Is Your Search Marketing Strategy Responsive to Your Customers?
Hold on to your hat. Google received nearly 2.3 trillion searches in 2019. In fact, sixty-seven searches are performed on Google every second!
Organic and paid search clicks across search engines can easily supply more than half of your 
website traffic. Because of this, it’s important to truly understand how viewers to your site search for results and how to optimize your website based on what you discover after viewing website analytics.
Search marketing strategies are changing constantly, yet there are three core areas that continue to remain a foundation of the process:
- Content: Can we say this enough? We all struggle to find the time to carefully craft our messages. Yet taking the time to create high-quality, relevant content that offers the best answers for people seeking answers will drive the highest return on your investment of time. An average 300-word word count is best, as long as its solid copy and not just a webpage stuffed with fluffy content and random keywords. Make sure to develop section headings and relevant graphics to add interest to the copy. Don’t shy away from using bullet points if copy is very lengthy. The key is to keep the reader on the page and interested in what you have to say.
- Technical Development: From a technical development perspective, websites should be search engine friendly. Poor web practices will hurt your search rankings. Regularly review and correct problems such as broken outbound links, 404 errors, and HTML errors such as missing or duplicated meta tags. Also make sure your website is firing on all cylinders when it comes to mobile platforms such as smartphones and tablets. Make certain your site loads quickly and renders well on all devices.
- Backlinks: An astonishing 55.24% of pages don’t have a single link leading back to it from other sites as reported by Impact. Backlinks are earned through strong content, active social sharing, email promotion, and PR. It’s actually a form of influencer marketing. The more trusted domains in your backlink profile, the higher your website ranks and the stronger it becomes.
Search is More Than Ranking High
The top three search results on the first page of Google are reported to get more than 50 percent of clicks. Source: CMSWire Yet more than a third (34 percent) of search on Google don’t result in a click at all, either because the results don’t match viewer expectations or Google provides the answer directly in a knowledge graph box.
Images receive 3 percent of all Google search clicks, and over 2 percent of clicks are directed to YouTube videos. In fact, YouTube “How To” Video Searches were up 70% with over 100 million hours watched in 2015 alone.
Search continues to grow on Mobile Devices and Responsive Reigns Supreme
It’s no surprise, 69% of all digital media time is now spent on mobile devices. Organic search visits on phones rose 15 percent for all search engines last year. Forty-three percent of organic searches were performed on phones and 10 percent on tablets. (Source: Marketing Scope)
In 2015, Google made a search engine algorithm change that we in the marketing industry called “Mobilegeddon”. Essentially, they insisted that all smartphones be user-friendly. If not, your brand would be losing out on valuable leads. This is the change that launched the birth of responsive website design. Because we’re Google Partners, we were given the “heads-up” on this change and, as a standard service, began to offer our clients this feature so websites would automatically adjust to any device being used, particularly on mobile devices.
Take a look at your website on a smart phone. Do you need to zoom in to read the text; or scroll back and forth to click on any items in your main menu? If so, your website is probably not responsive. At the very least it’s not too user friendly. To know for sure Google offers a tool that analyzes your site based on how their systems look at it here.
We Can’t Forget Search Advertising
Although Google owns about 70% of the search market arena, Bing’s LinkedIn Connection offers a healthy strategy giving businesses the opportunity to be seen across multiple marketing channels. Pay per click can be an excellent source of advertising as it can give you laser target precision on serving up ads directed just to your audience. Yet PPC will only work if you know what you’re doing. To avoid wasting valuable dollars, you need to carefully speak to the problems your products or services solve BEFORE developing any ads. A thorough review of your target audience is also required. Where are they located? What industries do they serve in? If you’re not familiar with the process, or delegate the task to someone with little time, you can easily end up paying for clicks from people who had no interest in your product or service.
Give Your Website the Attention it Deserves
Profitable results do not happen overnight. It’s a marathon…not a sprint. But it’s certainly worth it if done right. Campaigns need to be monitored and optimized regularly and patience is required. Every case is different, as are the businesses behind them. What worked in 2018 isn’t going to work as well in 2020. Changes continue to happen almost daily.
Search is a bit like herding bees. Yet it’s likely to remain among the top sources driving website traffic for quite some time. Beit organic or paid service, quality content will continue to be the essential core supported by strong “back-end” technology and careful attention to analytics.
Take a hard look at your current search strategies. It may be time for an update. Have you updated your campaigns recently or confused with all the changes in the digital world? Don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re happy to help answer any questions you may have.
Can 70% of trade show attendees find you?
Trade shows and event marketing account for twenty percent of B2B companies’ average annual marketing budget according to a 2014 Forrester Research study. With one fifth of a company’s budget going toward an events like a trade shows, conferences or seminars, and the explosion of programmatic digital advertising and mobile devices, it is vital companies implement state-of-the-art marketing technologies into their arsenal.
There is no doubt that traditional tactics work. Utilizing pre-and post-show emails, inviting clients, writing press releases, website landing pages, purchasing flashy new exhibits and staffing booths with intelligent, outgoing employees is a must. But what else should you be doing to outshine your competitor in booth 103?
To answer this, ask yourself: what is my potential client is doing before, during and after an event like a trade show? The answer is: Research on the internet. And the best way to place your company in that research is through search engine marketing (SEM).
Seventy percent of event attendees plan out who they will visit before and during the show. According to AdWeek, eighty-one percent of consumers conduct online research before they make a purchase, and sixty percent of those consumers start their research on a search engine before heading to a specific website. Although some of this data relates to consumer purchases online, combining these statistics helps us understand how attendees behave. It makes the most sense strategically to place ads on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and their network partners where attendees will be conducting research. This is a perfect storm for digital trade show marketing.
The ability to advertise your company, products and presence before a trade show is of tremendous value and a new, effective way to stay ahead of competitors. But you might be asking yourself, how can SEM help me during the show? How do I drive potential customers to my booth?
Since we know consumers conduct online research before visiting a booth and/or making a purchase, and with the advancement of the search engine marketing (SEM) platforms, companies have the option of targeting ads to within a mile of a specific location. With other location based optimizations in place within your account, you can be confident attendees searching for you keywords on a mobile device or desktop at a trade show are served your company’s ad. Seeing that sixty to seventy percent of viewers prefer search engine ads targeted toward their immediate location, and that thirty-two percent of viewers who were served location-based ads visited a specific store/location made a purchase (Search Engine Watch), this tactic is sure to increase visitors to your booth.
Utilizing search engine ads allows attendees to find your company before, during and after a trade show or event. But most importantly, placing these ads where your customers will be searching drives traffic to your booth, and serves as one of the most efficient ways to bring value to the largest expense in your annual marketing budget.
