SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about how to improve your Google ranking for any particular keyword. There are a multitude of things that the Google search algorithm considers when determining who get’s to the top of the page for a search related to a particular keyword. Digital marketers separate these things into ‘on-page’ and off-page’. On-page’ SEO looks at how your content is structured on the page to provide the search bot the required information in the required way, as well as providing your user with the best possible experience when engaging with your content. ‘Off-page’ SEO refers to all the ‘behind-the-scenes’ things that are considered by the search bot to help create your page rank. To give you an idea, some of the off-page factors might include links, site performance, hosting, domain registration, mobile-friendliness, etc.
Google Adwords provide you with the ability to pay for the top position on any Google search page. The cost of these ads are determined by the level of competition for a particular keyword. For example, searching in Auckland for “dermal filler” is considered by Google to have a medium level of competition and the cost to obtain the top position for this keyword is around $3 per click. Whereas “dentist auckland” is considered a highly competitive term and the price to get the top position here is nearly $12 per click. so in these two examples, the businesses competing to take out the top position for this keyword have driven up the price – if you want the top spot, all you need to do is be willing to pay more per click for it than your competitor. Once set-up and launched, your Adwords will start showing immediately – which means, the phone will start ringing more or less straight away. This is on of the fastest ROIs you can hope for and certainly still the cheapest (television advertising is still the fastest and most lucrative, but also the most expensive). Within the Adwords umbrella, there are three ways to advertise. The examples above are known as ‘search network’ ads which are still the most common. Most business owners are using these or have tried them in the past. The other areas within Adwords are Display Network and YouTube. Display network are the ads you see when surfing the net. They’re usually flashy banners that fill up the sidebar, header or footer of a page you are viewing. Content-based websites (such as blogs or news sites) rely on the Google Display network for their revenues. They get paid every-time your banner shows – and you pay for every 1000 times your banner shows (called CPM). These ads are generally better for either product specific ads or for branding – keeping awareness of your brand high. One of the most popular techniques in display ads is termed ‘Remarketing’. Remarketing is when you build a list of visitors to your website who do not complete a certain behaviour – for example, they visit the website but do not view the contact page or click your phone number; or they add products to their cart, but don’t proceed to checkout. We can then target this audience when they are surfing the web and show them your ads. Most people are now aware of this happening especially if you shop on Amazon or eBay regularly, you’ll notice ads for products you viewed on these websites ‘following’ you around the web – this is called Remarketing. It’s an inexpensive way of targeting people who have already shown an interest in your business. It’s also getting pretty sophisticated so the targeting opportunities are getting better and better.
Finally, there’s YouTube. This is one of the mist under-utilised digital marketing opportunities in New Zealand. The audience on YouTube is simply staggering. The cost of showing an ad to these people is low. If you’ve ever wanted an effective TV commercial but couldn’t afford it, now you can – and the audiences are there. You can have a banner or video ad. The costs to produce video ads start at very little (if you can do them yourself or only need simple quality) right up to tens of thousands for proper TV commercial quality. We can arrange both inexpensive ‘lower quality’ advertisements for budgets under $1000 through to TV quality adverts fro around $7000-10000.
When combining both Adwords and SEO, you end up with a powerful strategy that can really make your online content (your website, products, etc) VERY visible. We aim for what we call ‘Google Dominance’ which is when you have a minimum of 3 listings on page 1 of Google. By making sure your website maximises both on-page SEO and off-page SEO opportunities as well as carefully crafting an effective Adwords campaign, we can truly stimulate your business. In fact, if you are serious about growing your business, the question should not be ‘how much can I afford?’, the question should be ‘how much business can I actually handle?’ We will do the rest.
