Improving paid and organic search: An expert’s view

A: Content. If your site is dense and active with relevant content and keywords, there’s a better chance to show up organically and attract web traffic. 

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Links. If your content is posted on other sites, that helps. (Again, if your content is good, others will post you.) Your link on another site not only gets their readership to see you, but also can drive traffic back to you if users click on your link or look you up later.

A: Bid on your brand name. Normally since a brand name is yours, there isn’t anyone else bidding on it (although others are allowed to – it’s called “conquesting”), so the competition on your brand name keyword is low, thus, you don’t pay a lot for each click. A paid search ad looks good and professional, and you can better control its messaging and deep links to different parts of your site. 

Target to only the cities, areas, times of day/week, where you are active or successful. This can reduce overwhelming, unwanted traffic and spend. For instance, if you are a brick-and-mortar NYC retailer or website, target only NYC.

Exact match. There are three main keyword match types: Exact, Phrase, Broad (there are more but let’s stick to these). Exact match is exactly that – it will serve an ad from an exact query and close variations like plurals. Phrase and Broad match cast a wider net and can attract more traffic but not necessarily the right traffic/clicks. Managing the latter take more advanced search tactics.

Spend. You can budget to what you want to spend per day. A click can cost anywhere from .20 to $20, depending on how competitive the keyword.

A: Relevancy. Keywords need to be relevant and specific to what you do or sell. Avoid big, broad terms like “cars” or “clothing”. Modify them to be more specific. Look at your website, its navigation, offers, products, and bid on terms like that.

A: Yes. Users will hopefully re-post, re-tweet your content. These sites are essential to building a social network and community.

A: When a user searches for you or your product, are you there? Think of search and digital marketing as a “digital shelf” (as in a market). If you walk into a market and look on the shelves, you can only choose what’s there. If you are not there when someone looks, then you do not get that customer/user.