Business OnRamp » SEO & PPC http://www.businessonramp.com Start your business! Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:17:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 How to Generate Traffic for your Business with SEO and PPC http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-generate-traffic-for-your-business-with-seo-and-ppc/ http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-generate-traffic-for-your-business-with-seo-and-ppc/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:13:57 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/?p=82 Investing time, energy and resources into launching your startup means your marketing plan is going to be crucially important.  One of the most effective ways to generate targeted visitors to your site is through search marketing, where you can pinpoint user interest based upon search queries. For example, if you’re opening a store to sell golf clubs then you’ll want to target a complete set of terms including “golf clubs” as well as related commercial intent keywords such as how ...]]> Investing time, energy and resources into launching your startup means your marketing plan is going to be crucially important.  One of the most effective ways to generate targeted visitors to your site is through search marketing, where you can pinpoint user interest based upon search queries. For example, if you’re opening a store to sell golf clubs then you’ll want to target a complete set of terms including “golf clubs” as well as related commercial intent keywords such as how to tips for golf, buyer’s guides for golf equipment, as well as specific brand content.

Potential customers start commercial searches from a variety of vantage points, whether they are casually looking for a vendor, are seeking out new ideas or are just curious about finding a particular solution. As a result, any search marketing campaign should begin with keyword research. Identifying which search terms users utilize to find solutions in your area can help you better understand the market and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of updating the content, links and structure of your website to capture search terms through the regular (natural) results. Targeting the surrounding ads through pay per click (PPC) marketing is known as paid search.

Keyword Rearch

There are a variety of keyword tools, including Google’s keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) which provides data on how frequent terms are searched for, as well as how many advertisers are on the PPC term. As an example, let’s analyze a series of Golf club related keywords to understand how we can utilize keyword-level data:

Keyword Monthly Searches Keyword Type
“golf clubs” 9,140,000 Commercial
“golf tips” 165,000 Informational

 

In the example above, there are both informational and commercial keywords. While commercial keywords have a higher buying intent they are also more competitive since more sites are actively competing for those keywords in both paid and natural search channels.  The key to successful search marketing is to build out a variety of content and campaigns which target both commercial and informational sources based upon opportunity.

Search Marketing Strategies

If you’re just starting out with a limited budget, then you’re going to want to first associate a dollar value to a conversion on your site. Whether you’re selling golf clubs or generating leads, understanding the net revenue from a particular conversion can help you properly organize an ad campaign.  After you identify the conversion goals you can start working on both your paid and natural search campaigns. Google is the best place to start for both aspects, since you can both track the results of your natural campaigns through Webmasters Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/) as well as targeting 70% of keyword searches through Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com/).

Both PPC and natural search require determining keywords along with mapping them to the right pages on your site. For PPC you want to track your spend relative to conversions so you can adjust the bid and ads on each keyword, while natural search campaigns rely upon generating high quality links to your website, a major factor in search rankings. You should ensure the content of your site is high quality and targeted toward specific keyword sets, including product descriptions, blog posts and content pages, all of which should have a clear path toward a conversion outcome.

]]> http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-generate-traffic-for-your-business-with-seo-and-ppc/feed/ 0 Search Engine Optimization & Pay Per Click http://www.businessonramp.com/search-engine-optimization-pay-per-click/ http://www.businessonramp.com/search-engine-optimization-pay-per-click/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:12:14 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/?p=42 SEO & PPC With the growth of Google over the past decade, search engine optimization and marketing has grown into one of the most used forms of advertising. This industry can be complicated to fully understand. Here are a few things you should know when developing a search campaign:

The difference between SEO and SEM

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which includes design techniques, copywriting, as well as outside linking. The first step to optimizing your site is to include as many ...]]> SEO & PPC
With the growth of Google over the past decade, search engine optimization and marketing has grown into one of the most used forms of advertising. This industry can be complicated to fully understand. Here are a few things you should know when developing a search campaign:

The difference between SEO and SEM

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which includes design techniques, copywriting, as well as outside linking. The first step to optimizing your site is to include as many quality keywords as possible into your sites text, description, title tags and keyword Meta data. One useful tool to use is the Google keyword tool that is free to use.

Second, the design of your site is very important you will need to use the headline codes to make important keywords stand out. A good example of this is one for a lawyer site. If the law firm handles many practice areas, they should dedicate a page to each. On each page, they should highlight the practice area with a H1 tags. Search engines scan the text and they put higher weight on H1 tags as well as other headline tags. Another way search engines place weight on the quality of the site is through internal links. One of the easiest ways to add internal links is through a site map. A site map is just a page that outlines to site.

Another way to add to the SEO quality score of your site is to have external links pointing to your site. Social networks have become a great tool in adding external likes. If you have a social network account, place your site URL on it. Sites like Facebook allow you to have a URL under your contact information. It would also be a good idea to create a page just for your company in order to drive more customers to your site. The more views your site gets also adds to you generic search score. Many advertisers are using Twitter to get more clients as well.

SEM stands for search engine marketing. Have you ever wondered why there were smaller descriptions and title tags on the right side of Google after you did a search? They are paid advertisements. You can set up a Google AdWords account and start seeing more traffic on your site right away. This is a very useful tool for most small business because Google does not rank clients based on the amount they can pay. They rank their clients using a quality score as well as a bidding system. If your site is relevant to the search query and your have placed a bid that meets the standards set by Google, you will have greater placement than site that do not. They offer two kinds of payment options, Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression. Pay Per Click (PPC) is the most popular because advertisers do not have to pay for the ad to be shown. They only pay when potential customers click on their advertisement.

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