A simple guide to search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing

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03 Canyourcustomersfindyou?

04 An overview of search engine optimisation and pay per click

06 Comparing SEO and PPC

09 Choosing the right path

10 How Talisman can help

Drivingrelevanttrafficfromsearchenginesisa critical part of achieving online success for your business.

In today’s ultra-competitive market, it is no longer enough to adopt the ‘build it and they will come’ approach. Instead, as marketers we must pro-actively promote websites, and search engines provide a fantastic opportunity to do this.

Search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing are the two most common ways ofattractingtrafficfromsearchengines. Used correctly they can achieve an excellent returnoninvestmentandagoodflowofleadsto your website.

In this guide we’ll give an overview of both strategies, discuss the merits and fall backs of each and help you choose the best path to online success.

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Canyourcustomersfindyou?Designing and building a great website that engages with your

customers is a great achievement. However it’s only half of the solution.

For your website to work, you need to generate a stream of relevant

traffic to your website (by relevant we mean visitors who are likely to

buy from your business).

One way to drive traffic to your website is through the use of offline

marketing, for example trade directories, events and advertising.

However by only using these channels you are limiting your success.

Whytryandbefound?Over 80% of people use search engines as their first port of call when

trying to find a supplier of a product or service. So if your website is

nowhere to be found on search engines, you’re missing out on a lot

of potential customers.

Being found for the right keywordsAppearing on search engines will only benefit your business if your

website shows for the keywords that your potential customers are

searching for.

Identifying keywords can sometimes be done easily through intuition,

however sometimes keywords are more subtle and need to be

researched properly.

Fortunately there are tools which can help you identify keywords that

potential visitors to your website are searching for. One of the most

popular is the Google Keyword Tool, which allows you to enter a series

of keywords. The tool will then show how many times your keywords

are searched for, how much competition exists for those keywords

and suggest alternative keywords you may like to consider.

These results can then be analysed and can form a basis for search

engine optimisation and pay per click campaigns.

8 out of 10 people use a search engine as their preferredwayoffindingpotential suppliers.

Jupiter Research

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An overview of search engine optimisation and pay per clickSearch engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) are two

methods to drive traffic to your website from search engines.

When a search is performed on a search engine (e.g. Google), the visitor

is presented with a page which includes ‘natural’ results and ‘paid’ results.

As of February 2016, paid results are placed at the top of the screen with

natural results underneath. Paid results are identified with the label ‘Ad’.

A paid result is placed by advertisers who are then charged every time a visitor clicks on the result.

Whyarenaturalresultsimportant?Considering that paid results appear above natural results, it is easy to

assume that natural results are a less powerful way of generating traffic

to your website.

However, natural results account for 70% of all of the clicks on Google.

It is believed that users place more trust in the natural search results,

resulting in more clicks.

Therefore appearing in natural results will undoubtedly generate more

traffic to your website.

The screenshot shows the Google results page for the keyword ‘inbound marketing platform’. The top four websites are paid results.

The fifth result is a natural result which Google deems to be the most relevant and trustworthy website for the keyword.

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Whatdeterminestheorderofthenaturalresults?A search engine determines the rank (position) of a website in the natural

results based on over 200 factors. However these can be grouped into

two main factors:

1. The relevance of the website to the keyword. This is determined by

analysing the structure and content of the website.

2. How trustworthy the website is. This is mainly determined by the

number of other trustworthy websites linking to the website.

For a website to have a strong relevance to a keyword, it must have

a comprehensive amount of well written content that is relevant to

the keyword. A common way of achieving this is through the addition

of a blog.

Trustworthiness is measured by the number of links coming to the

website from other relevant, trustworthy sites. Each link to a website

is essentially a vote for the trustworthiness of the website.

The key here is to create exceptional content that other websites would

like to link to, and promote your content to these websites to encourage

links to yours.

Whyarepaidresultsimportant?Whilst it is true that paid clicks account for only 30% of the clicks on

Google, paid results are still a powerful way to drive traffic.

They appear above the natural results and will be the first results that

a user sees - they can also be more easily optimised to entice users

to click.

Paid results can produce near instantaneous traffic to a website.

This makes them ideal when launching new products, whilst your

SEO gains traction, or to tie in with other advertising campaigns

you may be running.

For some time, it was suggested that Google favoured websites that used PPC and rewarded them with better natural rankings. This has since been dispelled as a myth.

Manyagencieswilloffer to generate large numbers of links to your website. However, be careful as links from untrustworthy websites can actually damage your position in the natural results.

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Whatdeterminestheorderofthepaidresults?Advertisers are charged each time someone clicks on their ad. Costs

are not fixed and operate on a bidding system, whereby each advertiser

specifies the maximum amount they are willing to spend per click.

Whilst the amount an advertiser is willing to spend directly influences the

order of the paid results, the order is not completely controlled by this.

Search engines will often take into account how relevant the ad is

to the advertiser’s website, and also how trustworthy the website is.

These combined factors are known as a Quality Score, and this plays

a big part in how successful a PPC campaign is.

Comparing SEO and PPCWhen comparing SEO and PPC, the most obvious comparison is that

of cost. However it is important to realise that both methods have

associated costs and a true comparison cannot be drawn just by asking

the question ‘how much am I spending?’

Costs ExplainedGood SEO requires a lot of time and effort, particularly within competitive

markets, such as the financial sector. This inevitably creates a time cost

as your website structure and content are optimised and quality links

are generated.

Where the cost of SEO differs from PPC, is that there is not a direct cost

to every click. Natural clicks are free from direct costs, so no matter how

much natural traffic you get, you won’t pay more. The cost of your SEO is

essentially fixed.

On the other hand PPC has a cost associated directly to every click.

The more traffic you generate, the more your costs will increase.

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Return on investmentThis is probably a better metric than just a simple cost calculation.

If a PPC campaign is generating 1,000 clicks per day at a cost of £5 per

click (£5,000 per day spend) - but it is generating a conversion rate of

1% with an average value of £1,000 (£10,000 worth of business) then

the campaign is returning double its investment.

TimeGetting your website to the top of the natural results can take a lot of

time. In many cases good results can be seen with 3-6 months. During

and after this time you must continuously create strong, relevant content

based around the keywords you have identified. This content must be

promoted to others who may find it useful, in order to generate links back

to your website.

All of this takes a lot of time and effort. It is also important to note that

once you are achieving some good organic rankings, the work does not

stop. Your competitors will always be trying to outrank you and therefore

SEO is a continual process.

A PPC campaign can be started almost immediately, so it provides a

great way to not only gain exposure but to test different keywords and

optimise your website for conversions.

Like SEO, there will be on-going management of a PPC campaign,

however the time required to do this will be substantially less than for

an SEO campaign.

ControlWhilst search engines provide tools which allow you to influence how

your website is displayed in natural listings, the reality is that you have

little or no control on this. From time to time search engines will change

the factors that influence a website’s natural ranking, meaning traffic

(and therefore income) can suffer almost overnight.

On the other hand paid listings are completely controllable. Budgets can

be set and managed, ads can be scheduled and multiple versions of an ad

can instantly be deployed for testing.

However the greater control and timeliness associated with paid listings

lead to increased competition and therefore higher costs, as marketers

are attracted by these benefits.

An average conversion (e.g. sale or enquiry) rate for a PPC campaign is between 1-3%.

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Measuring performanceBoth SEO and PPC are easily measurable when your website is setup

to use Google Analytics. Conversions and goals can be tracked and

measured, as well as visitor drop-off rates and a host of other metrics.

The level of detail offered by Google Analytics is first rate and thus

installing Google Analytics on your website is a must, as it will provide

valuable data which should influence the decisions made as part of

your campaign.

A plan is essentialIt is crucial that for any SEO or PPC campaign that a comprehensive

plan is produced, which includes (but is not necessarily limited to):

> The budget available and the required return on investment

> Identifying the keywords being targeted and measuring how competitive these keywords are

> How your rankings and those of competitors will be tracked

> How the return on investment will be monitored

> Timelines for continual idea generation, changes and improvements

Progress should be monitored regularly and it is important to understand

that your plan will not be fixed - it will evolve constantly as you strive

for improvement.

Google Analytics is a free reporting tool which provides invaluable insight into your SEO and PPC campaigns.

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Choosing the right pathThere is no definitive right and wrong strategy for promoting your

website and generating leads online. The path you choose will be

dependent upon your aims and objectives.

Remember to plan and reviewFor any type of campaign to be successful your aims and objectives

must be clearly defined into a plan and the progress you make should

be regularly reviewed and refined.

SEO is a long term strategySEO will most likely provide the greatest return on investment over the

mid-long term. Ranking well for relevant keywords in the natural listings

should generate a stream of traffic, of which a good proportion should

turn into leads.

Embarking on an SEO campaign is not a quick fix and comes with an

additional risk that you cannot change your strategy as quickly as you can

with PPC – which can lead to some wasted investment. However over the

longer term, the results of your SEO should come to fruition, putting you

in a very good position online.

PPC has its placeMany use PPC to get started online, delivering traffic and leads almost

immediately. They may combine this with an SEO programme to run

concurrently. Once the SEO program starts to deliver results, PPC can

be reduced until a point where the majority of effort is spent on SEO.

SEO and PPC can be combined to deliver better resultsSEO and PPC do not have to be mutually exclusive activities and they

can work very well together. Consider using some limited PPC to try

new ideas and new pages within your website. Test click through rates

and conversions in order to generate new keyword ideas, which can be

incorporated into an SEO campaign.

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How Talisman can helpAt Talisman we help and guide financial companies on a range of digital

marketing activities. From SEO to PPC, website development, to inbound

marketing strategies and social media, we have the expertise and

experience to deliver real results.

During the last 2 years we have invested a lot of time and effort into our

own SEO and this has delivered real, tangible results and business.

Through our blogs and whitepapers we have developed strong, relevant

content and thus our rankings have improved dramatically.

We’d love to show you how this strategy can benefit your business!

Our clients

We have over 25 years experience in financial marketing.

Our range of services include:

> Emails

> Events

> Digital banners and signage

> Social Media

> TV

> Websites

> Apps

> PPC

> Videos

> Printed collateral

> Magazines and newspapers

> Postal mail

> Promo items

> Radio

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Contact TalismanTelephone: +44 (0)20 3735 5530Email: info@talismansolutions.co.ukDownload our whitepapers at: www.talismansolutions.co.uk

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David studied Computer Science at University and over the last 10 years has delivered digital solutions for a range of blue chip companies and SMEs. His passion lies in designing solutions that deliver real value to clients and ensuring projects are delivered on time and to budget.

Whitepaper by David RushtonHead of Digital at Talisman