Organic Search Marketing FAQs
We have compiled some of the most frequently asked questions that we receive regarding the organic search engine marketing services. Click on the link that pertains to your question below.
Q: What is Search Engine Marketing and is it different from Search Engine Optimization?
A: Search engine marketing (SEM) encompasses the entire spectrum of ways you can promote your site on the many search services that are online today. This can include optimizing one's web site for optimal positioning in the search engines (Search Engine Optimization) but also entails many other forms of search engine advertising.
There is pay for inclusion advertising where you pay a fee to have your site included in a search engine's index or a directory. There is pay per click advertising where you actually pay a certain price every time someone clicks on your listing. This type of advertising, also known as CPC (cost per click) is also many times related to showing up in a certain position. It can also include external link building, site sponsorships, article distributorship and any other method of advertising designed to help people gain visibility on search services and directories.
It is not search engine optimization (SEO) itself as SEO is just one element out of many search engine promotional opportunities.
Q: Is search engine marketing really necessary to be successful on the Internet?
A: 85 percent of all Internet users go directly to search engines immediately upon accessing the Internet to find what they are looking for. Many of those people will not venture beyond the first page of results they find. Therefore you cannot afford to be ranked anywhere else but on the first page of those results. If you are not, your chances of attracting those Internet users to your site are very unlikely.
Sure if you are a very large company with a bottomless marketing pocketbook, you can run television, radio and print ads to publicize your web site. However one must consider that there are still a lot of people, even after seeing a television ad or hearing a radio announcement, will still go to their favorite search engine to look for you rather than trying to go directly to your site.
Search engines are not going away by any means. Therefore it is a necessary ingredient for success to make sure you market your site effectively on them.
Q: Can you track visitor activity on my web site?
A: Absolutely! There are two methods of tracking. One is where we analyze your server log files and generate detailed reports on the activity recorded in those logs such as how many visits the site received, where they were referred from, what kind of search engine spider activity did your site receive, etc. Then there is the process of tracking the specific activity of a visitor once they enter your site - how they got there, which pages they visit and for how long and if they ended up buying something, contacting you or just left.
The first type of tracking is pretty general while the second can be combined with the first and is more suitable for sites that are actually selling product as well as running multiple advertising campaigns. The first measures the overall activity statistics of the site while the second can help one determine their return on investment (ROI).
Q: Should I worry about Paid Search if I already have good visibility in Organic Search?
A: Recent studies show that anywhere from 75-80% of searchers will click on listings found in the organic search results after a search query has been performed. That means the other 20-25% will click on the paid listings, usually identified by being tagged as "Sponsored Ads" or something similar.
Therefore if you want to capture that audience of 20-25% then you most certainly should make paid search, specifically pay per click (PPC) search marketing part of your overall search marketing strategy. Additionally, PPC allows you to test specific strategy such as the performance of keywords and landing pages. It also allows more immediate exposure than organic search marketing does because ads can appear almost as instantly as you create them.