The importance of paid searches – A brief guide

The role of the SEO expert is not just to make strategies for the business or website, but also to guide them and help them think real, think broad, and see the future. Many interesting consumer behaviors and many interesting marketing preferences of the small to medium businesses reveal a lot of things about paid searches and social media marketing. As the SEO expert, one must understand the scenario before delving into marketing, so that after telling the client the right and wrong and explaining the market, the expert can work accordingly.

There are so many practices in the market. Some are common but not organic, and some are organic and legal but not common. Some are tricky and right and yet not popular. Hence, the SEO specialist must explain them all to the client so that no client gets their website optimized based on guesswork.

Perceptions of SMBs about various forms of marketing

A company surveyed the various small-to-medium-businesses (SMBs) and asked them their preferred mode of marketing and optimization. What they came to know is that most small businesses have a perception that their own website and Facebook is the most important place they should stay active on. Some businesses held email marketing as the next preference. However, quite interestingly, small and medium businesses, to this date are not much aware of the potential of SEO and paid searches, and although they use it, prefer to use it at the least and at last.

Although SMBs regarded SEO as the top priority a few years back, now with the advent of organic social media marketing, SEO has taken a back seat for them. Although many SMBs target social media marketing, they are confused about the ROI of this form of marketing. It’s not by their choice that they incline to social media, but by the competition they feel around them, which makes them inclined.

How SMBs use paid searches

SMBs or small to medium businesses tend to use paid searches the least. Paid search is undoubtedly one of the most effective marketing tactics that can be used if you really want to spend on your marketing. While SEO holds one wing of marketing by pushing gradually, slowly and consistent with organic and freeways, advertising is another wing of marketing which is also imperative and indispensable. But advertising demands some investment surely, which is why most SMBs step away from this and has a minimal inclination towards utilization of paid searches.

What are the SMBs doing wrong?

The survey was based on SMBs which included dealers, channel partners, franchisees, retailers, etc. Among the 1000 SMBs surveyed by the surveyor company, 73 percent were located in only one place, and half of the businesses had less than 5 employees.

With such small setup and employee strength in most case, they would spend every penny calculatedly which is natural. Nd in the process many did not hire any marketing specialist for their online presence. This is the reason they have low perceptions and notions in mind about online marketing requirements. Many businesses believe that their own website is the place for marketing, and they depend on the final stage of conversion to be their ROI. They don’t understand consumer behavior online and lack guidance. The lack of concept about online marketing and lack of professional SEO and marketing service or employee is the reason that they often blame one form of marketing when it fails. When paid searches or social media marketing fails, then they do not get into the underlying cause of failure, and rather believe that their attempted online marketing strategy was not effective enough. That is one of the prime reasons most SMBs are way back from the proper utilization of potential marketing techniques like paid searches and organic SMM.

Paid searches or social media marketing – weighing between the two

The State of Local Marketing report published in 2018 reveals clearly that Facebook marketing and paid search marketing both are almost equally effective in bringing good ROI. Therefore, whether SMBs invest here or there, they have the chances of reaping similar benefits from both arrangements, provided their website is geared up to yield them the best conversion rates. And this is where the proper guidance of SEO experts is needed. Whether one takes advice from an employed SEO expert, or from some SEO agency, a business can get guided about the proper, timely utilization of a marketing service and tool.

Paid search forms a great marketing tool. The sponsored search results are displayed first on the search engine results page (SERP). This means whether the business ranks organically or not, it may still appear on the top of the SERP apparently through paid searches. Only an internet savvy user would know the difference between the sponsored listing and the organic listing. And even people who know the difference also often click on a paid search result, simply due to inquisitiveness, interest, or by chance. Therefore besides doing social media marketing, one may also go for paid searches, and get quick exposure. However, the role which organic SEO plays in giving the website a constant boost and organic traffic can nowhere be compensated by paid searches and advertising.

How can an SEO expert balance?

The job or role of an SEO expert or agency is vital in making an SMB understand the importance of various SEO and marketing tools. The importance of paid and organic tools and methods must be explained well to the business. And only a professional SEO Little Rock specialist can do this.

Concluding it

SEO and marketing both have their own roles in propagating a business online. There are several steps in doing both. And missing a few important steps and concentrating on only investing or doing one particular style of marketing can never yield ROI as desired. To reap the full benefits of SEO, one must start with SEO and online marketing from scratch and cannot afford to skip and jumping steps. It’s a methodical stepwise procedure that must be followed that way for best results.