SEO vs Pay Per Click

The Kent branch of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) were pleased to welcome Ciarán Norris, SEO Director at Altogether Digital for an informative and eye opening lecture entitled ‘SEO vs Pay Per Click’.

With such an increase in online marketing techniques, many marketers have commented to the branch about their lack of online knowledge. After seeing a previous lecture by Altogether Digital, Ian Lockyer, Chairman of the Kent branch thought it would be a good idea to share some of this new found knowledge to other Kent marketers.

Ciarán’s lecture was based on four key areas of future search – mobile, multimedia, social and personalisation. He gave a brief overview of the current online situation within many organisations, namely the fact that a high proportion of search marketing budgets use 75% of their money, with only a 20-30% ‘seen’ rate – where a consumer will actually see their advertising. The suggestion was that by amending word lists, you could reach the other 70-80% free!

The lecture focused on a number of important points and Ciarán’s top tips were:

·         Successful SEO will be gradual, come from an established ISP address.

·         Make your site mobile friendly – ensure people can access it in a variety of ways, for example, on their mobile phone. Consumers expect this and it’s now become the norm.

·         Use social media sites to drive traffic to your website, as many search engines rely on text and not images.

·         SEO should appear in natural listings as much as possible. This can be enhanced by using offline marketing such as blogs, press releases or online seeding.

·         Make everything of interest, so ensure it’s useful and knowledgeable.

With a big rise in the use of sites for bookmarking (Delicious - http://del.icio.us/), social media (Facebook) and news aggregators (DIGG), marketers need to gather all the knowledge that’s available to them. As with web 2.0, these communities are spreading the word like never before, so it’s a good way for a marketer to keep in touch.

By utilising and integrating these technologies, marketers will have a better understanding of the ways in which they can reach potential clients and current customers.

For more information please visit http://www.altogetherdigital.com/