Your Digital Marketing Budget Clients often come to Mediaura knowing that they need SEO but not quite understanding what it is or how it works. The reality of the situation is that SEO is not really as arcane as some companies would have you believe, nor is it as simple as others would like to make it. While it is strategically a rather straight-forward process, it is also a bit of a complex one. There are a lot of moving parts to Search Engine Optimizaiton, and if one step is skipped or overlooked, it has an impact on the success of all subsequent other steps. Additionally, many business don't understand why their website isn't showing up at the top of search results. I've come to realize that when I try to explain (even in layman's terms) the algorithms, programming strategy, content creation, link necessity, etc. as to why this is, their eyes will just glaze over. And I get it. Search Engine Optimization is a relatively new necessity for most companies and in the grand scheme of things a completely new essential industry in and of itself. It's easier for most client to understand PPC marketing over SEO, because I can make the comparison between say, Google Adwords, and traditional forms of marketing that they're more familiar with. PPC marketing may be just as confusing, but it's not as overwhelming or abstract. However, if you're investing in PPC marketing without a solid SEO foundation, while you may not be wasting your money, you're most definitely not spending your budget correctly.
Why SEO Should Come Before PPC Did you know 70% of the links search users click on are organic, not paid? SEO isn't just about focusing on content. It's also not about just focusing on keywords and metadata. And it's not about putting your content in every place you see and spamming the Internet. SEO is about putting these three things together in perfect harmony: • - Technical Aspects • - Valuable Content Production • - Digital Strategy and Communication Investing in an SEO strategy lays the foundation for all other digital efforts to succeed to their maximum potential. Without it, you won't see the full possible ROI benefits from any digital strategy, least of all PPC marketing. The reason SEO needs to come before PPC in any marketing strategy is due to PPC marketing (such as Google Adwords) measuring the quality of ads and keywords on what is called a Quality Score. Each keyword, for example, gets a Quality Score on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is the lowest score and 10 is the highest. And no matter what the size of your budget is, your ads may show less often (or not at all) if they point to a website that offers a poor user experience. While many people think that SEO and PPC are separate strategies, and in some ways they are they are essentially two sides of the same coin: Search Marketing.
If you've invested in PPC but your website is not properly optimized for SEO, your Quality Score will take a hit. So while you may be spending money for search result returns, you're probably going to have to bid a lot more to appear at the top. Another reason that SEO should come before PPC, is that while PPC can provide short-term gains; SEO is the strategy that will provide the most long-term benefits to your brand. It may take more of an investment to get your website ranking at the top of organic search results, but once you're there it becomes more of a maintenance strategy. With PPC however, once you stop paying for those ads, you cease to be competing at all. Digital marketing should focus on implementing a campaign in which SEO and PPC efforts complement each other, and lead to a more successful search strategy.
A Real Life Example of SEO Importance Here is a great way to explain the important of SEO and digital marketing. Let's use the example of a car dealer in the suburb of a larger metro area: Let’s assume that there are 20 used car dealers and 2 new car dealers actually in your suburb. There are 17 spots on page one of Google if you count the organic results and the map pack, there are also a lot of directories showing up. After we remove the directory spots, that leaves 11 or 12 possible spots. 22 dealers – 12 spots = 10 dealers that won’t be on page one, just in your suburb… But, you obviously want to target the larger metro area to bring in more search traffic. There are 8 suburbs in your metro, so let’s adjust the math: 22 dealers x 8 cities = 176 dealers But, we also need to account for the dealers that are in the main city in your metro area. Since it’s a much bigger city, let’s conservatively say that there are three times as many dealerships there. Now, our equation looks like this: 22 dealers x 11 cities = 242 dealers That’s 242 dealers fighting for the 12 spots on the first page of Google search results – which means 230 dealers won’t make it to page one. Without a website that is optimized for SEO it’s extremely hard, if not impossible, for businesses to show up in these queries. If you want your site to beat out the compeition fighting for the top spots, you’ve got to send the right signals to Google so that you can outrank competitors. If your website isn't programmed correctly, and isn't following SEO best-practices, you're not going to be seen by the search engine bots/crawlers as providing a valuable user experience. This simple equation demonstrates why merely having a website is not enough to rank high on search returns. You must be investing in Search Engine Optimization if you want to succeed.
Let Mediaura Help You Develop A Successful Strategy 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. 60% of all organic clicks go to the organic top 3 results. Let Mediaura utilize our award-winning knowledge to help take your marketing to the next level. We are a full-service digital marketing agency. Our team knows how to develop a website optimized for SEO, implement successful SEO strategies and pair that with PPC that gets results for your brand. Many companies have to contract with multiple vendors to achieve similiar results. With Mediaura, you have one point of contact and we're able to monitor and optimize as needed to provide the highest ROI for your organization. Whether you’re looking for Website Development, mobile applications, custom software, Search Engine Optimization, Digital Marketing, Social Media Management, or any of the other widevariety of services we offer, Mediaura is here to help. Contact Us or call 502-554-9649 today to begin taking your company or organization to the future. Content Source