A Complete Guide to SEO and SEM
More and more of our potential clients are heading online, and simply having a website is no longer good enough. If you want to see real ROI on your investment, start by learning about search engine marketing here.
As the owner of a financial advice business in 2020, you’ve probably heard of terms like SEO and SEM. Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are vital components of running a successful business today.
Whether you operate a locally focused advice business or cater to demographics far outside your postcode, you need search engine marketing – having a website alone isn’t enough to draw in leads. The question is, what are you doing to ensure you’re driving people to your website directly?
To help you get a better understanding, let’s look at what search engine marketing is, how it can help your business, and how you can apply it to your boost your performance online.
What Is Search Engine Marketing?
To understand search engine marketing, you must first understand search engine optimization. SEO refers to website coding that search engines look for to find relevant data based on keyword searches. For example, when someone Googles “financial advisers near me,” the SEO in your website will determine how quickly they find you in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Search engines reward websites which deliver relevant answers and solutions to the questions and requests people type into the search bar. That’s why websites with great SEO often contain a heap of information – typically in blog form. Information which is directly relevant to the clients they seek to attract.
Search engine marketing refers to the paid advertising version of SEO. You can pay search engines like Google to publish your website at the top of the results page based on certain keyword searches that consumers enter into the Google search bar – e.g. ‘best financial advisers Adelaide.” However, you will only pay for the ad when people click through to your website.
You pay a predetermined amount for each click your ad gets. This is more cost-effective than simply paying for a month of advertising whether people act on the ad – e.g. contact your business – or not.
How Can SEM Improve Your Leads?
Search engine marketing can be incredibly helpful for extending your reach to new audiences and generating leads quickly. For newer businesses or businesses with a limited online presence, search engine marketing may be vital for fast tracking awareness of your brand and ultimately the creation of leads.
In the beginning, your website won’t have tons of valuable blog articles full of relevant keywords. Nor will it be very credible. However, as you receive more visitors looking for a financial adviser through Google ads or other search engines, your organic ratings will go up as well.
The more visitors your website receives, the better your SEO ranking. The higher your SEO ranking, the easier it will be for people to find you through searches without you having to pay for an ad.
How Can You Boost Your SEO?
No matter how much you pay for search engine marketing, it’s important to understand that SEO is still vital for your online presence. In time, you want to drive traffic to your website organically. Here are some quick tips on how to boost your SEO ranking:
- Create a blog full of valuable, relevant information and keywords
- Use both long-tail and short-tail keywords in your website content
- For locally focused advice businesses, focus on local keywords
- Use internal and external links throughout your website (particularly in the blog section)
- Get backlinks from other credible websites
- Use multiple forms of media (articles, images, videos, etc.)
If you don’t have an in-house marketing team with SEO expertise, hire an SEO specialist to help you increase traffic – because without traffic you simply will not get results online.
Do You Need Help With Your Digital Marketing?
Getting results – traffic, leads and sales – when first starting out online can be difficult, especially for new business owners. It’s important to remember that whilst your digital marketing efforts should be geared towards getting your potential clients to ‘know you, like you and trust you’, they’ve got to be able to find you first!
Would you like to copy the exact marketing system we’ve used to generate over 200 new advice leads since 01 January 2020? Contact us today to request a meeting.
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