These Days, Who Uses the Yellow Pages Anymore?
Nielsen reports that 97% of Internet users use search engines to look for what they need, like local businesses.
Only 0.3% use the Yellow Pages.
Search engines are now people’s primary source of information on companies and products.
If you are a business or a service professional, people will look you up online. With millions each day using search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing to find what they want and the products or services they need, the real question is:
Are you getting found online by the people whom your business needs?
Or are you losing business to your competitors who have ads online?
If you want to get to where your potential customers are, you NEED to:
- Advertise your business on Google, Yahoo or Bing so that your prospects can find you when they search for your product or service
- Place your business ads prominently on the top search engines
- Get people to click your ads so they land on your website
- Increase your website visitors but lower your advertising costs
Search Engine Marketing is what will help your business get the prospects it needs from major search engines.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of advertising that is a quick and easy way for your site to get listed on search engine results without having to wait for a certain period of time (which is what search engine optimization entails). Search Engine Marketing is also known as Pay Per Click, or PPC. Pay Per Click ads are those text ads that appear on the right-hand side of search results pages every time to you perform a search on Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
How Search Engine Marketing Works to Get Prospects to Your Website
- Internet users type a “query” (certain words or phrases) into a search engine like Google, etc
- The search engine returns a page of search results page with a listing of websites (called organic listings) and paid ads (PPC):
- Organic listings appear on the right-hand side on search results and are listed according to certain search engine algorithms. You can’t pay to appear on these listings.
- PPC ads appear on the left-hand side of the search results. They are “triggered” when a user’s query (keywords or keyphrases used in a search) match keywords in these paid ads.
- The frequency and placement of PPC ads depends on how much you’re willing to pay for the keywords and keyphrases that match users’ queries. The general rule is: The more you pay, the higher up your ad appears on the paid search results.
4. If a search user sees your ad beside the search results and clicks on the ad, he is directed to your website (the “landing page”).
5. As a business owner, you only pay search engines whenever a user clicks your ad and arrives at your website, thus the term PPC or “pay per click”
Unlike organic, natural listings which you don’t pay for, Search Engine Marketing lets you:
- Drive traffic to your site instantly
- Track which keywords are making you money and which keywords are costing you
- Determine your ROI
Research shows that a majority of businesses are using Search Engine Marketing as a major advertising platform.
- According to a MarketingSherpa 2010 report, 78 % of companies use PPC Marketing as part of their online marketing strategy.
- The same report also states that 77% of these organizations admit that PPC is producing measurable Return on Investments (ROI) or will eventually produce ROI.
- eMarketer reports that, in 2010, $11.4 million will be spent on search engine marketing alone.
What does this mean for your company? It means that YOU need to leverage the power of Search Engine Marketing to bring in the potential customers your business needs!
The Problem: You Might Not Know How to Do Effective Search Engine Marketing
It’s NOT enough nowadays to have creative business name. It’s NOT enough to have a website that has killer design and flash animations. It’s NOT enough to simply go with what you know about traditional advertising.
You need to advertise online, but you may not know where to start with search engine marketing.
UNLESS you know how to:
- research the best keywords your target market is using on their online queries
- budget your “bids” or pay for keywords and keyphrases
- set daily budgets for your PPC ads
- create ads specific to the different search engines that users are using
- write ads persuasively for the Web
- strategically place your ads on search results
- make your ads “clickable” when they appear on search results so people land on your site
- avoid “click fraud,” or paying for clicks on your ads that are not from genuine traffic
…
Your online advertising efforts will not get you the prospects you want or the potential profits you seek.
Managing a Search Engine Marketing campaign is a full-time job. As a business you don’t have the time to learn how to do keyword research, extensive search engine optimization, complex analysis of ad performance, creation of keyword-rich and optimized landing pages, search engine metrics, and all the other aspects of managing a campaign.
You already have your business to take care of. Let SEMplified take care of managing your paid ads using proven Internet strategies so you can focus on growing your business.
How SEMplified Search Engine Marketing Improves Your ROI
SEMplified’s ultimate goal for your website is to increase traffic going to your website. Our Search Engine Marketing expertise helps get your paid business ads listed on search engines where your prospects are out searching specifically for you.
- We use white-hat, proven Internet marketing strategies so that your paid ads get clicked, you get more potential customers, and you have more time to focus on the aspects of your business that you’re truly great at (Leave us to do what we’re great at.).
- We know what Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines want. We keep up with search trends and marketing strategies so we know how to test your paid ads on an ongoing basis. We get them on search results where your prospects will see and click them, thereby increasing the volume of traffic to your site and your potential revenues.
- At SEMplified, we don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to managing Search Engine Marketing campaigns. We study every aspect of your business from its objectives, products and services, to your desired revenues. We don’t just get you the right traffic—we make sure your ads help achieve your ROI.
Get more visitors to click on your paid ads and onto your Web site through with SEMplified’s Search Engine Marketing strategies.
SEMplified is dedicated to achieving the prime objectives of your business: higher ROI and increased revenues. Our Search Engine Marketing services are about getting your paid advertisements on relevant search engine results pages. With our performance-based, customized Search Engine Marketing solutions, you only pay for the results you want.
We will:
- Analyze which direction your marketing campaign should go
- Identify the keywords you should use for your ads that best fit your audience
- Research the best options for your keyword bids
- Refine your campaign’s keywords (We’ll identify profitable words for your ads and discard those that don’t perform)
- Test your ad copy so that people click it more (and keep on improving it alongside trends for the best performance)
- Help improve your search Quality Score (so that search engines will like your ads and list them)
- Ensure your ads appear on search results that are directly related to your business
- Manage your campaign on a regular basis so that you keep earning
- Provide monthly reports on your campaign’s performance
