Boone County Economic Development Corporation’s last session of the Summer Small Business Series occurred when Wade Danforth of Inspire Marketing spoke to us about SEO & SEM Marketing Strategies. Like our other speakers in the series, Wade did a fantastic job of simplifying a very complicated conversation, and we all gleaned specific take-aways.
Wade introduced the conversation explaining the difference between SEO and SEM. SEO is search engine optimization, which essentially means optimizing your website, so it is searchable, and Google can organically find it through the content created on your website. SEM is search engine marketing, which means utilizing whatever tool or tactic to market your content via a search engine. An example of SEM would be a google ad that would drive call to click results.
From here, we discussed the difference between organic SEO and the Pay Per Click model of SEM. Organic SEO is a long-play model that requires ongoing work and is more trusted by consumers. To deliver this strategy, a business owner needs to update his or her website with new content routinely. The SEM strategy revolves around the Pay Per Click model, and it is more of a short-term play that will be successful for one to two days. You will want to create a monthly budget of how much the business would like to spend per month as it can be more expensive, and these advertisements can add up quickly.
Next, Wade discussed the importance of having a Google Business Page and how this is the single best thing a small business can do because it helps search engines find their related business content. When you are setting up your Google business page, go to Google My Business and follow the steps. For any content listed on the Google Business Page as well as on your website, don’t forget to utilize geographic references as well as outside links to help Google find your content. You will also want to use the appropriate keywords to describe your business as you are creating this page. If you do not know your keywords, visit your competitor’s websites and google advertisements and see what comparable keywords they used.
For more insight into Wade’s conversation, feel free to visit the recorded conversation here, or contact Inspire Marketing to schedule a conversation with Wade.
