by John Jerome
The buying habits of Americans have changed dramatically over the past few years. Now they search before they buy. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), along with Search Engine Marketing (SEM), are two essentials in any corporate advertising strategy. They are as necessary as having a web site these days.
80% of consumers find a web site by inquiring with a search engine (Bing, Yahoo, Google). 85% of all traffic on the Internet is referred to through a search engine, and with over 12 billion searches per month conducted by Americans, there is a lot of opportunity. It’s not enough just to be on the first page, you have to strive to be in the first 3 positions. The first 3 search results receive almost 60% of the clicks. Which means, unless you are in the top 3 results, a potential customer will decide to buy with a competitor simply because they are higher in the search results. Market Smart: are you marketing for your company or your competitors?
Why spend money on SEM when SEO, or Organic Search, is essentially free? First, SEO takes a much longer time to accomplish. Second, with the search engines constantly changing their algorithms, navigating SEO has become more of an art than science. In other words, because it is organic, it is not predictable. As a result, we at Jerome, Bruhn & Associates recommend doing both SEO & SEM.
SEO & SEM are much more effective than traditional forms of marketing. SEO/SEM Leads have a 14.6% Close rate, as opposed to other outbound leads, including direct mail or print advertising, which have a 1.7% close rate. SEM or Pay per Click (PPC) is only a cost when a prospect actually clicks on your sponsored advertisement. This avoids spending on irrelevant impressions, or spillage as I refer to it, as It means that our client’s at JBA only pay once they have gained the attention of a qualified prospect. The other obvious benefit is that with effective SEO coupled with SEM, our client’s end up with two top positions in search engine results. Plus, with SEM, a client will start seeing benefits almost immediately.