Businesses continue to utilize the internet not only to sell products but also to draw potential users to their websites.
Some businesses are improving their website experiences for the user to incorporate methods to make better use of search engine optimization, ways in which their websites can be found on searches, and search engine marketing, or SEM, a method of paying to be placed prominently on search engines like Google and Bing.
For the search engine companies, there are many good practices to be employed so that businesses can be found online.
How do the search engines work to draw traffic to business websites?
Alphabet is Google’s parent company. According to CNBC, the company posted fourth-quarter 2016 earnings per share of $9.36 on revenues of $26.06 billion. Per-share prices mid-week last week were about $985.
Google is the leading internet search engine, and carries the most proficient and complex system to deliver ads from businesses to potential customers and clients.
“When Google came out, they weren’t the only search engine in town, but they were the one with the idea of looking at the way pages interlink to each other,” said Bill Sebald, managing partner at Greenlane Search Marketing LLC, Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County. “Immediately they became the strongest search engine.”
Google Search Network
AdWords is a way of promoting any business or nonprofit through the Google Search Network using keywords. Keywords associated with the product or service are purchased on a “per-click” basis when a user searching for one of the keywords clicks on the businesses ad.
AdSense by Google is the placement of specific advertisements on related websites. These drive traffic to a location other than the host site.
As a result, a flurry of acronyms were born.
The term SEM was made popular by Danny Sullivan, a leading authority on search engines and search marketing issues, in 2001 to describe the array of activities.
“SEM is typically what people are referring to when they are talking about Google marketing specifically,” said Andrew Woodward, digital marketing specialist and Google expert at Weidenhammer, Wyomissing.
Websites more accessible
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a set of rules used by businesses to make websites more accessible to search engines.
“Very often SEO and SEM are used interchangeably, but they are absolutely not interchangeable,” Woodward said. “Search engine marketing has to do with advertising and bidding for ads, keywords and target markets.”
SEM is paid search, and SEO is the structure of a website that allows it to appear on searches.
SEO allows websites to attract specific customers by optimizing all components of the site, such as adjusting text and properly naming images.
“These are all the things Google recognizes as good practices,” Woodward said.
The Google algorithm for advertising is constantly being tweaked, Woodward said. His job is to study the updates from Google and track traffic to websites to get a better understanding of advertising and search trends.
“Google wants to look at your site and wants to know right up front what (your business is) about, who the market is and what the product and service is,” Woodward said. “And it wants to do it easily.”
The easier it is for Google to navigate a site, the more optimized the site is and the better ranking the site receives in the Google database.
Working together
Along with other strategies involving print and other media connected to a website, SEM and SEO need to work together to produce the greatest results for the advertiser.
Recently, Weidenhammer worked with Scranton-based Gertrude Hawk Chocolates on a campaign that utilized other methods, including SEM and SEO, to sell chocolate during Valentine’s Day and Easter.
“We had never done an organized online marketing campaign,” said Kristen Shemanski, social media manger and e-commerce coordinator for Gertrude Hawk.
The campaign stretched over GoogleAds and Facebook to rebrand the 80-year old company’s internet presence.
“We were able to increase sales for the Easter season, not only from existing customers, but it also increased our new customers,” Shemanski said.
Facebook and Google are separate entities with vastly different designs and potential results.
“With Google people are trying to find you, and then you are delivering your message,” Woodward said. “On Facebook, they are already there. You’re just hitting them at the right time.”
For Gertrude Hawk, the right time was avoiding the lull between the two chocolate-centric holidays.
Different platforms
Facebook and Google are very different platforms, Sebald said.
“Google is an answer engine,” he said. “Facebook is a neighborhood with relevant billboards.”
Facebook played a big part in the Gertrude Hawk campaign, Woodward said.
“We created a half dozen ads, which all led the user to a landing page,” Woodward said.
The ad was shown to thousands of people multiple times per day, and in this case, the landing page was located on Gertrude Hawk’s website. The major benefit of Facebook is the ability to define an audience.
The better you know your audience the more successful your Facebook campaign will be, according to Woodward.
From a marketing perspective, Woodward calls Facebook a dream come true, because it studies the people who use it. Facebook is successful because it is a social site, allowing like minds to congregate. Other sites such as YouTube, owned by Google, is good for branding as it emulates what people are used to from watching TV.
“In a sense, YouTube is like a search engine,” Sebald said.
The free video site works hand in hand with Google. Ads are displayed before and during videos.
“As the web got faster, more and more people got interested in video,” Sebald said. “The platform, YouTube, just grew along with it.”
Know the customer
Woodward advises companies to know their potential customer when trying to reach them.
“There are audiences that, where on Facebook and on Google, they will never cross,” Woodward said. “You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of all platforms to determine where to start and where to end.”
At Greenlane Search Marketing the goal is to not just bring in any kind of traffic, but to bring in the right kind of traffic. Woodward echoes this sentiment.
“This whole system works together,” Woodward said.
Contact Michael C. Upton: money@readingeagle.com.
