Search Engine Marketing

We at AccuNet define SEO as on-site marketing of your website and SEM as off-site marketing of your website.  Now, what is on-site and off-site?

• On-site includes all physical activities done directly to your website.
• Off-site includes all activities you may pursue that do not concern your content directly. 

Before you even think of looking into SEM, we strongly suggest that you make sure your website content has been written to convert Internet viewers into customers and you have performed SEO on key website pages in order to maximize your organic search ranking with search engines. 

Search engines use inbound linking to define how credible your website is for the public.  Inbound links from sources that match your website content are valuable.  They are considered relevant and help search engines define your website in favorable terms.  While relevant inbound links are difficult to come by, it is very important that Category Two website owners take the time to build links directed to their website.

Inbound linking opportunities include:

• The reputable directories of Yahoo! and DMOZ
• Social directories such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace
• Industry specific associations
• Chamber of Commerce

A great idea to explore is to find out what links your main competitors have coming to their website. 

• FireFox has a free extension you can download from SEOBook.com.  Search for SEO toolbar.
• AccuNet offers benchmark reports that gather this information as well.

Since sometimes a company can not wait the 6-36 weeks necessary to see if their SEO efforts are starting to pay off, SEM may be necessary.  These companies need traffic sooner, not later and are willing to pay extra to get the Internet viewers to their site.

Please understand paid advertising on the Internet will not affect your page ranking by search engines.  Search engines look at your website content (including the above mentioned SEO fields) and who is linking to you when giving your pages a ranked listing.  They do not look at whether you pay for advertising – ever!  That is a hard idea to grasp for most people the first time.  But, with contemplation it makes perfect sense. 

Here is an example:  If Google gave credit to a page because that website paid for an advertisement through Google’s pay-per-click program, then all of a sudden, only those websites who paid for advertising would be listed on the organic ranking page.  Internet viewers might stop using Google as their choice for searching the Internet and Google would loose their primary customer, the Internet viewer.  Also, the organic ranking page wouldn’t really be organic anymore.  Today, advertisers and sponsors are clearly marked on the organic page ranking; so Google is already giving the advertisers their due.

PPC advertising programs are available at specific search engines or important directories for your industry.  While it is completely possible to manage your own PPC campaign, this is one area we stress caution.  If you are not familiar with how to set up your campaign, monitor and track it, you are setting yourself up for the potential problem of money wasted by the wrong prospective Internet viewers clicking your sponsored link. 

AccuNet offers PPC advertising campaign management.  While each client’s program is quoted separately, the fees include set up, ad word budget and monthly monitoring fees.