Every day there are over 3.5 billion searches on Google, the UK’s most popular search engine. Search marketing provides an opportunity to get your product or service in front of these searchers.
It is estimated that over 80% of consumers and businesses now use search engines for researching purchases, so if you are not investing in search marketing, you could be missing out on business.
What is search marketing?
Also known as: Search Engine Marketing or SEM for short.
Search marketing is the practice of promoting your business or organisation through search engines. There’s two ways you can do this, through paid or non-paid search.
The image below shows paid and non-paid search results in Google for the term ‘home insurance’. The paid results are shaded blue. In this instance, all the advertisers shown have paid to appear when ‘home insurance’ is searched for.
Unlike traditional push marketing, search marketing allows you to market your products and services to potential customers when they’re looking for them. This means, when done effectively, search marketing can be extremely successful.
Search Engine Optimisation
Also known as: SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is the process of optimising your website to appear in the organic or natural search results for terms related to your business.
Unlike traditional push marketing, search marketing allows you to market your products and services to potential customers when they’re looking for them. This means, when done effectively, search marketing can be extremely successful.
Google and other search engine do not openly share their algorithm for ranking results, but they do share advice on how to improve your chances of ranking higher. This includes:
- Creating high quality content that people will want to link to and share
- Following best practice for structuring and naming your content.
Paid search marketing
Also known as: Pay Per Click or PPC for short
Paid search marketing is, as it sounds, paying to appear in the search results for certain terms. It is also often called Pay Per Click or PPC marketing as you only pay when a searcher clicks on your advert, not each time they are shown.
Where you appear on the page and how much you pay per click depends on a variety of factors, including the quality of your advert and landing page, plus how much your competitors are willing to pay per click.
Should I do SEO or PPC?
Potentially both. If you have a website, at the very least you should invest in basic organic SEO best practice. Supplementing this with paid search marketing gives you the best chance of appearing in search results for your target phrases.
Getting started with SEO and PPC
When we work with businesses on search marketing, we start with a free meeting to understand your situation, your customers and your goals.
Next we’ll work with you to research keywords, optimise your website and set up campaigns. We’ll also put in place analytics to measure your progress and train staff if needed.
