Think about website marketing like you’re having a party.  You need a thorough plan and all the right elements for it to be successful.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Web Content: Party Starters for Your Website!

Web Design (Des), known for being good looking and well coordinated, and her techie partner Web Development (Dev), are holding a party.  Their close friends Domain, Hosting and Email turn up early, as they do to every party.  They need to be there but they don’t dance so they don’t get the party started.

In the early stages a few visitors stop by but don’t stay long, sticking to one part of the room and not engaging with anyone.

Being so busy planning their party, Des and Dev let a few things slip, like not inviting Web Content and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), party people with a huge network. This mistake proves to be a huge downer; the party looks great and is ready for hundreds of guests but no one knows about it!

Takeaways – Web Design, Web Development, Domain, Hosting and Email are critical parts of your website; but if you build it, they won’t automatically come, or stay.

Des and Dev need a lot more guests.  Quickly!

That’s when Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), taking his time to establish the right links, teams up with Online PR and Blog to get the word out.  SEO hears that Page Rank will put in an appearance at some point but can’t be sure when.

Takeaways – Start Link Building, Online PR and Blogging early.  They help with SEO but may take time to have an impact on your Page Rank, which is the position of your website in a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Realising their mistake, Des and Dev give a last minute invite to Web Content, who arrives accompanied by the triplets; Title Tag, Meta Description and Keywords.

Title Tag and Meta Description put out signs making it easier for visitors searching for the party to know they are in the right place. Visitors arrive and are happy to stay after Web Content shows them around.

Things are looking up for Des and Dev as party hosts.

Takeaways

• Professionally prepared Web Content should include a list of your relevant Keywords plus a Title Tag and Meta Description for your website.
• Keywords are the words people use to search for information via a search engine.
• A Title Tag is the title that appears at the top of a web browser when it is displaying a website.  It is very important for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and should include your keywords.
• A Meta Description is used to provide information about a website to search engines so that they can match the website content to a search query.  It also needs to include keywords.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) eventually makes an entrance as the guest of a Google Certified Advertising Professional, followed by a huge crowd, including Page One of Google,who is much earlier than expected.

Takeaways – SEM can get you on Page One of Google quickly and drive visitors to your website.  For best results work with a Google Certified Advertising Professional.

Some of the new visitors don’t give the right type of Impression so they are stopped in their tracks, but most stick around after going straight to a comfy Landing Page.

Takeaways

• Impressions of your SEM ad aren’t always a good thing if they don’t generate clicks through to your website.
• A Landing Page is the webpage you direct people to from a link, for example a link in your SEM ad. A well-designed SEM landing page uses the same words as the ad, is focused on one main topic and encourages people to take an action such as contacting you or buying something.

SEM sees Web Content’s clickable looking links, immediately knowing they will be great together.  SEM loves the way Web Content always includes Keywords and he adores her work with the old guys, Heading and Formatting, who are well known but often underestimated.

Takeaways

• Links should look clickable (rather than stating the words “click here”)
• Include keywords in your content.  Web Content is different to content for a brochure or flyer.  To keep people reading it needs to include links to other pages of your site, be clear and concise and easy to skim, broken up by headings and formatting.

SEM brings the crowd and with Web Content keeping them entertained, the right visitors stay at the party and want to come back.  Several people take Web Content’s number and make contact later.  Others leave their email address and ask to be kept informed about future events.

Takeaways – Contact information and sign up pages should be easy to find from every page of a website.

To get value from the time and money invested in your website, budget for Web Content and SEM in the early stages of your plan.  They are great together!