Organic Search Marketing

Where is your site in Google search?

Almost all companies now have an online presence, and for most it has become an integral part of the marketing and sales program. Once your internet presence needs to connect with new clientele outside you local or high visibility market, new prospects are most likely to find you through search engines. You need to adopt an SEM (Search Engine Marketing) program to ensure your site is being found by people looking for your products and services.

Online business is fast becoming an integral and expanding aspect of many companies, and the main point of contact between a consumer and the product or service they are seeking is often a search engine. If your business is to take advantage of this, you need to put into practice search engine marketing (SEM) strategies to maximize your web presence.

Web Search market share has been, and continues to be, dominated now by Google. In 2008 Google had 70% of search traffic, and continues to be the most important place to be found for your keywords. There are exception, but the numbers pretty much jump off the page! According to Nielsen’s December 2009 numbers, Google still commands almost 70% of search.

TopTenOrganicSearchProviders

Search engine marketing is about more than just generating high volumes of traffic to your website. Effective SEM allows you to make your website visible to potential customers who are interested in the products and services you have to offer, not just to the wolrld at large! This gives you the opportunity to present your business offer to customers just as they are thinking of making a purchase. The higher quality leads generated will go straight into better conversion.

Search Engine Marketing Strategies

Two of the most popular search engine marketing techniques are pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO). Between these two strategies you will understand the core concepts of the “A” (Affordable Lead Generation) in our ABC’s of Internet Marketing.

Pay Per Click

Pay per click describes advertising with search engines, social media or other channels for particular keyword phrases or targeting demographics and interests. Advertisers are charged a small fee every time a visitor clicks on their PPC ad. In essence, website owners have the opportunity to buy their way to better positions on search results pages and attract more traffic that way.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a term which has grown over the last few years to encompass a wide range of strategies and actions to attract quality traffic to your website. In the early days of the internet, it meant making changes to your website to ensure that the search engines could;

a) Find your website and

b) Rank it appropriately in their indexes.

Ranking was done according to a complex algorithm based on keywords, META tags, page content and the number and quality of incoming links from other sites.

These days, SEO includes a far more expansive set of potential actions to reach your target audience.

An SEO program can broadly be divided into two main areas:

1. On-page optimization – This involves making changes to the content and code behind the site to suit the main SEO factors. Common ways to do this are:

  • Inclusion of keywords in specific places on the page or website;
  • Developing themed sites;
  • Working with the internal link structure of the website to give certain pages and links added value in the eyes of the search engines;
  • Creating content which gives weight to certain keywords and phrases, and
  • Using headlines, bold text, underlined or italicized text and optimized copy.

2. Off-page optimization – These actions can include:

  • Link building with other sites (often known as ‘back links’);
  • Article marketing;
  • Posting threads to forums or blogs;
  • Syndicating content with other sites, and
  • Social media marketing.

Our Services

In western Canada, WSI’s SEO specialists will work with you to devise and set up an effective SEO campaign for your business. We combine elements of both on-page and off-page optimization. Your WSI managed SEO campaign can include:

  • Regularly checking your search engine positions;
  • Analysis of our actions and the quality of traffic coming to your site;
  • Content creation – blog writing, articles, press releases and web page content, and
  • Online promotion through a variety of actions to positively impact your business and strengthen your niche positioning.

Read our articles on search engine marketing or connect with your local WSI Consultant for more details.

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