Can customers find you?

As a major traffic driver, organic search is important in a market that is rapidly going digital. With more people spending more time at home and searching for goods and services online, SEO secures a share of voice for brands to be seen by consumers in their research process. High rankings on search engine results pages convey trustworthiness, which can have an impact on conversion.

For brands, SEO research can be leveraged as a tool to track and analyse user interest and intent. Creating relevant, useful content built around the search behavior of the target market can benefit a brand in the long run.

Moreover, because SEO provides long-term traffic equity with a reasonable resource investment. Investing in SEO can result in a global reach that can bring in new customers from across the world, notwithstanding the physical barriers of the new normal.

If a brand is committed to the long-term success of SEO as a traffic driver, hiring a person or an agency solely for SEO is a signal that a brand is truly intent about their search efforts, not to mention, it also unloads in-house executives of time and energy that can be spent on other aspects of the business.

Adding a person, or agency, who will take charge of a brand’s SEO will impact the overall marketing budget, so a brand has to consider how much they are ready to set aside. Hiring an agency will include the technical SEO, search marketing strategy, as well as data and analytics, among others, while hiring an individual will require the addition of overhead expenses, including salaries, specialised subscription softwares, office space, etc.

The positive side is that one of the priorities that SEO can tackle is to increase revenue. So an investment in SEO is always a sound business decision.

A credible SEO agency must have case studies that will prove the quality of their performance, as well as a strong understanding of the business. As the saying goes, "You are only as good as your last performance." More than empty promises, proven results are stronger evidence of an SEO agency's prowess.

One of the ways to test their ability early on is by how they craft a search strategy. A credible agency never promises a first-page ranking in a short span of time with a one-size-fits-all SEO package. On the contrary, they will seek to know a brand’s business and sales, observe the conversion and content strategies, as well as understand the overall growth plans on a deeper level.

Only after careful thinking will they propose an SEO game plan, which is more than just a sum of SEO services. Good agencies will help brands leverage SEO and SEM with a highly customised plan that gives them direct control over which position they want to appear in using the optimised bid and optimisation strategy.

Another asset to look for is their ability to handle development work, as SEO is very much intertwined with web design. Managing SEO requires tinkering with programming, front-end development, as well as server support. Most businesses think about SEO after they’ve built their site, failing to consider that they should have built their website search marketing and lead generation. A good SEO agency will have the tools to handle development.

Finally, another thing to look out for is if a company proposes a reasonable quotation, which is broken down accordingly. After all, no one wants to fall for a scam. An appropriate budget for SEO services will depend on the size of the market, the potential profit expected to be raised, and the competition.

Associated with PPC advertising, Adwords, Google Ads or Search Ads, SEM refers to the paid efforts in gaining website traffic by placing ads on search engines. SEM services put brands and product solutions upfront by enabling its ads to appear exactly on the paid search engine results page where users search with an intent.

Unlike SEO, the return-on-investment for SEM is more measurable, where brands, for example, consistently see their ad clicks convert into a desired action. SEM services improve targeting of potential customers, boosts conversions, cuts and increases ROI.

By increasing the visibility of websites on the SERP, SEM is thus an integral component of the marketing mix, and will have a positive impact on a brand’s overall performance.

Comparing SEO to SEM is like pitting apples against oranges. Both are important parts of a search strategy, helping brands appear on search engines, and driving more traffic to the website. SEM is more advisable for short-term goals aiming for immediate results while SEO is better for long-term goals. But the ideal situation is to do both at the same time to get optimum results as they complement each other.

The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all businesses. Some businesses may need to focus on SEO, others may need to focus on SEM. Our approach to search marketing is to implement a combination of SEO and SEM strategies with the goal to reach your unique business and goals.

Short answer: YES. Google AdWords is the most massive PPC network today. With Google Ads, your brand can be assured of nearly instant results, where traffic flow arrives almost as soon as a campaign is approved. This means that on that same day, your brand may immediately get sales, thanks to the wide reach of Google.

A Google AdWords strategy is highly scalable. There is an abundance of keywords to bid on, which means unlimited sets of audience to target. New keywords can even be added on a daily basis to get new traffic going regularly. Because of the impressive analytics in the software of Google, brands can have access to a lot of data and features that can be helpful to their overall sales and marketing strategies.

Moreover, like most PPC ads, a Google AdWords campaign can be stopped anytime, which is a great feature that helps businesses save money if the campaigns are not profitable.

As Google Ads is a keyword auction site, the appropriate budget will depend on the cost of a keyword, which will also vary depending on the bids of competitors. If there is a strong demand for a certain keyword, naturally the bid for this keyword will be higher, and the budget needed will be bigger.

There is no magic number that will work for all businesses, but, certain factors can be taken into consideration when budgeting. Three factors will determine the ideal budget: the size of the market, the potential profit, and the competition. A company’s scale has a lot to do with how much the cost will be. A small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) delivering nationwide will probably require a higher budget than an SME with a local reach. Take note that the more competitors there are for a certain keyword, the more difficult it is to rank.

Google Ads does not impose a minimum spend, however, a daily budget as low as $1 may not get you far. All things considered — industry, objectives, and locations targeted — a fair starting budget ranges from $1,000 to $10,000 per month. The longer your campaign is running, the more clicks you will be getting and the more data you will be gathering for optimisation.

At Strategic DigitaLab, we believe that there is a solution for every business dilemma, regardless of a business’ size or scale. Small businesses will undoubtedly benefit from Google Ads. For example, because of location targeting, local businesses will be able to reach potential clients within their vicinity. And that is just one example.

Any brand that chooses the right combination of keywords and budgets will be able to maximise their budget, no matter how big or small it is. It helps to have a trusted search marketing expert to guide a brand in the journey of exploring search marketing.