SEO Tips – What’s the Difference Between SEO and SEM?
Do you know what I love about marketers? I love how they absolutely can butcher some terms to death. SEO and SEM are two examples. Many beginners use these interchangeably as if they meant the same thing. However, they are not the same. So, in order to clear up some of the confusion, this article is going to first explain the difference between the two and then offer some tips on each. I am sure you will find this informative and hopefully, keep you from talking about one thing when you really mean the other.
Let’s start with SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. This actually refers to the practice of using on and off page tactics to get your site ranked higher on the SERPs. On page tactics would be the use of keywords, anchor text, meta tags and so on, in order to get your site ranked. Off page tactics would be writing articles, getting backlinks, using video and other web 2.0 properties to get your site ranked higher on the SERPs. In a nutshell, that’s SEO.
Okay, so then what exactly is SEM? SEM is using paid marketing in order to get more traffic to your site. This could mean using things like Google Adwords or even Yahoo’s or MSN’s pay per click services. Essentially, you are using paid search engine listings in order to get traffic. It has nothing to do with your actual organic placement in the SERPs. In fact, your site can be on page 100 organically. But if you bid high enough on keywords, you could be listed first in the paid listings. So as you can see, the two work together but one is not dependent on the other.
As for tips, let’s start with SEO first. If you’re on a tight budget, as many beginning marketers are, this is the way you want to go. You can actually get a good ranking without ever having to spend a dime on advertising. By optimizing your site as best as you can, writing articles, submitting press releases, making videos, bookmarking and getting backlinks, you can easily conquer even the toughest niches. If money is tight and time is not a problem, this is the way to go.
However, if time is at a premium and money is no object, then there is no quicker way to get traffic than through SEM. A paid ad that appears at the top of the paid listings can bring you hundreds of visitors a day IF the demand for those keywords is there. As I said, you can be on page 100 organically and it won’t matter. However, IF you are going to go the SEM route, you want to make sure that you get a solid education on pay per click marketing before you tackle this beast. Many marketers have lost their shirts going the SEM route because they didn’t know what they were doing.
There you have it. The difference between SEO and SEM and some tips on using them both. Hopefully, you found this information useful.
To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim
Read MoreBacklinking – 4 Strategies to Getting More Traffic to Your Website
Bring traffic to your website is the most important thing you need to do once you have a product and website. The problem is how do you get traffic to your website? Keep reading and let me show you some free ways to bring traffic to your website.
There are many free ways to bring traffic to your website and today I am going to show you 4 strategies to help you bring more traffic to your website through backlinking.
Before I begin, let me define what backlinking is. Backlinking is when you connect your website URL to another website and you only want to have one-way linking. This connection that is being made will bring you traffic from the search engines. Lets now learn some strategies.
Strategy #1: Find blogs that you can add a comment to and leave your website link in. What you want to do here is to find (do follow) blogs. These are blogs that will give you a vote for the link that you’ve given if the content that you give is worth reading. Make sure that you find blogs that are similar to your website’s theme. Next, make sure that you have an anchor text that gives a brief description of your website and do not include keywords that are part of your website’s title or domain name. Also, you want to use html code in your anchor text, as Google.com likes this.
Strategy #2: Write articles like you see here and submit them to article directories. This is a great and easy way to build backlinks. Since you are reading this article in EzineArticles.com, you know that this is the #1 article directory and you will get a lot of targeted traffic from your backlinks in this directory. Make sure that you read their editorial guidelines and follow them. When you get ready to submit your article, create a resource box that has your website URL in it so that you can get credit for your backlink.
Strategy #3: Build backlinks through social bookmarking communities and networks. This can be another very quick way to get traffic to your website. Here, you will be building links from websites that categorize and store bookmarks. There are many bookmarking website that you can find by doing a Google search. You want to find sites that have a Page Rank of 5 or higher.
Strategy #4: You want to add your website to search engine directories. You can build up your backlinks in a short period of time with this method. However, you want to gradually build your links as you do not want to get penalized by Google.com by having too many irrelevant links to your website. Make sure that you find relevant directories to link to, as this will give you a natural pattern of building your links. I would recommend that you chose 75 – 100 directories then mass submitting to every directory in the world. I will admit that this can be time consuming but in the end you will be rewarded with a lot of organic traffic to your website.
When you use these strategies everyday as part of your marketing plan, you will see a continuous stream of traffic coming to your website on a daily basis. Once you get this started you will see that you will be bring traffic on autopilot.
Read MoreThe Turbo Traffic System – How to Use Free Methods to Drive a Ton of Traffic to Your Website
The Turbo Traffic System is the hottest new method of driving traffic to your website and it is taking the Internet by storm.
Those that have used the system say it’s easy to understand, implement, and they have observed measurable results in a very short time. They claim Turbo Traffic is extremely user friendly and that anyone can use it to make money, even if they’ve never engaged in ecommerce before.
The core of the system builds on various ways to drive traffic by utilizing the vast potential of social networking platforms. Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are veritable goldmines, representing thousands of customers. Turbo Traffic provides the tools for tapping into those possibilities and consistently drives visitors to your site 24/7.
The Turbo Traffic System utilizes a variety of proven SEO methods to optimize websites for greater return on investments. The system consists of six modules, one of which is released to the purchaser each month. Users have 30 days in which to study the information provided in the current module and put it into practice before receiving the next module. The strategies are accompanied with step-by-step instructions, each building on the prior module.
The strategy has users begin by finding a money-related search term with little competition There are literally hundreds of thousands of these words and the Turbo System provides specific ways to uncover them. Users will learn about search engine optimization, keyword research and building backlinks. The system also helps identify specific niches that users want to occupy and determine target markets. Just apply the tactics explained in the system and expand on the resulting demand.
Search results will change and the chosen money term will be listed in the hot new position. The user’s site will also receive positioning in two spots in Google maps. The Turbo Traffic system demonstrates how to accomplish all that and more, even for those who know nothing about Google, search engines or Internet marketing.
Read MoreKeywords For SEO – There is Power in the K-Word
Master the “science” of selecting the right keywords in your material, and this world becomes your oyster! Search engine ranking depends on keyword relevance and authority. Note that relevance of keywords is evaluated by the search engine “crawling” three main components of your site:
*Title tag (page title)
*Page content
*Anchor texts of links to the page
There must be a connection between all three components tied in by the chosen keywords intended to optimize your web or blog site.
Three factors must be present when exercising the power of impeccable keywords:
Relevance-these words are directly related to your business. What words would a person using a search engine enter to locate your service or information?
Anticipated search volume-the power of a keyword is directly related to the number of times users search with that word.
Difficulty -competitive keywords (the “strongest” keywords) draw the big competitors out who attain high ranking through heavy traffic to their sites. A history of heavy traffic + strongest keywords = the highest ranking (1st to 3rd place) on the search page.
But what’s a newcomer to do? Heavy traffic to your site? Not yet. Strong keywords? Anyone can research this and get the information on big drawing keywords (http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). But who wants to be eight, even on the first search page? So what now?
You aren’t flush with traffic just yet so how do you get ranked and found by the search engine? Remember this: The power of the impeccable keyword is in the picking! Here are three things you can do:
*Start with a thorough list of relevant keywords
*determine estimated volume of those keywords and how much competition there is for those keywords
*choose keywords that have relatively low competition (see pay per click bids)
What will happen? You will land on different search pages with different keywords, but you won’t be at the end of the pack (as in search page 3, in the 8th spot!). This is one way to play with the big boys now. You next mission will be to begin exercising the power of inbound links..and that is another article.
Read MoreKeyword Keys to the Kingdom of SEO
With 22 billion keyword searches on the internet in the last year just in the USA, an internet marketer, MLM or home based business person is presented a vast opportunity for success if he or she can acquire a piece of this gargantuan pie! Do you want to be found? If the answer is yes, then you must start with the basics: picking impeccable keywords from your content that will attain the search engine ranking that puts you in the crosshairs of the gazillions that are searching for services, products, information, or what you are offering!
Quoted in the newly published book, “Inbound Marketing” (B. Halligan and D. Shah), Comscore reported that Americans conducted 13 billion key word searches on Google in 2009, while the total search activity for all search engines was 22 billion (p.55).
Whether Google maintains that dominant position in Web searches is not the compelling issue here. The 22 billion searches in 2009 on all search engines (just in the U. S.!) is the number that should be picking up the heart rate of the internet marketer, MLM, or home business person! This figure will continue to morph into unimaginable numbers in the future!
Do you want a piece of this? If the answer is yes, then you must start with the basics: picking impeccable keywords. Search engines rank the words you use in your content, be it articles, web sites, advertisements, URLs, blog names; whatever you put on the web.
Two keys to establishing high ranked, powerful words:
RELEVANCE-there must be a close correlation between the web page being offered and the given key word searched.
*AUTHORITY-how important is your web page to the world of business? How many inbound links exist from other web pages to yours, and how important are they to the world of business (what is their authority)?
The power of the impeccable keyword is in the picking! The right kind of forethought and research, balanced with the right level of competitiveness you are capable of going up against, will create the search volume that make dreams come true!
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