In the marketing world, the terms SEO and SEM are thrown around a lot. And sometimes, they are used interchangeably. But the truth is they are different. SEO stands for search engine optimization and SEM stands for search engine marketing.
SEO is all about driving visitors to your website organically through a search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). The goal is to get your website to appear higher in search results. In this case, higher actually means a smaller number. If you rank the highest on Google your rank is 1. Generally, there are 10 results per page of Google, so showing up 11 would put your website on the second page and therefore greatly reducing visibility.
In the ever-growing social media and digital world, consumer options are endless. Customers have a myriad of options to purchase a single product – a small brick and mortar store, large chain store, online retailer, etc. So how do they make this decision?
Many times, it has to do with reviews. A 2018 study indicated that 88% of consumers do research before they make a purchase either online or in-store. Reviews are a big piece of this research. For a lot of consumers, reviews are a way to try before you buy. Other people have used the product or service and have already given a report on it. This is especially important for people who buy online.
Google recently published an article detailing the three ways they think about SEO. We found that our thinking aligned with Google in many ways, so we wanted to share some of our own insights.
1. When working to improve your company's SEO, start small. Making edits to your website's content, metadata, and improving site speed are all small ways that you can move the needle in the right direction. Remember, SEO adjustments can take time to make a difference but there are many long-term results.
You have a Google My Business listing, now what? Optimizing your map listing is important for many reasons, especially local SEO. Follow these three tips for optimizing your listing to ensure your customers are not only finding your business, but the correct information!
1. Fill out your profile completely. There are many sections on a map listing such as description, services, hours and much more. It's very important to make sure your listing is as complete as possible. This will ensure people are able to find you and can get information about your business quickly.
Inevitably, in almost every Google Search, there's a listing for Yelp, Angie's List, or some other directory website. On average, there are 145 million unique monthly Yelp users, so it's safe to say these sites are getting some traffic! These websites continue to creep higher and higher in search results. So why does this matter and what should you be aware of?
You often hear the term SEO, but what does this acronum stand for? What does it really mean? And why is it important to your marketing plan? We're here to explain!
First things first: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's the process of affecting the online visibility of a website in a search engine's unpaid results. The higher a web page is ranked in a search result, the more likely it is to be clicked on by a user. When interpreting SEO data, think of it like a golf score card -- the lower the number the better.
Example: If a page on your site ranks 3 on a certain keyword, that means it was the third-highest organic listing in the search query.
Google has always said that "high-quality content" plays a role in a website's rank in search engine results, but they've only recently shed some light on what exactly that means. With the release of a guide aimed at helping Google's internal content creators, Google has shared some top tips for creating high-quality web content. In this post, we dive into a few of the tips Google shared in their Developer Documentation Style Guide.
Everyone wants to be #1 — on Google, that is. When your website is ranked high in search engine results, the usual result is more visits to your website. But how does one get to the top? That, my friends, is the age old marketing question that every marketer out there is trying to solve. The good news is there are some tried and true ways to do it. Some are more labor intensive and/or expensive than others, but there are also some simple tasks you can do right now that will help to improve your website's rankings.
By now, you've probably heard about the impending "Mobilegeddon" that will be happening on April 21st. It sounds a bit ominous but, trust us, it's not as bad as you think. Let us catch you up. In February, Google announced that it would begin using mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal for the search engine, meaning that mobile-friendly websites would appear higher in search results.
Like what you read? Want to see more blog posts?
Have a marketing question? Want to talk?