One of the greatest assets to your business – Part 2

In our last blog post we got you up to speed with the importance of having a professionally developed website that’s backed by a well thought out digital strategy. We also gave you an overview on a few relevant terms such as keywords, SEO and SEM, amongst others.

And now that you’re across what they mean, we want to explain in a little more detail how they come into play with your website and why it’s never been more important to have a strategy in place that covers these key areas.

Get to know SEO

SEO or as you now know, search engine optimisation, is about increasing visibility in search engine results organically. Keywords, which of course you also know, are the words that people use to search for your product or services. They’re an important factor in helping your SEO performance, but they’re not the only ones.

When it comes to your SEO strategy you also need to consider additional things such as the way other websites link back to your website and the way your site is structured in the backend. To have an SEO enhanced website, isn’t just a matter of loading your pages with relevant keywords, it’s also about creating a really great user experience as well.

A site with poor SEO performance can often translate to a business with poor performance and this is why it’s so important to have a good handle on SEO, or to work with a partner that does.

SEM simplified

SEM or Search Engine Marketing is about promoting a business using paid ads that appear in search engine results. Advertisers bid on keywords that users might enter into search engines, like Google or Bing, when trying to find a particular product or service online.

SEM gives advertisers the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside organic results for search queries. One of the greatest benefits of using SEM is that it provides advertisers with the chance to put their products and services in front of customers who are already interested.

Google Adwords is one of the most common platforms for advertising on search engines. SEM is paid on a cost-per-click basis, bidding against others on the same keyword. A live digital auction is run, whenever a search query is made. Ads are triggered when keyword are searched for with enough volume and advertisers.

SEO vs SEM

While both are designed to increase traffic to your site, the main difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO is designed to increase your ranking organically, i.e. without paying. For a further breakdown of their differences, check out the table below.

To determine if an SEO, SEM or combined approach is best for your business really comes down to your business goals, your budget and resources. If in doubt on which path is best for your business, why not talk to a specialist. Catch us at  hey@wildandfreemedia.com.au