“Go google it…”

‘Can anyone tell me what’s the best cookie recipe?’
‘Just google it!’

It can be rude when we ask a sincere question and the only respond we got is ‘Go google it!’

But before we google, the results can be altered by businesses that have been expecting your search. (Wait, WHAT?) And we are all guilty of clicking the first few websites that are ad-free shown on the search page. It is seen as more reliable and quickest way to retrieve information. And how did these websites manage to appear on your first page? It is not by coincidence nor individual preferences. It is the combination of these tools – Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Image Credit: Internetlivestas

The main objective for applying these tools is to get high-intent traffic to their website. There are many search engines but Google holds the most amount of searches. As of today, there has been 6,446,008,122 searches and still counting in a day!

Image Credit: Google

Businesses implement SEO and SEM strategies to make sure they are listed in the user’s first page. I admit, I never gone to the second page of Google Search because I felt I could get better results if I rephrased my search. Landing on the first page would mean that more people will see their websites and create greater brand awareness. Thus allowing more conversions because the website is more recognised.

So how do businesses pop up when I ‘go google it!’?

Image Credit: Soravjain.com

Search Engine Optimisation:
1) Blog, blog and blog!
It is an effective way to boost the search rank organically. Businesses can blog about relevant topics and potentially fulfil customer’s queries like ‘My cookies are too soft, how?’. This will create opportunities to climb higher in search engines.

2) Time and Effort
It it hard work to post regularly and make sure it reaches the first page. Especially for businesses that have just started and have little online presence. This method is slow but it will drive the right audience to the website through searching on search engines.

3) Building Brand Loyalty
With organic and quality content on in the website, it contains a wide range of information for the customers. This will allows customers to place more trust in the business and eventually lead to repeated conversions.

Search Engine Marketing:
1) $$$
Think of it as paying Google or any other relevant website as a platform to advertise. A few things that factor in the cost will be ad spend, number of campaigns and ad strategy. Knowing these will give a guide on the budget the business should set aside.

2) Keywords
Digital marketers are required to come up with keywords that will appear on the Ad. They have a limited number of words to capture the attention of the customers and predict what customers will search on. It is an intense competitive because similar industries would use similar words and this cost more due to bidding.

3) More leads ≠ Conversion
Although there might have been a lot of traffic to the website, it is not necessary the right customer.

These are a few ways to increase traffic flow to your website and potentially generate more sales. It is best to implement both strategies together at the same time to reap all benefits. This way the website is well optimised with good blogging content and at the same time advertised.

And finally let me end off with a funny comic that I thought was quite true!

Image Credit: Unearthedcomics.com

Thank you for reading, see you in my next post!