The Original Northwest Web Marketers

Use Paid and Organic Search Engine Marketing for an Effective Internet Presence

Finding a Good Search Engine Marketing Strategy

Should you focus on paid or organic search engine marketing (SEM)? More likely than not, the answer is a resounding yes!

Search Engine Marketing is a form of internet advertising where companies pay to get their websites listed on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. This way when someone searches for a product or service online, they see your company’s website first.

Pay-per-click (PPC) as part of a business marketing campaign, can be very powerful and effective when used as a supplemental strategy while building your website’s organic traffic. Running a query through any major search engine will present you with a mix of both organic and paid search results.

While it’s possible to rank well on search engine results without SEM, the first page of results you’ll find on Google, Yahoo or Bing will remain beyond your reach.

Google Search Engine Results

Let’s take a quick look at a common Google product search example:

Google Shopping Ads, PPC Ads, and Search Engine Marketing

Take notice of how first results are all Google shopping ads and right below that are PPC results. Though you may be able to rank organically for “grain free dog food”, you would be competing against big name brands like PetMD and Amazon. Not to mention that even at the #1 position you would be placed below PPC advertisers. For this very reason, most of our customers are encouraged to invest in SEM. It can be as simple as running a Google AdWords or Facebook Ad campaign. Depending on your available budget we might suggest running ads on Bing and/or Yahoo.

Paid Ad Campaigns

You may be wondering, “Why do paid ads work so well?” The biggest reason is because paid ads incentivize search engines to place your ads in front of your target customers. Paid traffic is scalable provided that there is enough search volume for your chosen keywords and the cost-per-click is within your budget. You can get some results from nearly any budget with the right keyword strategy. Plus, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising just makes sense, which is why it is so extremely common. The reason why it’s so sensible is that, depending on the campaign type, if no one clicks on it, you don’t pay anything!

The different search engines use different models for Paid Search Ads. GreenHaven Interactive will help you find the best strategy for your budget.

Organic Search Engine Results

Google defines organic search as follows: “Organic search results aren’t paid ads. They’re the listings of high-quality sites that meet our organic criteria.” This means that these websites aren’t using any type of paid advertising to boost their rankings. Instead, they use strategies such as building authority through content creation and engagement, backlinks, social media shares, and more.

Unfortunately, building organic traffic takes time – sometimes months before you see measurable results. That’s what makes PPC a necessary part of an overall SEM strategy.

A Winning Search Engine Marketing Strategy

A combination of PPC and Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a necessary investment if you intend to be found online.

For instance, based on the Google Search query “Grain Free Dog Food” above, there were 192,000,000 results that appeared in a half second. The online market is so dense and highly competitive that time and money are required for the best chance of being found online. Success online requires strategic positioning.

If you leave it to chance that you will grow your business from people casually searching and stumbling upon your businesses, you’ll likely not be found.

But no worries… we’re here to do the work that gets your business found!

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GreenHaven Interactive utilizing the best practices in Web Design, Search Engine Marketing (SEO/SEM), Social Media, Reputation Management and other proven vehicles, GreenHaven partners with your organization to drive your business goals.