SEO services that grow with your business

When not confused with SEM, SEO is often thought of as under the umbrella of SEM. However, there is a very distinct difference between the two:

• • Search engine marketing is paid search strategy, using paid ads on search engines to build website traffic.
  • Search engine optimization is an organic search strategy, using on-page and off-page actions to build website traffic.
    
    

While you need SEO to do SEM, you don’t need SEM to do SEO.

SEO services are considered organic search strategies because the goal is to move the site’s position up in the search engines. Since the search engines are always changing the algorithms that decide ranking, SEO tactics are ongoing and always changing to meet ranking factors. Some SEO factors that remain the same include:

• • Keyword research, to identify top terms that will provide the optimal ratio of visitors to conversions
  • Optimizing meta data, such as the page title, meta description, and image ALT tags
  • Creating and optimizing content for ranking and conversions
  • Technical optimization for clean code and site speed
  • Targeted internal link building
  • Building social signals through the active use of social platforms
  • Finding and obtaining quality inbound links

Search marketing services are considered paid search strategies because the goal is to bring traffic to the site through search engine ads (i.e., marketing on search engines). Google Ads, Bing ads, even Amazon-sponsored ads can be viable search engines to use.

One of the keys for a successful search marketing campaign – especially internationally – is where your target market is. For example, if your target market is in Russia, you would want to research advertising on Yandex, the #1 search engine in that country. For China, it would be Baidu, and so on.

While search marketing isn’t as subject to change as search optimization, ads do need to be updated, monitored, and measured. Sore search marketing services include:

• • Writing relevant ad copy
  • Setting up ad campaigns with the target market in mind
  • Setting up retargeting campaigns
  • Creating targeted ads on social media networks
  • Creating ad groups for specific areas or keyword variations
  • Metric monitoring to ensure the ads are going well and money isn’t frivolously spent

Often in online marketing, the answer to “What should I do” depends on where your business is, what you hope to achieve, how soon you want to achieve it, and budget. However, since SEM relies on SEO activities, you should almost always look at SEO services first. Many search marketing campaigns fail because of lack of optimization. Having said that, if you’re new to online marketing and you need to get your product out there immediately, SEM services can be a good place to start.

Before deciding whether to go with SEO or SEM, talk to a search marketing and SEO professional. Make sure you know the difference between the two, and which is best for your business and your goals.

Again, the answer to this question is “it depends”. At last count, Google uses over 200 factors to decide ranking. How old your site is, what you’re trying to rank for, who your online competitors are, and where your target market is all matter, among other things.

As a general answer, it can take between six months and a year, but again, that depends on how you measure up against those 200+ ranking factors. As a side note, if anyone guarantees you #1 ranking within three months, take their sales pitch with a huge grain of salt.

Who doesn’t like fruit?

Although we’re a full service marketing company, we specialize in business growth through organic SEO, with a large focus on content development. Fresh, zesty content – like limes and lemons and other citrusy things.