SEM vs SEO – Finally The Truth About Which Traffic Getting Strategy Is Best For Your Business

Are you a business owner looking for growth?

Growing your business online means reaching more people as they search online for your type of product or service.

To increase your reach, you will need more traffic. The main traffic sources are online paid advertising or free organic search listings.

But which traffic model is better?

Stick around as we are going to rip apart each of them to determine which is best for your business.

Within the industry, the debate as to which is better has gone on for years.

Opinions vary, and it depends on who you talk to. Some people will swear black and blue that a paid traffic campaign is the way to go.

While others will say you should focus on organic using search engine optimization.

Either way, both traffic models require an investment on your part.

One thing to mention is that we are an SEO agency. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the bottom of which traffic model is better.

I think you’ll be surprised at what our recommendation actually is!

IT’S ALL ABOUT GOOGLE

As you know, you can pay for traffic from places like Twitter or Facebook or even Bing.

You can also acquire new visitors from people that have been referred to you or clicked on a link from other websites.

But for the purpose of this discussion today, we’re going to primarily talk about Google.

Let’s face it, Google is the boss of the Internet. In fact, worldwide they own 75 percent of market share of all the search engines combined.

They’re even more dominant in Australia, having nearly 90% market share!

So if we’re looking for traffic, we need to knock on Google’s door and try and acquire traffic from them. After all, that’s where your customers are shopping, aren’t they?

When we’re talking about paid traffic, we’re actually talking about their Adwords advertising Platform. Organic traffic refers that which comes via their listings of websites below their ads.

Just to get our bearings, think about what you see after you search on Google.

Right up the top of the page, you’ll see their advertisements. There are usually three or four.

Below that, you’ll probably see, depending on what you search, some shopping ads or perhaps a Google Map or some business listings.

Following all of that are the organic listings.

Now that we have a basic understanding of how Google’s search page is structured, there is another thing you need to keep in mind.

Whether you opt for a paid traffic model or an organic model, here’s an interesting fact.

75 percent of all the traffic that searches on Google, do not go past that first page.

Whatever model you choose, please understand that for any real value, you need to be on page one of Google.

If you’re not on page one, you might as well be invisible.

PAGE ONE OF GOOGLE

So let’s get a better understanding of what we’re aiming for.

As we’ve just established you really need to get your listing, whether it’s paid or organic, on page one.

After all, that’s where 75 percent of the traffic is.

Following on from that, you need your listing to show up as high as possible on that first page.

Here’s an example that’ll help me explain why.

Think about your local Sunday flea market in your area. Just imagine you are a vendor with a bunch of products that you want to sell.

It makes sense to want your stall to be positioned in the best spot, doesn’t it?. You want to be where most of the people congregate or walk by.

So it makes sense then, that you will probably need to pay more to get that spot.

Alternatively, the market organizer could also decide to invite other vendors to their market. Perhaps these vendors are popular and have highly sought after products.

The difference is, these “invited” vendors are not charged for their stalls. The reason is that, according to the market organizers opinion, these vendors will add value to their Sunday market.

After all, the market organizer wants to put on the best market possible, to ensure it attracts more and more people to it. The way they do this is by ensuring it offers the best possible experience for its visitors.

This is very similar to how Google works.

All the action is on page one.

So you can either pay for a listing to appear on those top three or four advertising positions. Or Google, at their own discretion, can list your website there for free.

By appearing on one of the organic listings, you can consider it as though Google is sponsoring your website to be seen on page one.

At the end of the day, Google owns the traffic that occurs on their website. Just like the market organizer is in charge of their flea market.

Since most of your potential customers are using them to look for your products and services, you have a choice.

You can either pay to use their AdWords platform. Or you can improve the quality and relevance of your website so that Google will sponsor a position for you on page one.

Either way, the question still remains. Which is going to be the best investment for your business?

Pay Per Click or Organic SEO?

Before rushing out and investing in a paid or organic traffic campaign, here’s what you need to do.

What are your goals?

Start by getting very clear about what your goals are. Are you looking for super quick sales? Are you wanting to see quick and fast results? Or are you looking at building long-term relationships within your marketplace?

Perhaps you’re interested in a branding campaign and you just want to increase your brand awareness.

Know Your Numbers

On top of that, you also need to be very clear on what your numbers are.

You need to know what your lifetime value is for each customer because knowing your numbers it can make it a lot easier to determine which traffic model is going to best suit your particular business model.

Also, by knowing your numbers it’s going to make it easier to decide whether you should run a paid or an organic marketing campaign.

By knowing your numbers, it will enable you to know exactly how much you can spend to acquire each customer.

PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING

So let’s look at the paid traffic model first.

The beauty of PPC marketing or using Adwords (SEM), is that you can get fast and immediate results.

Simply by signing up to the AdWords program, entering in your ads and telling Google what keywords you’re targeting, you can get your message right up at the top of each search results page.

The other nice thing about AdWords is that you can tailor your messages specifically to the searchers’ query.

This is perfect, particularly to capture those people who are searching and ready to buy a particular product or service similar to yours.

The other benefit of a paid traffic campaign is that it enables you to test your landing pages very quickly. You can set up a campaign and drive a lot of traffic to it, and get quick results to see how well that page converts.

And the other nice thing is that you don’t need to worry about any changes to the Google algorithm, as compared to an organic campaign.

You set up your ad and it’s ready to go.

Although using the AdWords platform is very easy, you need to be very very careful when using it.

If you don’t know what you’re doing it can become a very expensive very quickly!

Once-upon-a-time Adwords was the go-to choice as far as traffic generation.

I recall back in 2004, we were getting one and two cent clicks!

This means that it was costing us only one or two cents to get each person to visit our website.

The ROI was incredible!

Unfortunately, as the competition grew, so did the PPC cost.

It’s certainly not as cheap anymore.

Running an AdWords campaign does require significant care and attention. You need to manage it with a fine tooth comb.

The best way to perform SEM via Adwords is to focus on only those “intent” to purchase keywords.

By targeting those people that are ready and itching to buy your product or service, you can significantly reduce your cost per acquisition.

You can craft your ad copy to only appeal to those that are ready to buy. Also, by targeting “Intent” keywords only, you can achieve a positive ROI.

Of course, it goes without saying, that you must be actively testing and tracking your campaigns.

It is NOT a set-and-forget activity. You must remain active in constantly trying to improve not only your ad copy but also your keyword selection.

If you have a business model that has a high lifetime value per customer, then PPC it’s probably a good option for you.

However, you need to remember that as competition increases, the cost per click is also going to rise as well.

But like all things, you need to constantly test it to ensure the AdWords platform is delivering the best ROI for your business.

ORGANIC SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Organic search traffic, on the other hand, is a much slower alternative to generating traffic.

As we’ve already discussed, you must aim to get on page one of Google’s search page.

The interesting thing to note about Google is that you and I, and everyone else for that matter, have learned to trust the results that we get from Google.

In fact, that’s part of the reason why Google has become so dominant. It’s because they are by far, the best at what they do!

They seem to reliably deliver the most relevant and quality websites for each of us when we search.

So it’s fair to say, that now when people search on Google they have a higher level of trust for the results that they deliver.

We tend to think that if Google is listing a website on the first page, then that website must be an excellent website for us to visit.

Therefore if your website is listed on page one, then that trust and credibility are automatically implied over to your business.

People, like you and I, may think, oh well, if Google thinks this website is good for me, then it must be a good business.

Another positive in favour of an organic campaign is that you can generate a lot more traffic than you can with a paid advertisement.

You can target many many more keywords with search engine optimization.

This makes it a far more cost-effective approach to traffic generation. This is because it enables you to target all phases of your customers buying cycle.

As more and more of your web pages are indexed and ranked on page one, your marketplace will soon recognize you as the expert and the thought leader within your space.

This is not only going to increase your credibility, but also increase the trust of your brand. And this increase in the volume of traffic is obviously going to increase your exposure and branding awareness as well.

With all that said, achieving organic listings on page one can take time.

You need to be prepared for at least a four to a six-month timeframe in order for your SEO activities to actually take effect.

It is a slow process and of course, there aren’t any guarantees at the end of the day. It’s Google’s decision who they rank on page one.

It’s up to you to prove to Google that your page offers the quality, value and also relevance, for the search terms that you want to rank for.

An organic campaign using Search Engine Optimization requires constant effort and constant work.

It is not only a gradual process but it must be a consistent one. Contrary to what a lot of people will tell you, it is not a free traffic model.

Organic traffic is not free because there are costs involved to achieve ranking positions on page one.

It does take time and money.

Another thing to consider is that it’s difficult to determine the true ROI of an SEO campaign.

Although one way to determine its value is to compare your monthly SEO cost to the revenue obtained via organic traffic sources.

SEM MARKETING vs SEO

So how do they compare?

Either way, whether you pursue paid or an organic traffic model, they are both seeing increased levels of competition.

Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse.

As more and more businesses come online, the level of competition for page one, whether it’s paid or organic is going to skyrocket.

From an advertiser’s perspective, this means that your cost per click is going to increase.

Let’s face it, it already has.

Similarly for your organic listings. It’s going to get harder and harder to prove to Google that your website is better than your competitors.

Google only needs to select 8 to 10 websites for page one.

Do your numbers. Then determine if there a viable ROI via a paid campaign.

Look at the cost per click to get one visitor to come to your website versus the revenue you can attain from a sale.

As an example, if you spend $500 per day on Adwords and you make one sale, and that sale generates $5000 for your business, then it makes sense to target your traffic via Adwords.

However, the reverse is also true.

If you’re spending $500 a day in PPC advertising, but each sale only generates $200, then it doesn’t make sense. You don’t need to be a mathematician to realize that you’ll go out of business in no time.

It’s also true for SEO.

If you’re paying $5,000 a month to an SEO agency which yields $50,000 a month in sales, then you’d keep doing it wouldn’t you?

Of course, if it doesn’t after six months, then you’d stop.

But either way, you need to understand that there is a race for those positions on page one.

Whether paid or organic, the competition is increasing every day.

WHICH GETS MORE TRAFFIC – GOOGLE PPC or ORGANIC SEO?

As we said earlier 75 percent of all of the traffic terminates on page one.

This means they will not click to go to page two. All of that traffic will find its destination on page one.

But it doesn’t mean that if your website is listed on page one, you’re going to get all of that traffic.

Even paying for an advertisement on page one is not going to get you all of all that traffic.

In fact, did you know that only two to six percent of all of the traffic that hits page one will actually click on an AdWords ad?

It’s quite surprising when you think of it. That’s not a very high percentage, is it?

However, in saying that, it is not necessarily a bad thing either.

Most people are quite shy when it comes to seeing an advertisement online. No one likes to be sold, do they?

PPC is very expensive – so you actually don’t want everyone to click on your ad.

This is why you need to cleverly target the right keywords, and use copy that speaks to only those that are ready to buy.

For those two to six percent that do click on an ad, they are (ideally) more likely to be buyers with intent to purchase rather than window shoppers.

Even though the traffic numbers won’t be as high as an advertising campaign, you’re more likely to be attracting those that are ready to buy.

On the other hand, an organic traffic campaign gives you the opportunity to target the entire buying cycle.

Ranking your pages on page one means you can attract your entire market, and build brand authority and credibility.

Although we mentioned you need to get on page one, most of the traffic is actually in the top three positions.

Over 50 percent of the traffic on Google, will go to positions one, two or three.

So if you are targeting your traffic via an organic method, you should really be aiming for positions 1-3 because that’s where the majority of the traffic is.

KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORGANIC AND PAID SEARCH

Are you still a little undecided as to whether you should pursue a paid or an organic traffic model?

Let me give you another example.

Do you recall a little earlier when I gave you the example of the local Sunday flea market?

How for most people, if they wanted to have a stall, they’re going to need to pay for it. But what would happen if they don’t pay?

It would be a bit like paying rent.

If you don’t pay, then you’re out of there. This is the same with PPC advertising.

If you stop paying, your traffic stops.

But what about those vendors that had their market stalls sponsored? So long as they continued to provide value to the market, they would continue to be invited at no charge. Of course, the market organizer will have the final say as to where their spot is.

I’m guessing the best vendors will be given the best spots. Don’t you agree?

This is the same with Google.

Google will rank websites higher if they think they offer more value to the visitor.

The higher you rank, the more traffic you’ll get.

Although it takes longer to acquire top ranking positions, they also last longer.

If you stop paying Google AdWords your traffic will stop dead. No more traffic. No pay, no play.

If you run an SEO campaign for 12 months and then stop, your rankings on page one will continue.

So for all of that time and effort invested to earn that page one position, you will keep it, so long as Google continues to find your website better than your competitors.

But remember that it’s a race for page one.

If you stop your SEO, someone else is probably running behind you and planning to take over your position.

THE PERFECT TRAFFIC MODEL FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Are you ready for our recommendation?

Drum roll, please…

The big question you’re wondering is, which is better? Should you focus on a paid advertising campaign or should you put all your effort into SEO for an organic strategy?

As we have already mentioned, we are an SEO agency that promotes search engine optimization.

However, our recommendation might be a little surprising to you.

You might expect us to suggest that you should only focus on SEO. But we cant.

You see, we love the Google advertising platform. It’s fast, it’s easy to use and you can see results right away.

If you prepare your targeting correctly, you can directly reach out to the buyers in your market at the exact time when they’re ready to buy!

Who doesn’t want that?

On the other hand, with organic traffic, you can build a relationship with your market, by targeting the entire buying cycle. It’d be too expensive to do that with PPC.

This would mean you could reach out to more of your market, including all the window shoppers.

You can target those that are in the comparison or research phase of their buying cycle.

With the organic model, you can build relationships and nurture your leads.

You can’t do that with PPC. Well, actually you could if you have deep pockets!

In summary, one method is not and never will be better than the other. And this is coming from an SEO agency!

The method that is right for you depends on many factors, including the market that you’re in.

If your business model allows it, our recommendation is that you incorporate a combination of both.

This means you should run a paid as well as an organic traffic getting campaign.

Remember, up for grabs is a page one listing on Google.

Whether it’s SEO vs SEM, there are only a limited number of spots available to you. It’s a race to get one before your competitors do.

So at the very least, start working on your organic campaign now, and if the numbers stack up, create a paid campaign as well.

The post SEM vs SEO – Finally The Truth About Which Traffic Getting Strategy Is Best For Your Business appeared first on Adv SEO Services.

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How To Successfully Promote Your Business Online

If you want to promote your business online and generate more leads and more sales, stick around, because we’re going to show you exactly how to do it!

What you need is a Digital Marketing Strategy.

These days there’s no doubt about the power and influence the Internet can have on a business. In fact for many, if it wasn’t for clever online marketing, their businesses wouldn’t have grown at all.

Just like any business, in order to succeed and thrive online, a constant and steady flow of inbound traffic is required.

You need your marketing messages to be constantly seen by your target audience.

At any given time, there is already is a constant flow of people buying products and services similar to the ones that you’re selling.

Imagine standing beside a flowing river. That river is always flowing past you.

This is similar to the traffic that is flowing right now. People are shopping for products and services just like yours.

For successful growth online, you need to be able to access that flowing river. You need to tap into that traffic that already exists online.

The good news is that in a minute, we’re going to show you exactly how.

We’re going to reveal the three key elements of a successful digital marketing campaign, that if you employ, will see you catching as many fish as you can handle!

WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

Before we begin let’s first understand what we’re really talking about here. What actually is Digital Marketing?

If you have been thinking about growing your business online, then you have most likely learned that you need an online or digital marketing plan.

You’d be forgiven if you’ve wondered what that actually meant. Digital marketing can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

But here is a very simple layman’s description of what digital marketing is.

Digital marketing is any online activity that assists in the promotion of a product or brand.

Simple huh?

Digital Marketing is a broad and often an umbrella term that actually describes a myriad of tactics and strategies that you can apply to achieve your overall marketing goals.

Back in the day – and we’re talking about 10 – 15 years ago, you just needed a decent website, a few keywords and that was it. You’d get traffic.

Nowadays, there is a lot more competition for that traffic.

Businesses are finding it harder to get seen online.

Businesses can no longer just throw up a website and tweak a few keywords. It’s more complicated than that now.

People are always using the Internet to search for solutions to the problems they have. So long as people use the Internet to research the products and services that they need, businesses likewise, will need an effective digital marketing strategy to reach out to them.

ANATOMY OF AN ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY

So by now, you are probably wondering what exactly is involved in a digital marketing campaign?

Depending on who you speak to, it can cover an enormous array of digital tactics and strategies. To be fair, we couldn’t do justice to all of them within the timeframe we have available right now.

Rather, we are particularly going to focus on one strategy which also happens to be one of the most effective.

Sorry, we’re not going to be focusing on any interruption based strategies. Instead, the model we will be discussing is called “search based” digital marketing.

What Is Search Based Digital Marketing?

Search based digital marketing is a model that aims to present your marketing messages at the very time when your target audience is searching for them.

This actually enables you to capture your prospects at that exact time when they are performing their research, or when they are comparing similar products and services to yours, and of course when they’re ready to buy

Search based digital marketing is a favourite because it reaches out directly to the visitor at their exact moment in time when they’re searching for what you have.

It is more effective because they themselves have initiated it, rather than you forcing it upon them.

This works whenever they search for something relevant in your market.

We know that when they find your website, it can be either via a paid listing or an organic listing. But for this discussion, we will purely focus on what everyone wants – A free organic listing on Google.

Of course, they may find you after visiting another webpage or social site, which refers them to you.

But the real beauty of search-based digital marketing is that you can create specific messages that are tailored to the exact stage of their buying cycle.

So if somebody is searching to compare product A versus product B, you can actually reach out to those people at that specific moment. Then you can provide them with information that will help them at that time of their search.

The main goal of search-based digital marketing is to be there when they search. It is to be there at every stage of their buying cycle.

As a result, you’re not only going to add considerable value, but you’re also going to improve the relationship that they have with you and your brand.

In case you haven’t already guessed, one of the key elements of this search based model involves how well you rank on Google.

The content you produce to help your prospects needs to rank well on page one in order to capture their visit.

The process in which this occurs is often referred to as Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short. However, these days, Search Based Digital Marketing is a better description.

WEB MARKETING FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS

A successful search-based digital marketing strategy requires three key elements to be successful.

But before we look at those, one of the most important things that we need to remember is that this whole strategy revolves attracting and acquiring traffic from search engines.

And before you can begin your strategy, you need to truly understand what you’re overarching goal or objective is.

Do you just want somebody to buy immediately on your website?

Or would like prospects to request an online quote?  Or do you want them to call you?

From the get-go, you need to be very clear about what your overall goal is. This will provide direction as to what you want your website to do for your business.

After all, this is an online marketing strategy. Therefore it all begins with your website.

Your Website is the very first element that you need to work on, as far as your digital marketing strategy goes.

This is the destination that all of your marketing activities will lead to. This is where your conversion funnel begins.

You will be attracting and acquiring traffic from the search engines, and they’re all going to be directed to your website.

The second element of this strategy is called Content.

You may have heard this more commonly referred to as content marketing. Content marketing is

a term that is often overused and for many, taken for granted.

Many think it means you’ve just got to write some content and then like magic you’ll get a flood of traffic.

But content marketing is more strategic within this context.

It is a lot more scientific than you may think.

The last element of this search based digital marketing strategy is Outreach.

Outreach is best thought of as a form of online networking. There are other websites out there that can refer traffic to you. Outreach is a process of connecting with them.

Website, Content, and Outreach are the three components of a successful search-based digital marketing campaign.

So let’s now take a moment now to go over them a little more detail.

ON-PAGE OPTIMISATION  FOR YOUR WEBSITE

Your entire search-based digital marketing campaign begins with your website. We’ve already mentioned that.

Within the SEO industry, this is what is referred to as on-page optimization.

This relates to all of the elements on your website, that not only improves your conversion, but also your ranking on Google.

At the end of the day, it’s people that buy stuff from you, not the search engines. So your primary and initial focus must be all about their user experience.

Have a look at the design of your website. Is that in keeping with the current design expectations?

You don’t need an award-winning super design of your website, that’s not what your visitors are looking for – unless you’re an artist of course.

People notice “OLD” websites.

In fact, 75% of visitors cast judgment on a business, purely based on their design.

You also need to ensure that your website is easy to use. You need an intuitive site structure.

Make it very easy for your visitors to find the information that they need, to not only learn more about your products and services but also to buy them.

While on this topic, this leads nicely to discuss the conversion elements on your page.

Is there a clear call to action?

Have you clearly articulated what you do?

Are you making it very easy for them to contact you?

The amount of websites that I see without a phone number is ridiculous. People want to pick up a phone and speak to a person.

Even if they don’t actually call, at the very least, they want to see that there is phone number should they want to.

Your visible phone number is a very important trust factor!

The other main area is that you need to fully optimize your website for the search engines.

Google’s business is all about finding all of the websites that are out there, and then deciding which of those websites are the most relevant for any given search term.

Your job is to optimize it in a way that makes it super easy for Google to not only read your website but also to help it know what search terms your website should be listed for.

You can do this in a number of ways.

Initially, you need to take care of the basics. This means your metadata. You must optimize your page titles and descriptions as well as the Alt tags for your images.

You also need to ensure that you have a clear and simple URL structure.

Google has recently made a lot of noise about the speed of websites. They are starting to favour faster loading sites as far as ranking goes.

That alone is a healthy tip for you!

If your website is loading slower than two seconds then you need to take action now to improve the loading speed of your site.

This next one won’t come as a shock to you. Your website needs to be mobile friendly. In fact, there are rumors that Google will be moving toward a Mobile friendly search index. This means, if your website is not mobile friendly – you will not show up at all!

The last tip that we have for you, is that your website must be secure. Ensure that you have SSL enabled.

We all fear our details getting hacked. It makes sense that Google will favour websites that provide a secure experience for its users.

So with all this said now, and once your website is fully optimized, you can start considering working on your content strategy.

CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing is certainly not new.

But content takes the place of our second most important pillar in our search based digital marketing strategy.

Although content marketing has been around for a considerable amount of time, it’s rarely done right.

Typically content creation is done in an ad hoc manner. It’s usually focused more on “buy my stuff”, or  “why my stuff is so good and better than others”.

Although information like that is okay, it’s certainly not where content marketing needs to be today.

Content marketing takes on more of a scientific and strategic process these days.

Content should not be created and developed just for the sake of saying that you’re producing content. Developing content requires significant strategy.

Start by developing a well researched content-to-keyword map.

This will help you develop content around specific keywords that you’re targeting.

Importantly, the keywords you select should be mapped according to the buying cycle of your typical customer.

You will then be able to purposefully speak to your prospects at every given moment within their buying cycle.

So here’s another important tip for you.

Create a huge list of the most common keywords that people use to find your products or services. Then divide those keywords into four areas.

These four areas relate to your prospects usual buying cycle.

This begins with an awareness phase; where they’re just discovering that your products and services exist.

The second phase is when they are researching. So now they’re trying to learn as much as they can about it. So organize keywords that speak to this phase.

The next stage is called comparison. Here they’re looking at your product, versus your competitors’ products. So here they are using keywords to try and understand the differences between all of the products and services that are out there. Can you find those keywords?

The last phase is the intent phase. Here, they’ve decided what they want to buy right down to the model number.

At this time, they are searching for that model number and where to buy it.

So as you look at all of your keywords that you can potentially target, sort them out according to where they fit along their buying cycle.

The real secret to this content strategy is to create content that speaks directly to each phase of this buying cycle. But ensure you are targeting the keywords that your prospects are using as they search.

So as one of your prospect searches online, you can provide value to them with your content.

It can be via one of your articles, videos, or your images etc. Either way, you can help them with their overall buying decision.

The benefit of this is, that by creating strategically targeted content like this, it’s actually increasing your perceived authority and trust within your marketplace.

This will significantly help develop your overall relationship with them, which will go a long way toward them becoming your customer.

OUTREACH MARKETING

As we’ve just discussed, creating content in a strategic fashion can be immensely powerful in determining your overall success, as far as your digital marketing strategy goes.

But that all comes to naught if no one knows about it. This leads us to the final pillar which is called Outreach.

From experience, we know that if you just build it, they won’t come.

Even if you built the best looking and the most highly optimized website, or even offer the best content. If no one knows about it, then all your efforts are wasted.

Online you need to reach out to where your current traffic exists. Now I know part of that is ranking well on Google.

If you rank on page one of Google for some of your most competitive keywords and key phrases, you stand a good chance of attracting a lot of that traffic.

However, there is also a lot of traffic visiting other websites, other than just those on the search engines.

Don’t get me wrong. Ranking well on Google is a key aspect of this whole strategy. However, a lot of other websites, other web properties also own quite a fair bit of traffic themselves.

Not only do they have traffic coming to their websites, but they also have a high ability to influence them toward what you have to offer.

So you need to reach out to other web properties to let them know that you’re there.

This can encompass quite a large range of activities.

One of the indirect benefits of attracting visitors via other web properties is that it can have a positive impact on where you rank in Google.

Google will start to see you out there, and notice that your content is being shared and talked about.

With this extra exposure and interest, Google will recognize your authority and improve your ranking positions.

So here are some of the activities you can do to increase your outreach.

Guest posting

Guest posting is where you publish your content on someone else’s website.

Start by producing a valuable piece of content. The kind that’s truly going to help your marketplace.

Then publish that on someone else’s website to help THEIR audience. By doing this, you are not only helping the other website, but you are also helping to establish your credibility.

Included in this article, put in a link pointing back to your website. So visitors who read that article will have the opportunity to come and visit your website as well.

The secondary benefit to this is that Google also notices that link. As a result, they may give you credit for it, which can further improve your search rankings.

Social Media

Outreach can also incorporate social media marketing. Start developing a tribe of followers on your social media accounts.

Share your content and engage with your market on social media.

This will show them that you are there, and are willing to contribute. That alone can generate a flow of traffic back to your website.

Answer Questions
Your target audience is looking for answers to questions they have that relate to your industry.

Find out where they’re asking them. Then invest the time to provide value in your answers.

That’s right. Answer their questions online. If you can truly provide value, then they’ll be more inclined to look for more, by visiting your website.

The nice thing here is that this will also apply to others that read your answer.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Search based digital marketing needs to be thought of as an ongoing marketing activity for your business.

This is not something that you do once and then forget about it.

The marketplace online is constantly changing and evolving.

Website technologies will continually improve and Google’s requirements and expectations will also increase as well.

So this means that you need to constantly monitor your website.

It’s not a design once, optimize and forget!

Keep on top of it to ensure that it is constantly optimized for any given period of time.

Content generation is also an activity that you need to continue.

If you want to maintain your growth online, then you will need to continue producing quality content.

And of course, while you’re producing this additional content, you also need to focus on reaching out to others to constantly share it.

The online marketplace is a very competitive landscape. This is only going to increase.

This is why it is important to learn how to promote your business online.

Right at this moment, as you are learning about digital marketing, your competitors are most likely doing the same.

In fact, I’m sure most of your competitors are already doing it!

The biggest mistake you can make (other than fail to begin), is to start a digital marketing campaign and then stop.

If you did, I can tell you that your competitors would be more than happy to take your place.

Speaking from a digital marketing agency perspective, I have to tell you that I absolutely love it when I analyze competitors and see that they started a digital marketing or SEO campaign and then stopped.

This just puts a smile on our face – and especially our clients. Because this just opens the door wider for us to take over.

The post How To Successfully Promote Your Business Online appeared first on Adv SEO Services.

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How To Get More Traffic to Your Business Website

How To Get Traffic To Your Business Website

If you are a business owner and want more traffic to your website, then stay tuned.

You are about to discover the fundamental three-part Framework to drive as much traffic as you can handle.

You know, it wasn’t that long ago where in order to find a business, you’d need to resort to that big yellow book, the yellow pages.

Or alternatively, you would have to take a trip down to the local High St shopping strip to look for what you needed.

Of course these days, this all happens online.

Searching online is now so entrenched in what we do, we’re in fact trained to use a search engine like Google to begin our search for products and services.

As a business owner, you know this.

You also know that your prospective customers are right now searching for products or services similar to the ones that you offer.

So it doesn’t matter whether you’re a startup or an established business, you know you need these people to find your website online.

Although this is nothing new, you have to keep in mind that it isn’t just your business targeting these customers. So are your competitors!

Getting traffic online is becoming very competitive. It has become a race.

The business with the best offer and the most traffic wins.

So if you’re interested in growth for your business, now let’s face it, who isn’t? You can either do one of two things:

1.         Increase the lifetime value of your current customers, or

2.         Find new customers.

From an online perspective, getting more customers means you need more traffic.

So today, we’re going to take a deep dive into traffic generation.

You will gain an important insight into how to frame your traffic getting strategy, as well as some important and handy tips on what you can do today, to increase traffic coming to your website.

Read on, because you are going to hear it in a way that most likely you have not heard before.

I know the temptation is to hurry and rush to get that mystical recipe of traffic generation.

But not all traffic is equal. So we’re also going to take a closer look at the different types of traffic that you actually should be trying to attract into your business.

We’ll also look at a number of myths and misconceptions.

A lot is said online about traffic and quite frankly a lot of it is misleading and confusing.

So if you’re in business for the long-term and focussed on growth, we’re going to reveal a three-tiered framework that is going to set the scene for your future traffic acquisition activities.

What You Do & Don’t Need To Drive More Traffic To Your Website

Of course, in order for you to tap into the existing traffic within your market, you will need a website.

We know that.

However, the harsh reality online these days is that simply building a website or having that website there, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get traffic.

Just creating a website doesn’t mean your business is going to be flooded with phone calls and sales. You certainly aren’t going to start driving a Ferrari to church on Sundays simply because you’ve put up a website.

A lot of ‘gurus’ imply and suggest that the internet is simply a pot of gold just waiting for you to put up a site.

With respect to the so-called guru’s, it is not always that easy.

Getting more traffic takes time and effort.

There’s no doubting the fact that, people like you and I, as well as your customers actively search online before deciding who to purchase from.

But if you are a start-up, or haven’t paid much attention to your existing website, you’ll know that getting traffic is not as easy as simply putting up a website.

I know the expectation is there to think that simply building it means that they will come.

It just doesn’t work that way.

Warning: Beware of who you take advice from.

Online there are a lot of people promoting tools, software, tricks, or hacks, that promise to get you a flood of traffic to your website.

Be careful! They simply have an ulterior motive.

It’s a bit like the Gold Rush days where the people that made the most money, were the ones selling the shovels. They didn’t care whether or not you found the gold all they cared about was that you bought their shovel.

But the thing is, at the end of the day, if you don’t have any visitors coming to your website, then you are not going to generate any leads.

All We Want Is More Traffic

Okay, so we know we need traffic!

Traffic is the lifeblood of any business that wants to grow online. But what really is traffic?

Traffic is often a flippant word used to generally reflect a metric.

We look at our analytics data and say oh “we’ve had a thousand visitors coming to our website”.

Yay…

But if you’re serious about a long-term strategy in terms of business growth, I think it’s vital to really understand what we’re talking about here.

Traffic is not just a metric.

A lot of people make the mistake and assume you just need the traffic dial to go up.

But traffic is not just a metric, traffic is PEOPLE.

And any successful business owner will tell you that metrics don’t buy your products and services, people do!

So I would like to ask you to focus more on the people with real needs, with real problems, looking for real solutions.

After All, this is why they’re coming to your website in the first place.

So if you are serious about traffic generation and for the long-term viability of your business, you need to remember and appreciate that what you’re trying to do is get more people to come to your website not just increasing some intangible metric.

Not All Website Visitors Want The Same Thing

Another misconception is the expectation that everyone who hits your website will click that “Buy Now” button or pick up the phone and call you.

Although it would be nice. In reality, it doesn’t work out that way.

Intuitively, I’m sure that a lot of good business owners understand this. They know this from their everyday interactions with their customers.

Not everybody is ready to buy at the same time.

Some are simply wanting to learn more about a product or to compare it to another. Or even looking to develop a relationship with the vendor, as a means of choosing who they’ll do business with.

For a ‘Brick and Mortar’ business, this is easier to recognize the types of questions asked, how they interact, and how they shop.

After spending some time with a customer, she can provide appropriate assistance based on what they need at that time.

Unfortunately, this is a little harder to do on a website.

With all the excitement around the Internet, most simply assume that every customer is ready to buy as soon as they hit their site.

Some do, and that’s the idea. But, just like the old-fashioned High St store, most don’t and certainly won’t.

Each customer goes through a particular buying cycle.

We all do this when we’re shopping.

Whether we’re buying a new T.V., a new car or even a new kitchen toaster. We all go through a particular buying cycle.

Of course, for some, it’s a lot quicker. While for others the journey toward making a purchase is a lot slower.

The buying cycle involves 5 stages.

1.         The Awareness stage where they discover that they have a particular need for a product.

2.         Once they have discovered the type of product they need, they move into the Research phase. Here they go about learning as much as they can about that particular product or service.

3.         Then once they’ve narrowed down a few contenders, they move into the Comparison phase where they’re comparing your product and service offerings with others.

4.         Finally, they come to a decision as to what they want to purchase from where and have the Intent to purchase

5.         Lastly, they will become your Customer

The challenge from an online perspective is that it is difficult to attend to each stage of the buying cycle – because the customer isn’t physically with you.

The job of your website is not just to be there for when they have that intent to purchase. It also needs to help them through the entire buying journey. From when they initially become aware of what you have to offer, right through to the end desired action of them buying from you.

Most business websites don’t do a good job at this.

So why is this important?

What has this got to do with getting more traffic?

Because online at any given time there is only a very small percentage that are ready to buy. The majority of your target audience are still in the earlier phases of their buying cycle.

So it’s important for you to understand that your overall Traffic strategy, needs to focus on the entire buying cycle and not just those that are ready to buy right now.

By doing this you’re in fact going to capture a lot more traffic coming to your website.

The benefit of this is that it will give you the prime-time opportunity to build a positive relationship with these people. This means you’ll not only increase your traffic numbers but also increase the likelihood of what we all want, which is to get more sales.

Are You Looking To Get Traffic To Your Website For FREE?

The next thing I’m sure you’re going to ask, just like most other business owners do, is can I get free traffic?

That’s what we all want, isn’t it?

But is there really such a thing as free traffic?

Now we all know that you can advertise. You can pay every time someone clicks on one of your advertisements. You can pay every time you generate a lead. You can also pay for how many impressions your particular marketing messages receive.

Advertising’s been around for a long time and you can certainly do that online.

So that’s one form of traffic.

But as a smart business owner, you know that you need to constantly monitor what it costs you to acquire each customer.

And that’s where organic traffic comes in.

It’s referred to as organic meaning that it’s supposedly natural.

Someone searches online and they find you and then visit your website.

Organic traffic commonly relates to your search engine ranking position on Google or other search engines.

When someone searches on Google, they will either click on an Ad, or on a webpage that Google has listed as being relevant to that search.

If your website is listed in Google, and someone clicks on it – this is referred to as being ‘Organic’.

Organic traffic can originate from one of your articles, videos or another form of content that was found on Google. It can also come from someone else’s website or social network that has referred traffic to your website.

Organic traffic is often referred to as being free traffic.

This is because there is no definable cost per visitor acquisition.

So, while online advertising is becoming more expensive, it is no wonder why everyone is looking for free traffic.

However, yours is not the only company that wants this free traffic. Everyone does!

This has led to another problem.

Just as paid advertising is becoming more expensive, it is also getting more and more competitive to get your website ranked on the first page of Google.

Is Organic Traffic Really FREE?

With this increasing competition, businesses are doing a lot more to earn their ranking position.

Getting organic traffic doesn’t just happen!

It requires a considerable investment in your time and resources.

There is a cost to generating organic traffic. It takes time and money to generate quality content, and then to share that content.

The content you create must truly help your marketplace. And it takes time for this content to spread online.

It also takes time for Google to recognize you are an authority and thought leader in your space.

Maintaining a high level of activity in terms of content production and outreach is costly and takes time. Organic traffic generation is a long-term strategy.

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but…

Organic traffic is not free!

In fact, no traffic forms are truly free these days. If it were free, then all you would need to do is make your website, then BANG… traffic would automatically appear.

It would be truly free if you didn’t have to invest any time or money to earn that traffic.

But you do need content – and lots of it. It’s going to take time to write it.

Or you’re gonna have to pay your staff members to write it for you.

Then you need to share it to make sure that others within your marketplace can see it.

So organic traffic is not free.

If there is one thing to take away from this, is that either way, traffic generation will require an investment of your time and money – and usually both!

I realize that the thought of putting in the work and the effort to generate traffic is a little frustrating and annoying.

You’re busy enough as it is with your business, let alone to have to try and put in so much work into acquiring traffic to your website.

But be careful about those claims of a magic bullet.

There is no quick and easy push button trick or tactic, that’s going to bring you tons of traffic. I’ve been working in digital marketing for long enough to have seen all these tricks and tactics come and go.

If there was something that worked, it wasn’t going to work for very long. Google’s pretty smart and they will jump on a lot of these schemes, tricks, and tactics that are trying to trick Google.

Of course, other than perhaps a celebrity endorsement by none other than Kim Kardashian, you still need to put in a lot of time and effort to acquire and earn the traffic that you get.

So don’t fall for any of those methods that try to scam or trick Google into sending you more traffic.

You could quite easily get your website banned from the search engines altogether. Can you imagine what that would do to your business?

Remember traffic is and always will be about people.

Google’s entire business model is about providing its users (again, people), with the best possible user experience that they could possibly have.

So your job is to produce information and content that is genuinely going to help and serve the people in your marketplace. And if you do that well, you will not only increase your traffic, but you’ll also benefit from the sales it generates.

Website Traffic Generation Framework

Traffic generation for any online business is a systematic and methodical activity that you need to focus on continuously.

The framework that I’m about to discuss with you has been tested extensively. It has stood the test of time for well over the last decade.

The framework comprises three vital components:

1.         Website

2.         Content

3.         Outreach

It begins by creating an outstanding and search optimised website. And then constantly producing content that helps and serves the people in your marketplace. Lastly, always be reaching out to others online, to share your stuff, to share your content so that it gets noticed.

It’s these three key elements that make up our framework.

By always focussing on these three areas, you can build a long-term and successful online business.

By now you ’re most likely itching to hurry up and get to the meat and potatoes of traffic generation.

Optimising Your Website To Get More Traffic

It all starts with your website.

This is the very first step of the whole framework of traffic generation.

You must have a well-optimised website. Not only to attract visitors to your website but also to convert those visitors into leads and customers to help grow your business.

A recent study actually revealed that 75 percent of people that visit a website, judge the credibility of that business purely based on the design of that website.

So you need to start off with an excellent and modern design of your website because, at the end of the day, people are going to judge your business purely by how your website looks.

If your website looks as though it’s was made in the 1950s (that’s a joke by the way), they’re going to think that your business is as outdated as the design of your website.

So make sure you have a modern website design.

Earlier, I didn’t mention that you don’t get traffic just by creating the website.

However, it ALL starts with your website and you really must put a lot of focus and attention into completely optimising it.

Your website must be search engine friendly.

Now there are a lot of things that go into making your website optimized for the search engines.

Your website needs to be very easy for your visitors to use, so you need to pay a lot of attention to the usability of your website.

Can your visitors get the information that they need quickly?

Make it easy for your visitors to get what they need whatever the stage of the buying cycle that they’re in.

Your website must also have well-crafted sales copy to generate the action that you want your visitor to take.

What About What Google Wants?

To increase your chances of ranking well in Google, they have made no secret about what they’re looking for.

Here are some of the ranking factors Google is looking for:

1.         SPEED

Increase the speed of your website. Google is now rewarding websites that are faster.

People expect websites to load fast. Therefore Google is going to preference faster loading websites than those that are slower.

2.         MOBILE FRIENDLY

Ensure your website is mobile friendly.

More people these days use their mobile devices to search online as opposed to desktops. So Google is going to favour websites that are mobile friendly as opposed to those that are not.

3.         MICRODATA

You have to make it very easy for Google to know what your website is about.

Schema Microdata markup is essential to help Google know what your website is about. The more they know about your website, the more likely they’re going to show your website to people as they search online.

4.         SECURITY

We all fear getting hacked online. Therefore Google is moving toward listing only secure websites to its users.

Ensure your website has SSL enabled.

5.         TIME ON SITE

Google wants to display websites that are relevant and of a high quality. They can determine this by analysing how long people remain on a website.

The longer the duration, the more the person is engaging with the content offered. It stands to reason that the shorter the duration, the less relevant that site was to the user.

So Google actually pays attention to how long someone stays on your website.

The longer people stay on your website, Google is going to assume that you are providing an excellent user experience, and therefore will be more willing to show your website to more people.

So although your website is not the only aspect as far as traffic generation, it is the very first step and it’s the very first port of call that you need to focus your attention on as far as your traffic generation strategy.

Content Marketing As A Traffic Getting Strategy

The second part of our traffic generation framework is content.

These days you need to be constantly generating and posting content on your website.

Let’s think about it for a minute.

When anybody searches online they’re looking for information. They are looking for content.

The biggest mistake a lot of businesses make is that they use their website purely as a brochure.

This was okay 15 years ago.

After all, websites were all like that back then.  It was what people expected to see.

These days the expectation is a lot higher. As competition increased online, people now have more choices. People naturally gravitate to sites that offer more value.

Therefore you need to do a much better job with the content your providing.

Also, don’t forget to always focus on the people and what their needs are.

Google is in the business of being (continuing to be) the best search engine. And in order for them to do that they need to serve the best websites for its users.

So as people are constantly looking for your products and services (as they currently are right now), then you need to produce content that is going to meet them exactly where they are at each step of their buying journey.

Remember a while ago, we talked about the various buying cycles that we all go through as consumers.

Your content must be created to talk to each of these steps.

I know you ideally want to capture everyone at the “Intent” stage.

But you will get better results by targeting the earlier stages as well.

By targeting your market at the pre-Intent stages, you will get the opportunity to nurture these potential leads.

So this means you can capture more traffic from those within the awareness, research, and the comparison phase. The reason why this is so awesome is that it will enable you to build better relationships with them. Then when they’re ready to buy, it can greatly improve your chances for the sale.

So you need to produce content that speaks to the individuals as they go through each stage.

As an example, if you’re selling 4K televisions then you need content that talks about the latest technology, where it introduces the concept of a 4K TV.

By doing that you are talking to the person at their awareness level, so now they are becoming aware that there is a 4K television that might offer a better viewing experience.

Once they’re aware then they’re going to start to research all they can about 4K TV’s. Then the next step is, that they will compare all the different brands.

Does this sound familiar? We all do this, don’t we?

We’ll compare Sony with Panasonic to Samsung and all of the other brands that are out there.

This continues until the intent to purchase is there.

This is when they know the brand and model number and are just confirming which vendor.

The real secret is, to constantly produce content that is going to help each individual as they go through each of these buying phases.

This is the detail that so many businesses fail to act upon.

There’s a good reason why!

It’s because it’s too hard. They just focus on content that is all about “buy my product now”.

But they’re missing out on so much traffic!

So create a blog. Yes, your website needs a blog.

Write articles, create videos, create video tutorials or video reviews. Perform a webinar or you could even do podcasts.

You can frame each content piece around a particular buying phase.

You can produce free reports or infographics. There is a huge list of content opportunities that you can produce, that can actually be useful and helpful for people in your marketplace.

Here is the secret-sauce to this strategy.

By interacting with people from the awareness stage, you’re actually going to begin developing a relationship with that individual. As a result, they’re more likely to begin to like and trust you as a vendor.

Have you ever purchased something from a shop, because you liked the salesperson? I know I have. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve with this strategy.

So begin by creating a publishing schedule.

Not only of when you’re going to produce and release content but exactly what.

Pay attention to the buying cycles. If you do it well, Google is going to notice that you’re attracting more and more people, and they’re staying longer because of the information that you’re providing.

As a result, you are going to start to see more traffic coming to your website.

Outreach As A Source of Free Website Traffic

The third and final path to this traffic generation framework is outreach.

Allow me to give you an example before I explain a little more about this.

Think of a business owner that has a shop in your local area. Do you remember those vibrant and highly active High Street shops we used to go to?

Imagine this shop was right on that main street.

People who walked by would pop in and check out their stuff. As a result, assuming they had a good offer, they’d make sales.

Now imagine that this same shop moved ten blocks away from the main street. They could still have a great offer. But since no one walked past, the sales would plummet.

People would need a good reason, or a good referral to drive all the way out to this shop.

This is similar to your website.

You may have a great design, a great product offering, and even outstanding content. But if no one knows about you – then you may as well be invisible.

Outreach is all about actively reaching out to other websites online.

This is not only to let them know that you’re there but to share your stuff with them. If people don’t know what you can offer. If people can’t see the true value that you have and the information that you can share, then they’re less likely to come looking for you.

So this needs to be an ongoing and active aspect of your traffic getting strategy.

You need to be constantly reaching out to other website owners, not necessarily direct competitors but other verticals that may be relevant.

Offer to share some of your content that you’ve produced to these websites, to help their visitors.

Share your content on social media. If you’ve got a social presence, share it. You want people to start seeing and have the opportunity, to take notice of the content you’re producing.

Start to actively take part in local forums or discussion groups and provide answers that genuinely help people, that are currently in the buying cycle for a product or service that you’re offering.

Send out some press releases.

Write specific content for other websites. These are often referred to as guest posts.

The more you get your stuff out there, you will begin establishing your authority and credibility within your space.

By sharing your stuff, or getting mentions from other websites WITH traffic, you’re more likely to acquire traffic referrals.

People may see your information on one website and then either click on a link or search you out on Google, to learn more about what you offer.

The real beauty of this strategy is that by doing this, Google’s going to take notice. They’re going to know that your content is now being shared and spread around via other websites.

Google is going to see those the links on those websites (to your page).

If all of these people are talking and using your content and referring to your products or services, then you must be providing a good user experience.

Since Google is always looking for quality and relevant websites, they’ll begin to realise that they should actually start showing your website (a lot higher in the search rankings) to more people.

Final Thoughts

Whatever way you look at it, traffic is the lifeblood of any business.

Whether it’s foot traffic for a brick and mortar business, or online traffic for an online business.

For business growth, online traffic is essential.

We know we can pay for traffic, however, it’s the organic traffic that is going to offer you the best long-term and sustainable traffic.

Don’t chase the next shiny object for the latest trick or tactic to magically increase your traffic numbers.

Traffic generation is not free and it requires a consistent and systematic approach. You need to be quite active with your traffic generation processes.

We have introduced you to a tried and tested framework to get more traffic.

Ensure your website is completely optimized for not only the user but also for search engines.

Then constantly create outstanding content that is going to help your visitors along their buying journey.

And lastly, actively reach out to others and share your stuff.

By being consistent with this process, you will begin to see your traffic steadily grow. Not only will your traffic numbers increase, but so will your sales as the sentiment of your business grows as well.

The post How To Get More Traffic to Your Business Website appeared first on Adv SEO Services.

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December 08, 2017 at 11:25AM