Earlier this month we discussed Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and how it relates to marketing your company. The goals of SEM is to ensure that your company has a presence in the search engines under relevant searches such as "bail bond agents" or "denver county bail bonds". This article on Paid vs. Organic Search Results is the second in a series that will give you tips on managing SEM yourself. If you have a website, clearly you want that site to be at the top of the search engines for the keyword searches that are most important to you. There are two ways this can be achieved: 1) Paid placement - also known as PPC (pay-per-click) or CPC (cost-per-click), and 2) Organic which is achieved through SEO (search engine optimization). |
 The results in the narrow column to the right in this image are the sponsored or paid for advertisements. | At AboutBail.com, we feel that you know your company and your goals better than anyone else. Hiring someone to do SEM for you is an option but it can be expensive and you have to be wary of so called "experts" making promises they can't keep. At the very least, this article will serve as a primer before engaging an SEM or SEO company. After you read this article, if you still have questions the team at AboutBail.com is available to discuss these topics. Please contact us at (866) 411-2245 or contact us online. |
Paid Results (PPC, CPC)
Both major search engines Yahoo! and Google have programs that allow you to instantly "buy" placement in their search engine results with a credit card. Although PPC or CPC campaigns can be very costly, they enable you to compete with your competition online quickly and easily.
These programs allow you to bid on specific keywords (such as “bail bondsman pennsylvania,”) and create an advertisement that links to your website. The higher you bid, the higher and more frequently your advertisement shows on the page when someone searches for that keyword. You only get charged when a potential customer clicks on the link and goes to your site. Paid results are usually shown on the top and down the right hand side of search results pages. Please see the accompanying image for an example. Although these campaigns can be expensive, you have the advantage of deciding which keywords you want to show up under and how much you are willing to pay. Both Google and Yahoo! allow you to set a daily budget. Once your budget is reached, your ad stops showing up and it starts over again the next day.
If you do decide to run paid campaigns, identify the keywords that are most important to you and don't get caught up in bidding wars. Although it will take time to fully understand how these systems work, you may find that you can get more exposure by bidding less and showing up second, third or fourth. There are studies that show being second or third can be just as effective as being first. Let your competitors max their marketing budgets, while you allocate funds to other forms of online marketing.
Another warning about PPC or CPC campaigns is something called "click-fraud". This occurs when competitor click repeatedly on your ads with the intent of depleting your budget. Although the major search engines account for this, it still happens.
At AboutBail.com, we spend money on paid campaigns in all major search engines so our advertisers don't have to.
Organic Results and Search Engine Optimization
As a result of the problems associated with PPC or CPC campaigns, many companies focus on organic results. Organic results are what the search engines see as most relevant to a particular search. These results are completely non-biased - meaning that the engine will not accept any amount of money to influence the rankings of any individual sites. Focusing on organic results is a more long-term approach to SEM, and organic results are seen as more relevant and trustworthy to potential customers.
“Searchers generally hold organic results in higher regard,” said Terrence Joyce, AboutBail.com Brand Manger. “It’s similar to how a person reading a magazine would probably be more positively influenced by an article about a particular company than by a paid advertisement from the company.” As an example, AboutBail.com comes up first in google for the search term "bail bond agents". This means that Google's search engine algorithm has analyzed AboutBail.com and see's it as the most important site on the web relevant to "bail bond agents". Although how Google's algorithm works is largely a mystery, there are a number of factors that SEO experts feel are critical to good search engine results. Achieving Rankings with SEO
SEO is the backbone of organic online marketing. SEO simply means that you do everything you can to make your website more relevant and interesting to search engines so that your website naturally appears near the top of search engine results pages – without you having to pay for it. It takes time to achieve high organic search results, and the search engines are continuously changing their search algorithms, which determine ranking criteria. SEO will always be an ongoing process. These are a few tips to help move your website toward the top of search engine results: 1) Market your website. Inbound links from authority sites such as AboutBail.com can increase your search engine rankings because they show search engines that others want to link to your site. Getting inbound links from authority sites, is perhaps one of the quickest ways to increase organic placement.
2) Develop great content. You will want to have good content with relevant keywords on your website. Think of the keywords you might bid on in Yahoo! or Google. Include these same keywords in articles and pages on your site. Have dedicated pages with specific content. For example, if you are based in Georgia you may want to have a page about "How Bail in Georgia Works." Without having relevant keywords or content on your site you will probably never rank for the keywords that are important to you.
3) Develop your website correctly. Use a simple design and make your website text-based rather than embedding your keywords and text within images. Keep your web site clean and simple, and have navigation that is easy for your customers to follow. Search engines try to mimic the user experience when they look at your site. If you design your site with your customers in mind, chances are the search engines will take notice.
4) Look at what the competition is doing. Who gets great search engine rankings in your area? Take a look at those web pages. What keywords are they using and how frequently are those keywords appearing on each page? What other places are they advertising? You often can learn a great deal about SEO simply by looking at what other successful bail agents are doing online.
I know about Paid vs. Organic. Now what?
In traditional marketing there is a term called "Marketing Mix". Marketing mix is the combination of marketing initiatives you employ to ensure you are reaching customers through all important mediums. As a business, you use a marketing mix because there is no one good place to focus all your marketing efforts. The same holds true with SEM or online marketing. You should use a combination of PPC/CPC campaigns (paid) and search engine optimization (organic) while identifying the places that already rank for your keyword and try to get a link or advertise with them. This will not only drive business to your company but will assist in your optimization efforts. What else would you like to know about SEM for Bail Bond Agents?
If there are other topics you are interested in learning about related to search engine marketing, contact us online or call (866) 411-2245 and we will do our best to answer these questions throughout this series. |
About AboutBail.com
Since 2001 AboutBail.com has been a resource for locating bail bond agents, criminal lawyers and bail recovery agents anywhere in the United States. The goal of AboutBail.com is to help our users and their loved ones in their time of need.
Need to get a loved one out of jail? Visit us online at http://www.aboutbail.com or call (866) 411-2245.
AboutBail.com
12335 Santa Monica Blvd. #300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
T - 866.411.BAIL (2245)
F - 877.824.2482
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