SEO vs. PPC

Both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) are skills that can be invaluable for increasing the exposure of your company as well as traffic to its site. However, there is something of a divide between the people who work in each camp respectively regarding the respective strengths of each. SEO focuses on organically building up rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs) over a period of time with valuable content, eventually working your way to the top. PPC on the other hand, requires a more analytical approach, often necessitating that you be able to spot any patterns from your campaign, to squeeze just a little more return out of your budget. More specifically though, there are a number of differences between the two practices.

In general, SEO is somewhat more of a creative approach to marketing. Because SEO will, more often than not, involve optimizing an entire site, it’s a practice that often requires those employing it to produce content such as blog posts or copy for the page, necessitating a degree of originality to make the site stand out from others.

And, because it’s a process that takes time and effort over a longer period, the results gained from SEO are spread out over a longer period and are more lasting. If an SEO budget is suddenly cut, for instance, the benefits of which are very unlikely to go away immediately. However, it comes with the caveat that those same benefits aren’t likely to be seen as immediately either.

In contrast, PPC results are something that will have an immediate and direct impact on your company’s bottom line. Although it requires more risk and a certain degree of intuition when deciding how to allocate the budget they’re given, the fact that results are far more evident is something that obviously holds appeal to both clients and employers.

Likewise, because PPC is a much more concentrated practice, those who practice it are usually able to more fully dedicate their time and resources to it, as opposed to possibly spreading themselves thin as can occur with SEO work. PPC marketing is something that, when given complete attention, is a task that can seen to the end relatively more easily.

Ideally, of course, it’s best to use a delicate balance of the two. The team you have working on either should consist of a mix of people who are adept in social media, analytics, link building, analytics, and of course, have some technical skill to ensure that they’re able to successfully accomplish whatever it is they’re tasked with.

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Written by Kenny K.

Bing Farms Facebook Fans

Say what you will about Microsoft, but judging from their most recent endeavor, it’s clear that the company knows how to use social media marketing to spread brand awareness. As you’ve probably heard, the game FarmVille has become something of a phenomenon, with over 82.7 million people playing the game through Facebook. As if it needed to be said, 82.7 million people represents a population that’s statistically significant, to say the least.

Because Microsoft’s Bing is a relative unknown in the world of search, being able to build a brand identity through social media means far more to the company than it would for, say, Google. In an attempt to harness the hyper-popularity of FarmVille to bring more attention to their brand, Microsoft offered FarmVille users in-game currency in exchange for becoming a fan of Bing on Facebook. The move appears to have worked, as the amount of fans has over quintupled since the promotion started, rising from 117,000 to over 590,000.

The offer of in-game currency for social media capital is made in the game through a prompt offered to users who were actually playing at the time. It allowed players of FarmVille to immediately become fans and reap the benefits of doing so all without leaving the game application itself. While a rather convenient, if unnecessary, process for users, this was important for Bing as it allowed them to have a more significant engagement with people who they knew were actively involved without the FarmVille network. This makes them more likely to spread word of the offer, thus further increasing Bing’s brand recognition.

While the obvious thing to take away from this is the power of social media marketing, it also highlights the development of another important trend: the value of virtual goods.

The typical kind of promotion offered by companies through social media channels involves granting rewards such as discounts on items, food, or even cash have often been unsuccessful. While not necessarily bad in and of themselves, real world promotions can often come with added baggage like being forced to purchase something to take advantage of a discount, or sticking users with various services or charges. This generally isn’t the case with virtual items, as they can be acquired immediately and users are immediately aware of whether the deal is what it says it is on its face.

To keep its newly found fans engaged with the Bing brand, Microsoft has posted status updates about FarmVille, to some apparent general success. Over 1,996 comments have been left by users in response to the post, which translates into more brand engagement with users.

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Written by Kenny K.

What's Next for Search Engine Optimization?

Just recently, SES London 2010 hosted a keynote panel titled, “SEO: Where to Next?” While there are some individuals who believe that search engine optimization is dead, Lisa Myers, one of the speakers at the panel, held an extensive discussion about Google Local.

Google is constantly looking for ways to improve their search. Their official blog is frequently updated with information about their new features and services. Although Google has recently debuted their local keyword search, Myers explains that this recent update may be a bit risky due to its lack of support for their Google Local Business search. The lack of support can result in the spamming of their ranking algorithm as well as the ‘hijacking’ business listings. The increased attention towards local search engine optimization may hinder, or even kill off, organic search results, since the local results are posted within the organic section.

Myers also explains that off-page optimization has been the biggest change recently. The potential it has reached has made it mandatory for her to include social media sites like Facebook and Twitter into her workflow. However, she further elaborates that these social media marketing tools are simply just that, tools. They require time and dedication to build up a campaign. These networks can help improve and create buzz for your site. According to Myers,

“The concept of 'linkerati,' the people you need to target to get links for SEO, has evolved to the 'socialrati,' who are the people who are the most active within a social media network. Those people do have blogs and their own websites and if you can target them through Twitter you will get links. You just have to make sure you are getting the right content and are niche enough for those people.”

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Blogging and Small Businesses

It goes without saying that blogs are an almost indispensable social media marketing tool for large businesses. They allow companies to streamline and centralize information they want to share with consumers, while also giving them a direct line of communication with them. Blogging puts a face behind what might otherwise be a large, emotionless corporate entity.

But what about smaller businesses? As a consequence of their size, they generally don’t share the same problems faced by their larger counterparts. Being able to correspond with their customers on a personal level often isn’t a problem, and they typically don’t have the same volume of material to share with others. Thus, it’s only appropriate that one would question the necessity of a local company dedicating the time and effort to establish and maintain a presence on a blog.

Of course, debating the value of embarking on such a project is completely understandable. That said, however, the merits of a smaller company maintaining a blog should be fairly self evident. Aside from the fact that your competitors are likely have one of their own, even if they’re unaware of the reasons why, blogging is a solid source of leads on sales and just as importantly, gets indexed by search engines relatively quickly. The more often you post to your blog, the more Google notices and the more likely your ranking on search engine results pages is to increase. This, obviously, is of considerable benefit to any business, regardless of size.

Additionally, it’s essential to recognize that the pursuit of blogging isn’t something that’s likely to reap any immediate reward. Rather, it’s a project that needs to be handled with a degree of patience and care over the course of time. The person managing the blog should, ideally, be enthusiastic about both the opportunity to write in it as well as the business itself. Just be sure to take time to develop a specific voice you want to portray to your customers, while keeping it conversational in tone, and there’s no reason your blog shouldn’t find itself some degree of success.

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Written by Kenny K.

Mobile Social Media

As if you needed another reminder about the ever increasing importance of mobile social media marketing, a study recently released by comScore, a digital measurement firm, indicates that more and more people are accessing social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter through their cellular phones and other mobile devices.

The study conducted by comScore measured the difference in users visiting various social networking sites through mobile browsers over the time period of January 2009 to January 2010. Some of the information found as a result of it included the following:

• The percentage of smartphone users accessing social media through mobile browsers had increased to 30% by the end of the study, up sharply from January 2009’s 22.5%.
• Social network access on all mobile phones, both smart and regular, increased from 6.5% in 2009 to 11.1% this year. However, the driving force behind that uptick can very likely be attributed to the increase in the amount of people using smartphones.
• Facebook and Twitter saw enormous increases in access through mobile browsers, at rates of 112% and 347% respectively. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that this data only takes into account traffic from mobile browsers, and not traffic from sources such as applications. This is a likely indicator that mobile social media access is even larger than we’re aware of.

The study makes it clear that mobile phones are going to play a large role in social media marketing moving forward. For this reason, it’s almost essential to equip your company with tools such as iPhone applications to remain afloat in the mobile stratosphere, lest you find yourself left behind in the wake of this mobile trending.

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Written by Kenny K.