines « index » or collect more web pages than others. Some search engines also index web pages more often than others. The result is that no searh engine has the exact same collection of web pages to search through. That naturally produces differences, when comparing their results.
Search engines may also penalise pages or exclude them from the index, if they detect search engine « spamming ». An example is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, to increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings. Search engines can watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways, including following up on complaints from their users.
Pay-per-click (PPC)
Generally search engines offer some form of PPC listing service. If managed well, PPC advertising can be one of the most cost-effective marketing solutions for businesses on the internet. Unlike SEO, PPC provides the opportunity to ensure a higher ranking on search engines in return for a fee. Website owners can usually bid for keywords so can determine how much they are prepared to spend.
Search engines can also place a minimum price point on page placements to ensure top spots are not being sold too cheaply in the case where there is only one person bidding. Search engine might also offer reduced prices for websites with a high –click through. This means popular sites aren’t deterred from advertising because they have to pay every time someone selects them. ( This means an advertiser with a high click-through rate might pay less in positioning #1 than an advertiser in position #2 with a lower click-through rate). When someone enters a keyword in search engine, ads are usually displayed. The highest ranking ad is likely to be determine by a combination of relevance Click-through rate (popularity) and the amount paid.
The highest bid can usually ensure a high place than everyone else, but may only guarantee you the highest placement if you have paid the minimum fee for that spot based also on the site’s click-through rate. Importantly, through , PPC means website owners don’t pay unless the person searching actually selects their ad. To help increase your options of ranking highly in cost-effective manner, it is important to build up a strong click-through rate. A good way to do this is to ensure your site is user –friendly and promote it so people are more likely to recognize it and click on it when they see it.
Okapi Digital Marketing 