Mixing up SEO and SEM. Logically these 2 should fit snugly together, practically the skills couldn’t be further apart. SEO is more business focused, strategic, innovative and technical. SEM or paid search requires focus where cost per conversion or acquisition is being targeted and is somewhat process driven with some creativity required for the ads. We have found staff fit into, and do well in 1 of these areas, seldomly do they excel at both.
Having established that, where do they converge and where is it important to have touch points:
- Keyword research and the use and identification of keywords in general is the obvious starting point, confirming focus, search volumes and usage between the 2 areas
- Campaigns, ensuring both teams understand what current and future campaigns are on the go and which are better served by SEO, medium term and SEM, short term etc.
- Links to the offline marketing team, to understand offline activities, branding efforts etc.
- Reporting, ensuring both the SEO and SEM teams work in tandem and are not dysfunctional
SEM Teams
Finding SEM staff is a little easier, finding SEM staff who have managed a provider/ agency relationship and who have managed large campaigns is a little more difficult. SEM is also also becoming increasingly competitive and software centric (Bid management software) so finding SEM staff with the above skills and with relevant bid management software experience can be even more difficult. Training outside of practical experience in a good SEM provider is hard to find.
Some considerations for the SEM Team
- Consider centralising SEM management, keeping expertise and liason with external providers through a single point of contact Read more…
Business online
The ongoing saga of firstly whether to build an in-house SEO team or outsource and then how to best structure this team to work across marketing, legal, sales and IT.
As always, onesize does not fit all and there are factors such as organisation size, geographic location, culture, maturity of the web presence and also the role the web presence plays in the marketing mix. Organisations whose website or sites are there key channel to market obviously would rate this a higher priority than say an offline retailer who does not sell online but merely provides information.
Approach it logically
Having said that, consider the following.
- If you are doing search engine optimisation (SEO), you are more than likely doing or considering doing paid search or search engine marketing (SEM).
- If you are doing either of these you are hopefully also running some form of Analytics
- SEO and SEM although different skill sets, SEO is specialised while SEM is more process driven, but still converge when it comes to landing pages, on-page content and quality scores and conversion
- Finally, these numbers all need to agree, the traffic numbers from SEO need to be reconciled with the numbers form SEM and SEM spend to other marketing campaigns.
- Marketing folk from all over the business need to give input on keywords, campaigns and initiatives. Make sense. Read on…
Read more…
Search Marketing In-house SEO
Interesting data available this week after my last post. Per a recent Pew report, (US based ofcourse) in fact as recent as today Pew found the average search user, according top their survey of 2,251 US adults was:
- A college graduate (66%)
- Earned income of over US$75,000 (62%)
- Had broadband at home (58%)
- Was predominantly 18-49 years old
Probably not that much in that, other than the fact that well educated wealthy people who can afford broadband at home use search engines more than the rest of us.
But then in another interesting article at Search Engine Land, based on Forbes.com and Gartner Research found the Internet was the most influential and important source of information to CXO or C level executives where 67% are using the Internet and 86% are using search to research competitors and trends dailly.
It would make sense that C level executives fall into the demographic above. Very convenient.
The key point however is that search is the start of these people’s online research, search is their doorway to information. This information maybe anywhere on your website, not just your homepage. Prepare your site with numerous landing pages and give those that land on them direction.
Business online, Internet Search Engine Marketing
Trusted sites are dead, or are they?
Past behaviour: Find a source that provides good service, good content and is credible. Return there whenever you need more information. You trust that it is the best.
New Behaviour: Loyalty is dead. When I need something I search. I cannot recall the sites visited. When I find what Im looking for I stop, use and move on.
Hypothesis: Your homepage is no longer the doorway to your website, the search engines are. They will deem the most appropriate page in your site to the search engine query and then deliver that page to the user, the user can drop in anywhere. Users don’t necessarily want a user experience they want specific information or knowledge, thus the query. A user process or experience also usually starts from the homepage and works ina logical manner, most users don’t, due to search.
Impact on design: Traditional design focuses on the homepage as the entry point, traditionally a clean splash type page and the usage or words, considered cool
The world has changed: When designing or building your new website consider the following, to
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Business online
