Understanding Marketing Volume IV: SEO and SEM

Posted by Stanley Malyszka, Marketing Manager, fi360, Inc. on August 05, 2015

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Before we get down to the nitty gritty, let’s first attack the difference between SEO and SEM.  SEM = Search Engine Marketing.  SEO = Search Engine Optimization.  Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is all marketing done through search engines to drive traffic to your site.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is focused on tailoring your website to improve your listing/ranking on search engines and drive traffic to your site organically.  Technically, SEO is a part of SEM but I like to distinguish the two and to view them as separate.  To me, SEO is driving traffic to your site through search engines organically (non-paid) by optimizing your website.  I see SEM as driving traffic to your site through search engines non-organically i.e. paying for ads on search engines.  You can differentiate however you would like but in the end there are two parts to SEM- paid and non-paid.  So, let’s start with the non-paid or SEO. 

If you’re reading this article because you think I’m going to break down all of Google’s and Bing’s algorithms and give the secret formula to beating the system, then you’re reading the wrong article.  It’s a waste of time and resources and it will only hurt you in the end (yes search engines will penalize you if they think you’re doing this).  You should focus your time on the basics and the things that are in your control.  The basic rule of SEO is to create relevant and topical content on your site that is easily digestible by consumers.  Be natural and write natural.  DO NOT keyword stuff.  Most of Google’s recent algorithmic changes are geared toward rewarding sites for being natural, being consumer friendly, and producing relevant, quality content.  There is a ton that goes into SEO but it consumes a lot of time to cover and takes some basic IT knowledge to understand (hence why SEO consultants exist).  If you’re like me, you don’t have the time to go over every little thing, so I’ve bulleted out a few points you should be aware of and follow below.  For a more detailed dive, you can also check out Google’s published starter guide.  And, if Google is telling what you need to focus on, then you should probably listen. 

• Make your site easy to navigate for consumers
  • Don’t you hate it when you go to a site and you can’t find anything or get lost?  Create your site’s structure based on your experiences
• Offer quality content and services
  • Trust in your product and/or services
  • Be natural
• Make sure your site is mobile friendly
  • More and more consumers are viewing sites via mobile devices and chances are their first impression of your site will be via mobile device vs. desktop
• Promote your site the right way
  • Don’t pay to have links to your site posted on millions of websites

Now let’s tackle SEM (what I consider paid).  Search Engine Marketing is similar to Social Media Paid Marketing where you are in control of how much you spend and who you target.  And, just like Social Media Paid Marketing, it’s completely automated so you can set it and forget it (again don’t ever forget it).  If you want to pay only $5/day, then that’s all you have to pay.  If you only want to target people searching for the phrase “Financial Advisors in Pittsburgh” and only want to target people searching from Pittsburgh then you can.  Very seldom do marketers get a marketing platform where they get this much control over budget and audience without mentioning that your ads will be showing on the most visited sites in the world. 

Bing and Google also have a couple of cool additional features that are great for non-marketing gurus.  Google allows you create display ads (including remarketing ads) in conjunction with your search ads which makes the pot even sweeter.  Ever see an ad on a site with a little blue triangle in the corner?  That’s most likely a Google display ad.  They also have an ad creator which will scan your site and create an online ad for you for free that you can modify without graphic design skills required.  Bing on the other hand allows you to create vanity phone numbers that redirect to your phone number.  You can use these numbers across all of your marketing channels allowing you to track marketing campaigns without having to add additional telecom costs.  Now, with both Google and Bing SEM, there are few intricacies that you should be aware of:

1. Your paid ad is only as good as the content on your site
   1. Google and Bing score your site for how relevant it is to each keyword you select and the lower the score the less likely your ad is to pop on the first results page or two
2. You can be outbid
   1. Search engines determine which ads to pop in which order based on relevance of content and bid amount

Whether you decide to utilize SEM or not, SEO is something that you should and need to address.  Again, you don’t have to get crazy and spend a gazillion dollars on an SEO consultant.  Trust your product, be natural and don’t try to cheat the system, deliver content that people want, and be consumer friendly and you’ve got a solid SEO foundation. 

Thanks for checking in again.  In the next installment, we’ll explore Remarketing/Retargeting.  Keep an eye out!