In an ecosystem where users are swamped with content, what strategies should be adopted to ensure you stand out from the multiple products or services found on search engines?

The art of keyword play is essential in order to stand out from your competitors and achieve specific objectives, such as promoting your brand. It is relevant to look at the different online marketing models that allow you to optimize the usage of keywords, such as SEO and SEM.

The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization from an organic point of view only. The goal is to rank your website in order to make it more easily accessible by offering a better location on search engines. Use relevant keywords that your target audience will frequently use to succeed in this natural referencing. For example, in the case of digital marketing, the most relevant keywords would be marketing, digital marketing and e-commerce because they are often used keywords related to your subject. Creating internal links that bring consumers back to your website is also an effective strategy for optimizing your content.

The acronym SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. This concept describes organic, SEO, and paid components of a website’s search engine ranking. In terms of paid components, using search tools like PPC is a quick and efficient way to get results. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) means that the advertiser will only be charged when a customer clicks on the ad. It is pertinent for the advertiser to use tools like Google Ads to set up a sponsored link that appears when a specific keyword is searched. You can create an ad that emerges when a customer searches for a similar product or service to yours. Google Ads is, therefore, effective in increasing your sales and brand awareness. Your ads will indeed be seen by the right audience already interested in your product or service, which will help you raise your conversion rate effectively.

Depending on the specific needs of your business, it is pertinent to consider what kind of strategy is relevant for you. For quick service businesses with a sense of urgency, such as a plumber, locksmith, limited ticket offer, or even news like LaPresse, consider doing SEM. This strategy includes a pay-for-performance plan that allows for quick but short-term results.

Doing SEM does not mean not doing SEO, as it is an integral part of the search engine marketing strategy.

Adopting this strategy is relevant for businesses trying to gain visibility quickly by improving their SEO. However, it is essential not to rely solely on a paid strategy such as PPC since this kind of search tool only provides temporary results. On the other hand, depending solely on an organic strategy can be a long and laborious process for your business.

Therefore, one of the best SEM practices in 2021 is to combine organic and paid strategies to really optimize your content and achieve effective and sustainable rankings. This combination of techniques will ensure that you get the benefits of organic and paid strategies while filling in the gaps in each.

The organic strategy will give you a better understanding of the performing keywords and behaviours of your target audience while also creating a more sustainable ranking on the chosen search platforms. The paid strategy will offer you quick and almost instant results. However, these results will be unsustainable without a constant marketing budget.

Another good practice to adopt for SEM would be to position yourself on advertising platforms that have not yet reached saturation and where the consumer is still receptive to the advertising effort. The first thing to do would be to put yourself only on the most popular platforms like Google Ads. However, by diversifying your investments on several platforms, such as Bing or LinkedIn Ads, you will get better referencing due to a smaller number of competitors and the possibility to benefit from various advantages that every platform offers.

• Do you have a Google Ads account?
• What are you selling, a product or a service?
• Is your SEO helping you reach your conversion goals?