Aiming for the Top-Spot On Search Engines? Time for a Rethink

If your business is involved in SEO, chances are you share the same goal as everyone else. That being, to climb right to the top of the rankings to the number-one position.

It’s no secret that the higher the ranking, the more likely you are to win the lion’s share of traffic. With three-quarters of web users now refusing to look beyond the first page, this really is the place to be. 

But what if we were to tell you that fighting tooth and nail for the top-spot isn’t always the best way to go? What could be more important than doing whatever it takes to claw all the way to that prestigious number-one spot?

Particularly if this is the main goal of your SEO strategy, it could be time for a rethink…and here’s why:

It Might Be Impossible

First and foremost, actually getting yourself to the number-one position could be impossible. There’s every chance that whatever your niche and specialist area, you’ll always be outperformed by a bigger rival. If their SEO spend is literally 100X yours, you can’t expect all the strategy in the world to give you the upper hand. You could throw every penny you have at your SERP performance, but it might not be enough. Painful as it may be, it’s sometimes necessary to accept the top-spot for certain key words is completely out of reach.

SEO is Unpredictable

A strategic SEO campaign should be all about solid performance and measurable improvements. The SEO landscape is just too unpredictable to have such a stubborn and specific goal in mind. You spend more than you can afford boosting your SEO strategy, you finally hit the top-spot and you’re happy. Only then to watch Google alter its algorithm and drop back to your prior fifth position. If you can reach a strong position and hold onto it, you’re golden.

Position Zero is Better

The interesting thing about position-zero is that not only is it better, it’s also more achievable. Check out a few position-zero pages and you’ll see how comparatively few come from the biggest brands and businesses out there. If you can offer something that perfectly answers the question being asked, you’ve every chance of hitting this prestigious beyond-top-spot. Lists, top-tens, detailed snippets – all great for attracting Google’s attention. If planning on campaigning for the top-spot, try campaigning for position-zero instead.

Hedge Your Bets

Last up, campaigning to hit the top-spot for one particular search term means investing heavily in this one term. In the meantime, search terms and keywords of enormous value could be denied your time, effort and attention. You may dominate the rankings with this key term of interest, but what about the rest? What if you end up on page two or three for a bunch of other major keywords and search terms? Rather than attempting to rule the roost with just one or two terms, think about hedging your bets with a more widespread approach to your SEO strategy.

The Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

Traditional forms of marketing such as magazine advertising, billboards, TV etc are slowly being replaced by search engine marketing (SEM). SEM can allow you to reach your target market in a very effective way, wherever your customers are in the world. It promotes your website by increasing its presence in search engine results pages using paid placement methods such as targeted advertising, paid inclusion. All those ads you see on the right hand side of the search results pages when you type in a key word – chances are these are the result of SEM.

The initial outlay of hiring a search marketing company to optimise your website’s visibility in this way can bring substantial rewards, and here’s why:

Typing keywords into search engines is the number one method people use to find websites. If you have used any of the methods listed above then you are tapping in to a global audience, all potentially getting ready to type in your key words. Furthermore, the majority of people will check a search engine every day – that’s a lot of potential clients that you simply wouldn’t have access to using the more traditional marketing channels.

Your website will appear to an audience who are already actively searching for your keywords. For example, if you are a company making toy prams for children, a person looking for this product will type in your key words and, if you are using paid-for, targeted advertising such as pay-per-click your website will appear to somebody who is already in the market for your products. If you pay enough per click then you are almost certain to increase the visibility of your website to your customer base.

Search engine marketing can also be far more cost-effective than other forms of internet advertising. For example, with pay-per-click you don’t pay until a user clicks on your advert so you are really only paying for those interested in your products. Furthermore, it has been estimated that there are 5-6 times more online purchases made from traffic coming from search engines than from banner adverts, and the cost is lower.
Search engine marketing can allow you to keep up with, or ahead of, your competition.

Really, if you want to maximise your business opportunities these days you need to be thinking about online marketing – because if you aren’t you can be sure that many of your competitors, whatever sector you are working in, are already doing it and reaping the benefits. If you want access to the latest search marketing methods, particularly if you are a start-up and want to hit the ground running, it may be a good idea to seek expert advice from a specialist search marketing company who will be able to develop the best online strategy to fit the particular needs of your market.

Search engine marketing is today one of the most sure-fire ways of increasing the visibility of your website and reaching out to a global customer base. Using a search engine marketing company can allow you to increase your profits at a relatively low outlay – and it should be remembered that online marketing is relatively outstripping the more established channels.

Marketing a Small Business on a Budget

Setting up a small business can be expensive and you may not have a huge budget available for your marketing. This article offers help and advice on managing your advertising in a cost effective manner.

Marketing is vital to get a business noticed by its target audience and this is possibly just as important if not more so if your business is on a small scale. With so much competition around you cannot simply sit and hope that people will find you or before you know it your business will be making a loss. Many people assume that marketing is going to be incredibly expensive and never make it past handing out a few leaflets. However this need not be the case and even those on a tight budget can find marketing methods to suit their needs.

Lead Generation and Email Marketing

Setting up a website is incredibly important as this gives you somewhere to refer potential customers to but you need to make sure that you are thinking about every visitor being a possible sale or lead. For this reason you should try and make sure that you entice them into leaving their contact details so that you can contact them with future promotions and offers and generally remind them that you exist. This can be as simple as you make it and many people often just have a short contact form for their name and email address. This is a great way to market your business without being expensive or too time consuming.

Search Engine Optimisation

This type of marketing is something you may have heard of since SEO, or search engine optimisation, is incredibly popular and does not cost much to put in place. It will however take a little time and effort initially to establish important keywords and phrases that people use to search for what you offer and make sure these are placed in all of your web content. In this way you should find that people are able to locate your website quickly as you will rank well in the search engines. If you are in a competitive industry search marketing companies could help you to increase your rankings.

Pay per click advertising

This is another marketing strategy that does not cost much but will take a little time and effort on your part; however the results will be worth it. It is important that you understand how this works before you begin otherwise it could end up costly. For this reason you should take your time to do your research or perhaps consider hiring a marketing consultant of some kind to make sure that you are doing it right.

Why you Should Consider Hiring a Marketing Expert

Running a successful marketing campaign is vital to attract new customers and increase your profits; however it can sometimes be a little confusing. Hiring a marketing expert can be a great way of ensuring that your advertising runs smoothly.

Marketing and advertising your business is absolutely vital if you want to generate sales and therefore make your business as successful as possible. If you are new to this area then you may find that hiring a marketing expert is a great way to ensure you are making the most of your advertising. No matter if you are a large or small business you can always benefit from the help of a marketing expert to keep you ahead of your competitors and gain plenty of traffic to your website.

How can they Help?

Search marketing companies will use a variety of search engine marketing tools as well as articles with plenty of relevant keywords and link building campaigns in order to generate as much traffic as possible for your business. They should also be able to look after the on page factors to make sure that your website responds well to all marketing efforts. Ways in which a marketing expert might do this include making sure that the content on the site is keyword specific and creating product tags, titles, relevant content and headers based around certain keywords to help build up your customer base..

By hiring a marketing expert and someone with experience in search engines they can help you to generate and build high quality back links for your business. This is especially important if you do not understand or have the time for search engine optimisation as this can form a key part of your advertising campaign. By approaching a marketing expert you can carefully select and target a niche area for your business to increase your ranking in online search engines.

An online marketing expert will also understand the many different advertising techniques that are available to you and be able to guide you as to which ones are most suitable. For instance creating and running a blog can be a great way to increase the traffic to your website and by updating it regularly and using unique, informative keyword rich content it can really boost your sales!

Things to Watch for When Hiring a Search Engine Marketing Agency

Why spend your valuable time trying to optimise your website when you can hire a search engine marketing agency? Instead of dividing your time on various website tasks, it makes sense to hire a consulting professional so you can do what you do best - run your business. Selecting the right company however can be rather tricky because so many of them sound like a good deal when they are anything but. However, if you know what to watch for during your search, you will find the right company to optimise your website and increase your sales.

Look for Directory Submission Service Options

A good marketing professional will know how to submit your business listing to the leading web directories in addition to those portals that are industry or niche-specific. This facet of a search engine marketing agency can be quite valuable because a superior description of your business in the appropriate category of the leading web directories will increase the probability of being added swiftly and correctly. Directory listings can promote your website popularity and boost traffic. While there are some free listings to be had, a professional will know the fees and correct options to choose from to make directory submissions count effectively.

SEO Services

A marketing company that can offer Google optimisation can be worth their weight in gold if the result is increased sales. They will work with you in regards to researching the correct keywords as well as make changes in your website content, page tags, included web links and other page coding. In other words, not only will they ensure that your website is still user-friendly but also relevant to the top search engines.

Guaranteed Improvement in Web Traffic

An effective consultancy company can guarantee improved performance of your website or your money back. The goal is to improve your SERP rankings and most good companies can do that. The point is to increase your conversions of page visitors to new customers. Because the goal is a higher conversion rate, the number of overall web visitors to your site may drop. However, this can be good when the visitors are more likely to be serious potential customers instead of lookie-lous who are just cruising the internet. Quality over quantity of visitors is the overall goal.

Red Flags to Watch For

Companies that promise not to change your website at all are likely not effective SE marketers. There must be some changes, whether in links, keywords or tags, in order for the major search engines to recognize your website. And you definitely do not want them embedding hidden links, text or even dummy pages as search engines will eventually penalise your company for it.

The final red flag to consider are those absolute guarantees given to you about your website reaching number one in the major search engine rankings. Because these search engines use complicated algorithms, there is no way to guarantee a number one ranking, only guaranteed improvement. Keep these things in mind when hiring a search engine marketing agency.