Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Marketing. Very effective. Very different.
“What is the difference? How can we know which is going to be most effective for our company or product?”
Simple question. Very complex answer. We’ll try to make it short and sweet.
Search Engine Optimization -
What it is and how it works:
Here’s a typical client conversation. It sheds some light on what SEO is and what it is not:
Client: “When I type [this series of words] in to Google, our Website does not come up on the first page of the free/organic search results (not including any keyword advertisements we may be running). Our competition does. Why?”
Eight Eleven: “Your competition has thousands, or tens of thousands of links on other Websites, that link back to their Website. These links are embedded on other Websites within targeted keywords (key search terms) and link back to your competitor’s Website, to their homepage and also to other specific keyword rich content pages where the actual name of the Web page, on the server, contains the targeted keyword, the H1 tag on the page contains the keyword, the page title contains the keyword and the content written on the page, also contains the keyword.”
Client: “So, it sounds like links coming in to our Website, which include targeted key search terms are critical. And also having our Website optimized to be using those key search terms, is also essential.”
Eight Eleven: “Yes, absolutely.”
Client: “What if I can get a thousand Websites to link to me and then put links out to those thousand Websites, on my Website. So, we’re all linking back and forth to one another. Will this work?”
Eight Eleven: “Not anymore. This is called reciprocal link placement. Just recently, Google’s algorithm (which determines a Websites pagerank and organic search results), started ignoring how many reciprocal links a Website has. Essentially, reciprocal links cancel one another out.”
Client: “OK. So, how did our competition get thousands of other Websites to link to their Website? How did they get all of those links to include key search terms? How did they get all of the pages on their Website to have the page name, H1 tags, page title and content to all use those key search terms?”
Eight Eleven: “This is Search Engine Optimization. Your competition has spent hundreds or thousands of hours working to create links in to their Website, optimize content and tags on their Website and compete, on a daily basis (ongoing) for their organic rank (position) in Google. They most likely outsourced this effort to a company that does SEO work – and does it very well.”
Client: “This sounds like a lot of work.”
Eight Eleven: “It certainly is a lot of work. This is why SEO generally requires a healthy budget. It takes a lot of people a lot of time to build all of these links and to optimize a Website for all of the key search terms. It’s also an ongoing effort – one that requires daily maintenance.”
Client: “What about social media? If we use Twitter and Facebook to generate thousands of links in to our Website (using these key search terms, of course) and can get others to repost our Facebook messages and retweet our Twitter messages, thousands of times, will this boost our SEO? If we write an article and this article is picked up and republished by hundreds of blogs and other Websites, and within the article, we use key search terms, which all link back to our Website, will this boost our SEO?”
Eight Eleven: “Yes! Social media is a great way to generate links to your Website. Of course, in order to be effective with social media, you’re going to need a large audience of “followers” and “evangelists” that will redistribute your content on your behalf. Generating this loyal following is one of the most difficult and time consuming efforts involved in social media. Once you have a loyal following of evangelists, if 1) you post (to Facebook, a blog or Twitter) one small article (which contains a couple embedded links to your Websites) and 2) your content is timely and relevant to your audience, then 3) your follows may repost this a hundred times – creating a hundred new links in to your Website. This is SEO gold!”
Client: “What happens if we do SEO and get our Website on the first page of Google, then stop the SEO campaign. Will our Website stay on the first page of Google? If yes, for how long?”
Eight Eleven: “Yes, you will stay on the first page of Google. However, for how long – this cannot be predicted. It depends heavily on what your competition is doing. If you are competing for placement on the first page of Google, using highly sought after and competitive key search terms, and are competing against other Websites that are continually optimizing for those key search terms on a daily basis, you may stay on the first page of Google for a month, for a week, or even for a day. Within a couple days, you could drop off of the first page. It depends on how persistent your competition is – and how effective their SEO programs are.”
Client: “It sounds like, if we want to stay on the first page of Google, we need to continue our SEO programs on a monthly basis.”
Eight Eleven: “Yes, this is correct. We cannot guarantee that we can keep you on the first page of Google unless we continue our SEO efforts on a weekly/daily basis.”
Client: “Will paying for keyword advertising or Web advertising have any effect on SEO? Will having various keyword advertising campaigns running in Google and having hundreds of other Websites running ads that link back to my Website, improve my organic pagerank and placement on the first page in Google?”
Eight Eleven: “No – these efforts will have no influence whatsoever. Google does not count advertising as a link in it’s organic pagerank algorithms.”
Client: “Let’s say we start an SEO campaign today. How soon will we be on the first page of Google?”
Eight Eleven: “This typically takes 60-90 days, and depending on the competitive nature of the key search terms, can even take up to 120 days of daily SEO efforts.”
Client: “That seems like a long time. What if I want to be on the first page of Google today?”
Eight Eleven: “This is search engine marketing (SEM), also known as pay per click marketing or keyword advertising. Google’s service is called Adwords. Yahoo! and Bing have their own advertising platforms. We can bid against other Websites and essentially pay to be a “featured sponsor” or “advertiser link” on top of Google. Depending on the competitive nature of some key search terms, pay per click rates for highly sought after keyword strings may run anywhere from $1.00 per click, up to $25.00 per click and higher. In a Wall Street Journal article, CPC (cost per click) rates for the search term “DUI Attorney Phoenix” was noted as running $65.00 PER CLICK! Google does not charge you to set up a campaign. They also do not charge you to display an ad. The only charge you when someone clicks on your ad to come to your Website.”
Client: “So, should we be doing SEO, SEM or some combination of both?”
Eight Eleven: “This really depends on how valuable a “click” is to you – and how well you can convert a click in to a sales lead or active customer. It should be noted – organic search engine results (achieved through SEO) tend to receive 8x more click throughs than paid search engine marketing (pay per click: PPC) campaigns. Often, it is not possible for a company to pay for SEO to optimize their Website for all required key search terms. As such, our most common recommendation is one of a blended effort: SEO for key search terms that can be obtained cost effectively and SEM for key search terms that would require a budget with an ROI that doesn’t quite add up.”
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Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Marketing. Web advertising. How can we know which is going to be most effective for our company or product?
The answer comes down to a few variables:
- What is your average cost of customer acquisition?
- What is the lifetime value of your average customer?
- How does the value and profitability of this customer change over time?
- What is your customer retention rate?
Of course, the answers to these questions are different for each and every client. Therefore, it is impossible to provide a blanket response. The best strategy is usually a blend between all efforts. At Eight Eleven, we consult with our clients to explore each opportunity, assign opportunity cost and make recommendations for the best blend of online marketing campaigns.