Monthly Archives: March 2018

What’s the Difference Between SEO and SEM?

A while back Search Engine Marketing (SEM) was used as an all-encompassing term that included both paid search marketing and Search Engine Optimization. Today, more and more search marketing experts are referring to the two terms with an increasing degree of separation. So, what does SEM mean now?

Search Engine Marketing

Today, experts in the field have adopted SEM as shorthand for ‘paid search’. This encompasses the following advertising terminology:

Pay Per Click (PPC): This is a type of advertisement that charges the company placing the ad based on the total number of clicks on that ad. Each click costs a pre-ordained amount of money.

CPM: Also known as cost per thousand impressions, relies on a slightly different strategy. Instead of paying per click, companies pay the search engine a set rate based on how many people (measured in thousands) have seen the ad.

Google AdWords: This is a platform that allows advertisers to access Google real estate with their ads. Marketers decide which keywords to target their ads for, then Google places them in the appropriate results pages.

How does this differ from SEO?

Search Engine Optimization

This category involves an organic marketing approach. When people think of SEO, they tend to gravitate toward the following ideas:

Content: Companies publishing 16 or more articles to their blog each month receive 3.5 the amount of traffic as companies that post zero to four blogs each month. Content marketing is a staple of SEO.

Keywords: The content also needs to indicate what the website is about. There’s a lot more than meets the eye involved with choosing keywords for an online business, but suffice it to say that keywords are integrated into content to point Google toward a website.

Links: Links also point to web pages, indicating how relevant they are. A link to your site from another reputable site will tell Google that your site is probably important.

The difference between SEO and SEM is different than what it was in the past, yet they share a close relationship. Both tactics, paid and organic, are executed on the same platform. The goal for a digital marketing company is to capitalize on the vast amount of search engine traffic that occurs every day.

Top 5 Characteristics To Look For When Choosing An SEO Firm

choosing an seo firmAs always, there are a number of different online marketing strategies that can help generate leads. One of the most important of all, however, is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Over half (53%) of marketers say content creation for blogs is the most important inbound marketing priority. When choosing an SEO firm for your business’s blog, you should make sure they can do the following.

  1. Keyword Research
    A good SEO company will do thorough research to identify the most effective keywords for their client’s product. While ‘fast cars’ might be what your company sells, that keyword is highly competitive. Keyword research will reveal the intersection of what your company sells and what keywords are more accessible to rank on. This could include local SEO terminology like ‘fast cars near me’ or particular brands or specification.
  2. Backlinks
    One of the biggest ranking factors for a website on Google is the number of other websites that link back to it. When choosing an SEO firm, you must make sure they have a strategy to generate these links. A while back this was fairly easy to accomplish by building a bunch of dummy websites and spam linking to clients. Today, Google’s algorithm is much more sophisticated, making this technique obsolete. Backlinks need to come from trusted, well-ranked websites to be helpful.
  3. Data Tracking
    In order to know if the content marketing is effective, the SEO firm you choose must provide data tracking tools. This can include organic clicks per week, backlinks generated, conversion metrics, and specific keyword efficacy.
  4. Frequency
    Any good SEO firm knows that you must consistently and frequently update a blog for these strategies to be effective. Make sure to choose one that is capable of regular posting at a volume commensurate with your SEO goals.
  5. Content Length
    Studies have shown that long-form content consistently ranks higher than short form content. You can test this by simply Googling anything at all. Open the first three links on the results page, and do a visual assessment of their length. Then go to page two and do the same thing. You will more than likely find that top page rankings are much longer than those on page two.

 
These are not the only things to look for when choosing an SEO firm, but they certainly make up a huge chunk of the important ranking factors. Search Engine Optimization is far from an exact science since it is an ever-changing landscape. Perhaps after you know that an SEO firm is capable of the above practices, the next most important quality is adaptability. Google changes its algorithm so frequently that the ability to adapt in the SEO space is the x-factor that can give one digital marketing company the edge.