Search Engine Optimization

Search marketing, comprised of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is changing the way that companies elevate their online presence and increase overall brand awareness.

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines through natural and unpaid search results. One of the benefits of SEO is that the process can target different kinds of search, including image, local and industry-specific vertical search engines. For marketers, this is a great strategy for improving the total amount of visitors to a web site, as well as to increase the likelihood that this web traffic includes more qualified prospects. If your website is not optimized for search, you will miss an opportunity to build business exposure, enhance your reputation and increase the visibility of your web site.

But an SEO campaign can be complex to both understand, and employ. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for on a daily basis. With this information in hand, the process of optimization primarily involves the editing of web site content and HTML coding to increase the site’s relevance to specific keywords and remove barriers that exist with the indexing activities of search engines. It also involves regularly increasing the number of external “inbound” links that point back to pages on your website.

PPC on the other hand, is an internet advertising model. Typically, advertisers pay their host website only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers bid on keyword phrases that are relevant to their audiences. Content sites charge a fixed price- per-click rather than use a bidding system.

Web sites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called “sponsored links” or “sponsored ads,” and appear adjacent to, or above, organic results on search engine result pages. On a content site, these links can appear anywhere a web developer chooses.

So what if you are not utilizing PPC advertising? Well, you are missing an opportunity to build business awareness (including the availability of your products or services), and increase the online presence of your brand.

But you still may be considering questions like:

• How do I develop a search marketing strategy that is tied to business objectives?
• How much time and internal resources do I need to dedicate to an effective campaign?
• How do I utilize SEO to enhance business development efforts?
• What keywords are relevant to my organization and industry?
• How do I decide on which search engines to advertise?

When a sound strategy is developed, search marketing can help you accomplish many things for your organization including: creating awareness, generating leads, positioning your company as a thought leader, increasing revenue, aiding employee recruitment, improving brand and website visibility, increasing the quality and number of visitors to your website, heightening trust in your brand and aiding business development efforts.

While these benefits are significant, the development and implementation of the strategies may seem daunting. That’s why our agency is a great place for you to start. Our job is to answer all of your questions (like the ones above), and to help you start understanding how and why you need to be involved in SEO.

How do we do this? We start by listening to you and developing an understanding of your organization’s goals and objectives. Our clients primarily ask us for help with the following search marketing services:

• Search engine optimization
• Pay-per-click advertising

Our engagements last anywhere from four weeks to 12 months, and depending upon your needs and terms, our fees can vary greatly. To see if we are a good fit for your organization, you can call, email, inmail, fax, friend, @ reply, DM (once we follow you), comment on our blog, send a smoke signal, release a carrier pigeon, or just click on the link below. We look forward to engaging in a meaningful conversation with you!