Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search engines, specifically Google, are solidifying their place as the backbone of the Internet more and more over time. The average Internet user knows where to find their personal media online, whether their social network includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, SnapChat, LinkedIn, and/or Pinterest. But as soon as that Internet user is looking for something that they don’t know where to find—the answer to that question can be most reliably and expeditiously found with a handful of keystrokes and the click of a search button.

This means for every business trying to court new and existing customers online, the more well represented your business is on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP for short), the more likely you are to engage with consumers in your target audience to market your products and services when they need it most.

The Other Side of a Search Button

Once an organic search is conducted, the search results are delivered intelligently and in different ways. By now, Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, has evolved to give businesses the best and most opportunities to market through search engines as those search engine’s algorithms and crawlers will allow. This includes the growing practice of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, which is the art and science of improving your website content’s visibility.

To have a robust and effective digital marketing strategy, a business should seek to promote their website and associated pages to increase their overall digital visibility in SERPs by means of both Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.

The Real Results: Optimize To the Prize

The most logical and straightforward component of a results page is the natural results. These are presented based on the search engine’s specific algorithm that provides the search user with precisely what she or he is looking for. This is the inherent goal of a search engine—to make your search experience quick and easy.

Technology has allowed business intelligence-forward organizations to improve their visibility by learning how to work within the algorithms in order to reach their customers. This allows them to provide appropriate content that addresses questions customers may be seeking to answer, and establish authority amongst other websites as the source of reliable content, products, and services. SEO practices are by now well established and are constantly adjusting and rewriting web content to continually achieve higher rankings on search engine results pages and often times, Pay per Click (PPC) results as well.

Advantages of Search Engine Optimization

Most businesses prioritize Search Engine Optimization practices over paid advertising for a number of reasons. Most importantly, manipulating a website’s SEO requires no financial expenditure. Endless resources on how to boost SEO and improve visibility on SERPs are available on the Internet, lead by the search engines themselves. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide is a comprehensive deck of resources that describes how to maximize SEO through web programming in great detail. Based on the complexity of this Guide, implementing strategic and technical SEO enhancements is no easy feat. On the bright side, it’s in Google’s best interest that you do it well, so there is a great deal of support resources available as well. of resources that describes how to maximize SEO through web programming in great detail. Based on the complexity of this Guide, implementing strategic and technical SEO enhancements is no easy feat. On the bright side, it’s in Google’s best interest that you do it well, so there is a great deal of support resources available as well.

When The Clicks Cost

Another important component of understanding Search Engine Marketing is understanding how paid advertising interplays with Search Engine Optimization techniques and natural search results. PPC advertising is the practice of paying for advertising in the form of search results. The PPC ad model operates such that businesses purchase ad space in the form of search results from the search engine. From a marketer’s perspective, a fix cost is only incurred when the ad is clicked.

Specifically in Google, AdWords ad posts most often appear at the top of search results pages in a lightened yellow box. These display ads (also known as “banner ads” or “sponsored ads”) appear near the organic search results, in the location the search engine or website has designated for high-impact ad placements.

More on AdWords (While We’re At It)

The dominant platform for PPC advertising on the internet is Google’s AdWords. AdWords, currently Google’s primary source of revenue, provides highly targeted advertising in local, national, and international markets that allow for written, banner, and multi-media advertisements. Because Google’s search engine algorithms are constantly evolving—as are those of other search engines—PPC is a rapidly evolving practice that includes its own official Google resource to keep marketers savvy to the best ways to maximize their ad campaign goals through PPC advertising.

Given the complexity and evolving nature of Search Engine Optimization and Marketing practices, any business should focus their digital marketing efforts by understanding what SEO practices would achieve their specific business goals. From there, a thoughtful and layered digital strategy can make search engines work for you, including layering in paid SEM strategies as needed once SEO practices are achieving goals.