SEO - Demystifying the Jargon

SEO, no gamble. Just pick the right SEO people.

I was reading an article just a few days ago which used the term “SEM”. The article implied that SEM (Search Engine Marketing) was the “more efficient” means of marketing through search engines.  It also implied that SEM was a safer option over the “high-cost gamble” that SEO affords. The piece was well written, but not accurate in its assertions.

Demystifying the jargon: SEM, SEO, PPC…

This article will outline some of the different components of Search Engine Marketing, starting with SEO or “Search Engine Optimisation”.  It will demonstrate why any attempt to label it a “black art” or a “gamble” is wrong, and damaging to the SEM industry. We’re going to look at PPC (paid search advertising or Pay Per Click) and show how this is just another part of a good SEM campaign and how the data gathered from a PPC campaign can contribute to the effectiveness of your SEO work. Finally, we’ll explore how anyone can set up a paid search campaign, and what you’ll need to know if you’re considering SEO for your website.

SEO is not art, it’s a formula.

SEO doesn’t have to be a costly exercise. The return on your investment should be totally measurable. Look at the budget for your offline campaigns, and compare it to the cost of a good SEO campaign. Often you can achieve the same results in SEO with a tenth of the offline budget.

There are two kinds of people who will tell you that SEO is a black art: people who have a website that isn’t optimized for search engines, or people who don’t really understand it. There’s nothing more frightening than an SEO consultant who tells you this! If you have an SEO consultant that matches this description, fire him.

To be able to properly assess an SEO consultant’s ability to deliver results, you need to have a basic understanding of SEO yourself. Understand how it is done, and how it is measured with a webstats package, perhaps Google’s analytics, which is simple to interpret and completely free.

SEO 101

Search engines are looking for two elements when deciding where your website should rank: relevant content on your chosen subject and a degree of authority. Google will only rank a page if it considers you an expert source of information on a subject. How? Thanks to the World Wide Web, people link to each other. The more links you have, the more authoritative you must be. At least, if those links all come from other websites with high authority, or “pagerank”, then your work is almost done. Making a page relevant to a keyphrase is easy. If you want your website to rank for “jobs in architecture”, then create a page that talks about “jobs in architecture”. Attract some good quality links by using original, useful content and quite soon, you’ll see the search traffic hitting your page.

SEO is very simple. Make a website, create it in a structured way, with links from your homepage to your most important pages (making it easy for search engines to find that content), then make sure the content is relevant and authoritative.

Paid Search: PPC, Pay Per Click

Paid Search is an important traffic contributor to a well rounded search engine marketing campaign. In studies on of the websites we have developed for our clients with both PPC and SEO campaigns, we found that PPC would generate between 20 – 40% of the total search engine clicks for keywords where there was a similarly positioned organic (SEO) ranking.

PPC is a highly measurable channel. Clicks, cost per click and impressions (how many times your ad is displayed) are all recorded. You can even measure “goals”, for example the number of people who register on your site with a CV or job application. All this has been possible in organic search (SEO) for some time too thanks to Google’s Analytics.

Paid search can be costly. You only pay for a visit to your website, but some of those clicks could be costing you £1 each. There’s no such charging mechanism in SEO. In fact, SEO work always contributes to the richness and quality of your website. When you’re choosing your keywords, think carefully – will your target market really be using this phrase? Targeting the phrase “jobs” in your campaign is hardly savvy targeting when you’re a financial services recruiter.

Any person who has ordered a book on Amazon, checked the weather or tonight’s TV listings online could set up their own PPC account. Go to http://www.google.co.uk/adwords and follow the step by step instructions to get started. If you’re not sure who to target, or what text to use in the advert, try looking at your competitors. Don’t copy them, improve on what they’re doing by putting yourself in the shoes of your candidate, try to consider what might make them click your advert.

Paid Search can contribute to SEO research

The data we collect from PPC campaigns, in particular: which keywords generated the most traffic and how many searches there were for a particular phrase, can be extremely useful when determining your SEO strategy. PPC data forms a useful part of the keyword research we use when embarking on an SEO project. Using this data means that we can begin to generate more traffic through organic search, and move our PPC spend to other areas of the keyword portfolio.

Considering an SEO campaign

When you’re looking for good advice on SEO, listen out for how clearly the subject is explained to you. SEO consultants who hide behind phrases like “black art” should be avoided. A good SEM agency should be able to demonstrate a portfolio of success and be capable of instilling passion for the subject in their clients. Ask yourself what you’ve learned about SEO from their pitch and if their strategy demonstrates and understanding of your recruitment business and target candidates.

For more information contact INFO@4MAT.com