What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM), aka "SEO"?

In short; it’s advertising your business and website on the Search Engines, such as Google and Bing

There are a few different types:-

• Organic / traditional - These are the normal listings which appear in Google, which, over the years have become very much sidelined as Google focuses on Pay per click (Adwords) and Google Shopping. It used to be possible to pay companies to promote you within the natural / organic listings, but as time has gone on Google has made this very difficult; and the only way to get decent results in the organic listings, is to do it organically! eg, by ensuring your website is full of great products, great content, and that lots of other people link to your website
   
• Pay per click (Adwords) - These are the ads which appear RIGHT AT THE TOP of Google, at the bottom, and often the right with Google Shopping ads (see below).
   
• Google Shopping - These are the ads which appear on the right and are accompanied by a picture of the item for sale.

As you can see below, adwords or shopping based ads now take up most of the page on the the majority of product based searches on Google.

• In blue are pay per click listings
• In green are organic / traditional listings

Traditionally Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involved:-

1. Adding some keywords to your website (or “meta tags”)
2. Making sure it was properly optimised
3. Getting lots of links to your website (known as “backlinks”)
4. Usually not seeing yourself appear in Google’s organic listings for months! (not days or weeks)

Old ways are dead....

One of our motivations for writing this article is to dispel a few myths. We come across quite a few clients (or prospective clients) who still seem to think that you can appear highly on Google by inserting some meta tags and a bunch of keywords into your website. WRONG. This has not been the case for at least 10 years. Google has evolved considerably over the years, and continues to do so.

Meta tags for example haven’t had an effect in rankings since at least 2009, if not before.
 

The only ways to rank in Google are:-

1) To pay for Google Adwords (pay per click) or Google Shopping ads

OR

2) Organically, by:-

• Making sure your website is built to be Google friendly, and well optimised. All our websites are properly SEO optimised and Google friendly as standard, but this alone won't get you to the top of Google
  
  AND
   
• Making sure your website is full of great "content". This means having products on your website with good photography, well written product titles and descriptions (with keywords which people are searching for), regularly updating your website, and, ideally, having some kind of non product content such as a news blog which you regularly update
  
  AND
   
• Getting other people to link to your website (preferably those who are relevant to you). Or, by uploading such wonderful products and such interesting blog content that people link to your website without you having to ask!

Do not pay for spammy links

Many clients of ours are getting emails (often from offshore companies) offering to sell them links to their websites, with the promise of great rankings.

DO NOT BUY THESE LINKS. Google knows when links aren't genuine links, and will penalize you in the results rather than reward you.

There is no way to "cheat" with organic listings in Google, certainly not any more. And any ways that are discovered to "cheat" Google will eventually be discovered by Google and end up leaving you penalized in the results rather then rewarded.

Many big updates from Google over the past few years have resulted in websites going from the top of Google to the abyss because they bought in links.

Do you want to rank well on Google?

As above, there's two ways:-

1) Do it organically (as per the guide above)

OR

2) Pay for Adwords

If you don't have a clue where to start with Adwords, we can help. We provide Adwords management, and we focus on making you money, on sales, and a profitable return on your investment. We can get you rankings within days, not months.

Pricing starts from £395/month+VAT, plus Google Adwords budget (min £600/month).

It's not all about Google

The secret to having a successful website isn't just about Google, and, your website does not have to be at the top of Google to be successful.

There are lots of other ways people can reach your website; from social media, to email marketing, to offline campaigns and more! So don't place all your focus on Google.

Have a look at our 45 page "how to promote your website" eBook, which you can download here:-

https://www.ph9.com/downloads/marketing-tips_how-to-market-your-website.pdf

UPDATE FEB/MARCH 2019: Also see our article on how to write stock descriptions that get more sales (and appear top in Google)