Search engine optimisation. These are words that every website is privy to today. They have literally changed the world as we know it.
Without them, Google would not be the company it is today. Without them, many businesses would not be where they are today: making the sales they make; existent of businesses for the prime purpose of selling what the service stands for. Without them, marketing would be a different ballgame altogether. Without them, the millionaires attributing their wealth to the Internet made different from SEO would be doing something else with their lives. There would be no spamming. There would be no black hat SEO. The Web would boast more useful content, like it did those many years ago.
And you can try painting a mental picture of the butterfly effect resulting from these few things we have mentioned…
What Options Do you Have?
If you are reading this, chances are you already know what SEO is, so we are going to skip that part which you’ve read about on several of the millions of articles on the web dedicated to the topic – some fresh, most regurgitated, and a good chunk spun by the helpless few.
As we stand today, there are a few credible options of driving genuine traffic to your website:
- Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Pay-per-click (PPC)
- Email campaigns
- Social
- Display
The first two, however, are likelier to drive higher numbers of highly qualified visitors (those most likely to convert) to your URL.
But of the two, which is the better option? There is no right or wrong route, both will serve you, but this will depend on your goals. Allow me to explain.
If your goal is short-term, then pay-per-click will serve you well.
PPC allows you to create an ad campaign in minutes and start driving traffic to your site immediately.
However, there is a lower ROI because of high PPC costs, which is something that is not lost to companies every day. In short, this is not a sustainable source of traffic in the long-term given the proliferating cost per click.
SEO Rules!
If your goals are long-term, then SEO is the answer. There is no digital marketing channel that generates sales, leads, and long-term traffic better than search engine optimisation, no two ways about it.
The reason why SEO has become the best source of sustainable traffic rests on two major reasons. One is that it delivers high-quality traffic likely to convert (with the intent to buy). The other reason is that it boosts ROI over time.
Improved long-term ROI is the reason SEO beats other marketing techniques. If you remember a Covario study conducted last year, it was established that in 2013 advertisers forked out 23 per cent more per click than they did in 2012. It was also established that the cost it takes to acquire each new customer through pay-per-click was on the rise, and would continue escalating.
With SEO though, ROI improves beyond today. The monetary and time investment put in may not increase from month-to-month, but traffic, leads, and customers do, and will.
Most Effective
SEO has never been as effective as it is today. In 2014, industries across the board reaped the fruits of SEO, and this is expected to be even more so this year.
A study by the National Retail Federation found that in 2014, search marketing was the most effective source for acquiring new customers for a whopping 85% of online retailers.
These sentiments were echoed by BrightEdge who found out that organic search (that coming from Google) was the main driver of traffic and revenue for nearly all industries analysed. For B2B marketing, for instance, organic search accounted for over half the traffic, put at 51%.
Kenshoo also found out that search engines are the starting point for the most people interested in booking travel, with 64% of business travelers and 58% of leisure travelers.
The 2015 Roadmap
Every new year brings with it new marketing trends. When it comes to marketing though, most often the true and tested methods rock.
This is no different in online business marketing: SEO continues to remain the most powerful tool in this realm, as we’ve already seen.
And with its effectiveness and long-term power confirmed, how can you go about maximising your efforts in 2015?
Here are five things you can do this year and go to bed knowing you’ve done your part:
- Map your Strategy to Audience and Competitive Insights
- Come up with ways of tackling adjacent markets
- Discover new keywords
- Look at the things your competition is doing well, and look at ways you can improve
- Make it a point of understanding what kinds of content are doing well and expand on that
- Align Content and SEO Teams
By now you should know your SEO results are dictated by the quality of content you are creating for your audience, right? Content is king is a phrase you’ll often hear in SEO circles, and these two work perfectly with each other.
One way you can achieve this is by having a workflow from content creation all the way to optimisation. A few pointers:
- Create content that appeals to your audience
- Disseminate this content effectively for instant search results
- Exhaust the value of this content across all channels
- Prioritise Mobile SEO
If you have noticed, marketing is heading mobile. Responsive websites have never been in better demand, and mobile search has never been this high, with even better mobile days projected.
To give you a better idea, mobile use surpassed desktop use in 2014 and experts say it’s a trend that will continue. It’s an area you can’t afford to ignore anymore, for this will only serve to your detriment.
- Measurement and Reporting that Works
If there is one area that poses a headache to marketers as they gauge results, it is data quantification. Metrics can prove intimidating. However, reporting these analytics doesn’t have to be a nightmare.
Rather than try to analyse everything, simplify your data sources to reveal the right information through structured sources of data.
- Integrate SEO Data across Teams
Every person involved in a marketing endeavour is on the same team, looking to achieve the same goal. Don’t forget that.
By pooling the collective effort, you will maximise your cross-channel marketing and have a more successful campaign overall.
Having said all of that, now you are thinking.. how can SEO help me? What can I expect from a good SEO company and what would it cost my company?
If you would like to chat to one of our Melbourne based team to hear about why we are different and tell us about your challenges and marketing strategy use the contact us link and we will be in touch.