Learn about optimizing your SEO efforts with Marketo

Your prospects are searching for what you sell but how will they find you? Many prospects start by searching for what they need on the internet. When they type in search terms related to your business do they see your business listed in the results? Search Engine Optimization or SEO and pay per click ads help ensure your organization appears in the most appropriate results so you can start converting these prospects into opportunities.

SEO is a mix of strategies and techniques used to increase site traffic by obtaining a high ranking placement in search engine results. Search engine algorithms monitor patterns of behavior and use that information when scoring. An effective SEO strategy should be balanced between improving keyword focused content and earning links and mentions from external sources. Together, these two elements contribute to your overall rank and placement. Because Google is by far the most popular search engine most SEO professionals focus their overall strategy around Google rankings, which is determined by a calculation of incoming links and brand visibility. Pay per click, or PPC, ads are when you pay a search engine to place your ad in the search results for a specific keyword. Your ad is placed as a sponsored result on the top or side of the search engine results and you pay for each click your ad receives. You can tailor your PPC ads to appear when specific search terms are entered, creating highly targeted ads.

The rank of your PPC ad is determined by a combination of budget, bid, and relevancy which all tie into a quality score, or a quality index on most search engines. Click through rate, or CTR, is also said to influence your quality score. The CTR is the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad was displayed.

By improving your SEO, you can increase traffic to your website by making it easier for people to find. When you rank higher in your search results it’s easier for people to find you. SEO is quite cost effective because it targets users actively looking for what your organization offers, which means you’ll get qualified leads to your website. Plus ranking highly in search results means people can find you without you having to pay for an ad. Ranking high in search results is good for your brand. Users are more likely to trust the first few results and will associate you with the keywords they searched for. Most high ranking results tend to stay at the top for a while.

PPC ads give you an advantage over SEO because they allow you to build up traffic to your website quickly. SEO is a process that can take time to see results but PPC ads can be placed at any time and are targeted towards users who search for the predetermined terms.

To improve your ranking, you should ensure that your website is search engine friendly. Include specific content optimized for search placement, analyze available competitor data, such as keyword predictions, linking patterns and paid search engine data. Consider ad copy used, keyword bidding estimates and make sure your content is optimized for people not just search engines. Make sure your content is accessible to consumers on all mobile devices. When creating your PPC strategy determine keywords that you want to rank highly for. Then, optimize and create ads for those terms. Choose your keywords based on relevant business goals, traffic opportunities and competition. Once you have chosen your keywords take a moment to see which ads your competitors are serving up. The more ads, the harder it is to rise above the noise and the more money your ads will cost. A great PPC ad has compelling copy and an engaging headline. You’ll have limited space for characters in your headline so it’s important to use concise, easy to understand language, focus on keywords and a compelling call to action, but avoid using too many abbreviations or truncated phrases. PPC ads are a great place to showcase your content and products. People who search for your keywords may be unfamiliar with your company so your best call to action might not be a sales pitch. Instead, offer them content that applies to their search query.

Using Marketo’s SEO dashboard, you can get a high level view of how keyword rank is trending and how well your site is optimized for SEO. For example, the Recommendation section in the dashboard helps you focus your SEO efforts. The dashboard also shows ranking and trends for keywords along with page optimization scores. As for PPC, determine the term, or terms that may require lowering bids on, or if a term should be removed from the account altogether. Focus on removing keywords that have had no conversions or engagement, that have been searched for under 300 times, with low click through rates, or those with a low quality score. After three to six months your account has matured and every ad and keyword remaining should have a conversion history. With the conversion history you can concentrate on further optimizing bids around cost per acquisition goals in addition to coming up with better ads and landing pages. Pay attention to your quality score. According to Google, your PPC ads quality score is the estimate of how relevant your ads, keywords and landing pages are to people seeing your ad. If you have a high quality score Google thinks your ad and landing page are relevant, so you can rank higher for the same bid amount. Looking at keywords this way will let you know how you should continue to evolve your PPC strategy.

Now, that you know more about SEO and PPC ads we’ll show you how Marketo’s SEO tool can help you monitor and act on search related data. -