SEM, PPC and SEO - Are you Paying for Website Traffic. What, Why, How?

Difference Between  PPC and SEM, may seem like a stupid question for some people. However, I guarantee 90% of people don’t know the correct answer of this question. Even further more, I bet most people think they are exactly the same.

So let me take the time to explain this concept a bit further so you don’t think I went off the internet marketing deep end here. We will begin with the definitions of both ppc and sem.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing

SEM is marketing and technical work designed to increase a website’s visibility on Google and other search engines. SEM can include…

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
• SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management – sort of like Public Relations Management for your business’s reputation on search engines).
• PPC Advertising (Pay-Per-Click Advertising – including ads on Google AdWords, Yahoo and Bing – more below).

SEM is big business. There are thousands – soon I predict millions – of companies and consultants who specialise in this field. Companies like Google and Yahoo make almost ALL of their money from SEM, including their huge PPC text ad fees.

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click (PPC), also called cost per click, is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which advertisers pay the publisher (typically a website owner) when the ad is clicked. It is defined simply as “the amount spent to get an advertisement clicked.”

With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. PPC "display" advertisements, also known as "banner" ads, are shown on web sites or search engine results with related content that have agreed to show ads.

PPC includes ads on Google, Yahoo and Bing – these are the ads you see at the top and right-hand side of search pages – or even on Facebook pages.

Usually PPC ads cost nothing to display – when a viewer clicks on the ad, only then is an advertiser is charged for the ad – hence ‘pay-per-click’.

In some cases ads are charged per 1000 ‘impressions’ (1 impression = the ad appears one time on a webpage displayed on one person’s computer).

The most popular PPC program is Google’s AdWords, accounting for around 90% of PPC ad dollars. In my experience, AdWords has been the most profitable choice due to the high percentage of total web search traffic on Google. AdWords is, however, becoming more competitive and costly every day which reduces the return on every advertising dollar you invest. Other networks are working hard to offer attractive systems and traffic to advertisers – trying to get a bigger piece of Google’s pie.

The most popular PPC ads are text ads like you see on Google’s search page. Video and display ads (display ads have a photo or graphic or logo) are also common and can appear on almost any website (although they are generally ‘served’ from an advertising provider like Google).

PPC is a very easy way to promote your website when getting a 1st-page organic position is a longer-term, more difficult goal.

PPC is generally profitable when your business targets a specific segment of the market with a relatively unique product or service or offer – and when there are not a lot of competitors bidding against your ads and driving up the cost of your PPC efforts.

The basic measures of PPC accounts are:

1. CPC (Cost Per Click – the amount you pay each time someone clicks an ad and is directed to your site). CPC can range from a few cents for specialized, noncompetitive business niches – up to $100 or more for highly competitive industries like financial services.
2. Cost Per Conversion (the amount you spend before you get one sale, signup or other goal). If you ‘convert’ one out of ten visitors, and you pay $1.50 for each visitor from Google (ie: CPC = $1.50), then your Cost Per Conversion will be $15.00.

The Difference Between Pay Per Click and Search Engine Marketing

So by now I am sure you have figured out my proposed analogy. If you didn’t, either my description is lame or you don’t drink Whiskey.

SEM, or search engine marketing is the 'big brother' to SEO. If you've considered getting your business online, you're sure to have heard of it...but what exactly is SEM? How does it work? Most of all, is it worth paying to make sure your business generates web traffic?

Biz4Afrika decided to enlist some expert help from Elwyn Dhliwayo, CEO of SEO Specialist, and we've got answers for all of your SEM-related queries.

What is the difference between SEO and SEM? Which, in your opinion, is more effective? Can you have one without the other?

Many people find it difficult to distinguish between Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). In most cases, both terms are often used interchangeably, which makes it even more confusing.

I will sum up everything in below.

As can be seen in the diagram above, SEO is simply a component of SEM. Therefore, SEM includes elements of paid search, such as PPC and also Social Media Marketing (SMM).

SEM is more effective in the short term, especially when you begin online marketing, as it has the ability to generate instant exposure, leads and sales for your business. However, as you run your SEM campaigns, it is crucial to invest in SEO as it will generate significantly higher returns in the long run. SEO results are permanent and will last for years!

In my opinion, for a business to achieve the best results from online marketing, it is important to make use of all elements of SEM, which are, SEO, PPC, and SMM. These three work together. For example a business can use PPC to drive traffic to the website, while SMM creates brand awareness and user engagement and then SEO ensures that the business website becomes more visible for valuable keywords / phrases that actually result in a lead or sale. I personally use Google Adwords (PPC or pay per click) as a research tool to inform organic search (SEO) and it really works.

How does SEM work? What are the main pros and cons of implementing SEM? Why should small businesses use it?

With PPC, you allocate a budget for your paid search campaigns and only pay when users click on your advertisements. On the other hand, for SEO, you pay an SEO specialist to optimise your website on a monthly basis, so it can be more visible on Google for keywords or phrases that are related to your business. All these efforts are aimed at generating more website visitors, enquiries / leads and sales for you company.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a process which improves the quality and the quantity of the traffic coming to optimised website from organic search.

SEO Is:

• SEO is a process, not a single action.
• SEO is concentrated not only on quantity of the traffic but also on its quality.
• SEO contains different seach engines: image search, local search and vertical search.
• SEO helps Getting indexed your website quickly.
• SEO is a long term marketing strategy

Social Media Tactics to Increase Traffic to Your Website

Are you struggling to control the power of Social Media for your website? are you want to Increase Traffic to Your Website from social media? If the above answer is yes, then I'm writing this post for you.

Why should you care about Social Media?

Because it used by millions of users everyday. Based on Statista data, revealed in March 2015, below are the approximate numbers of active users in different social media sites:

• Facebook – 1,415,000,000 
• LinkedIn – 347,000,000 
• Google+ – 300,000,000 
• Twitter – 288,000,000

Do you know, The population of USA is something like 300,000,000. And all of these social media users are there, just on the other side of your screen!

The days are gone when you could optimize your website and blog every day, increase your audience via email and RSS subscriber and just sit and relax. Although this strategy still works in today, But now it is the era of social media!

The Social Media Sites can help increase your website visitor if you have something worth in your website. Here are some tips for how you can use Social Media to Increase Traffic to Your Website.

So here are Social Media Tactics that you can apply to drive traffic to your websites.

Tactic #1: Did you know that Twitter now has over 316 million monthly active users and 500 million Tweets sent per day? Communicating with customers and posting tweets regularly may increase your website visitor.

Every time you tweet, include the post headline and link back to your website. Also try to include a picture from the post within the tweet, Twitter users love pictures.

Tactic #2: Start a Facebook page for your website. This is a great, additional subscription option for heavy Facebook users, and it can be a means of expanding your platform. I’ve met several new people who “liked” my page and weren’t previously friends with me on Facebook.

Regularly share your content on Facebook. There are some great tools to help make this easier for you. Encourage your readers to do the same by adding a Facebook “like” or “share” button.

Tactic #3: Ask others to promote your blog via social bookmarking sites, such as DIGG, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and others. You may occasionally do this yourself, but be careful of doing it repeatedly, as some sites penalize sites with multiple submissions from the same user.

Tactic #4: Implement social sharing tools on your website. Here is a list of popular social sharing tools that I have tested so far. A few are plugins designed specifically for WordPress, but others can be used on almost any website.

• ShareThis
• Socialize
• AddThis
• AddToAny
• Digg Digg
• GetSocial
• Shareaholic

Tactic #5: The evolution of online feedback and commenting has come a long way; from the old school guestbook to forum and feedback form, and from native platform-dependent commenting systems to today’s social-powered commenting systems that work cross-platform regardless of what Content Management System, Programming Language or Scripts your site is based on.

Use a social-powered commenting tool like Disqus, IntenseDebate, Livefyre or Facebook.

Tactic #6: Write catchy headlines that people will want to share. Most people neglect this by posting well-written articles with crappy, nondescript titles.

Tactic #7: Write compelling content. You might be thinking, “Duh,” but I really mean that. It has to be really good. Like, better than your average blog.

Tactic #8: No matter what social media you are trying to leverage, sharing mediocre information will only hurt you. I’ve learned this the hard way because when I get lazy and share mediocre information, I see that my social traffic drops.

Tactic #9: Whenever you release a tweet or a Facebook post, you can control where you place your link. Place your links near the beginning of your social posts, it'll increase click-throughs-rate.

Tactic #10: Consider creating a hashtag that is short, recognizable by followers, and allows them to easily follow along. If you’re using an existing hashtag, ensure you’re adding value to the conversation.

Tactic #11: Since LinkedIn obtained pulse, It has remained a content publishing platform, but now it features articles from anyone who posts on LinkedIn. This is your opportunity to get your content in front of a large audience and get visitor to your website.

I’m sure that each of you found useful social media tactics in this post. Go ahead, share it, write your ideas and opinions in comments.

How to Optimize your Facebook posts to Maximize Engagement?

Whether you are a small business, a large agency, or even a top retailer like Walmart and Target, Maximizing engagement on Facebook is all about content.

Here are 7 Best Types of Content for Facebook Marketing:

1. Create useful content 
2. Visuals visuals, and more visuals 
3. Infographics 
4. Current events 
5. Humor 
6. Statistics 
7. Quotes

1. Create useful content. 

Lend a hand to your audience. Share articles that your customers will find helpful and relevant to their business. Make most of your content about the customers as opposed to promoting your products. Useful content should predominantly be shared on blogs such as WordPress or your website. Valuable content includes (but is not limited to) tricks of the trade, tips, how-to guides, ebooks, webinars, etc. Save short, helpful blurbs for Twitter. You can also tweet useful links to your followers. Rely mainly on images for Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Why you ask? Take a look at the next point.

2. Visuals visuals, and more visuals. 

According to Facebook, photos and videos posted to Facebook create anywhere from 100% – 180% more engagement than the average post. That’s a whole lot! On ecommerce sites, 67% of consumers say that quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product. It’s an easy way to quickly grab the attention of current customers and possible leads. Photos entertain with minimal effort. Visual content is very effective in grabbing the attention of your viewers.

3. Infographics. 

Are a different type of visual. Infographics are visually appealing, while containing information, data or humor They provide complex information that can be easily interpreted in a short period of time. A diverse assortment of infographics are a great asset to your blog, Pinterest or Facebook. Also try adding links to your infographics on Twitter to see how your audience engages with that type of tweet. 

4. Current events. 

Topics that are freshly surfacing the web are prime because people are currently thinking about them. Contributing to holiday buzz is also great content. Get your Facebook fans to send in pictures of their Halloween costumes or their carved pumpkins. Make sure you find a way to comfortably relate it to your business. You can keep on track with newsworthy topics by subscribing to your industry’s emails, RSS feeds, Facebook Page, put them in your circles on Google+ and following them on Twitter. 

5. Humor. 

Laughter is a great way to connect people to your business. People are more likely to share your content if they find it comical because they become emotionally attached to a certain extent. Sharing humor that relates to your target market is a priority on Facebook. It’s refreshing for both yourself and your audience to see some hilarity once or twice a day. The trick is to relate to your audience without offending or disrespecting anyone. Take a look at The Worst Types of Content to Post on Social Networks for guidelines. 

6. Statistics. 

Statistics are perfect for Twitter. Short, informative pieces of data are useful and easy to process. Those facts may entice readers to think and perhaps research more into the data. In turn, your fans are learning from you and they will appreciate it. It’s a great idea to credit the association or person that was responsible for the statistic (internet etiquette).

7. Quotes. 

Are perfect for Twitter, just like statistics. They’re also a quick go-to if you’re short on time. They can provide inspiration, sentiment or knowledge in a matter of seconds. Provoking emotion is a huge part of marketing. Having the reader feel something about your content causes them to associate a positive feeling with your brand or business. Quotes are also great content for Pinterest, especially atop a photo or in the caption of a pin.

2015 Social Media Marketing Challenge: Infographic

In recent years, social media has become a powerful digital marketing tool used across various industries.

As it is still relatively new, there are many obstacles which marketer and social media professionals are facing every day. So, What are the biggest challenges for social media marketers in 2015?

Easy Social Promotion - Addmefast!

Today I’m going to introduce a website with you called Addmefast!

What is Addmefast?

Addmefast is free social exchange network which helps you grow your social presence. Currently thanks to Addmefast you can get more and more Facebook likes, Facebook subcriptions, Google circles, Google +1 , Twitter followers, YouTube views , YouTube channel subscription, YouTube Video likes , Pinterest followers, Soundcloud music listening, Digg followers, StumbleUpon followers and Website hits .

How to get started

If you have already registered and logged in, you can do the following steps:

You can add your pages/accounts/music videos/websites clicking on the green button '' Add Site/Page''. You have to choose a network type, input title (if necessary), then add the URL or username/ID and set CPC * (Cost (points) Per Click for your Site/Page - min=2 and max=10) and then click the save changes button. After this, the link you have added will appear in ''My sites'' section. If you want to pause campaign for one of your site/page - click on the pause button(CPC=0 automatically). If you want to start it again, you can click on the start button (CPC=5 automatically) and then change your CPC. You can delete the link that you have added whenever you want to take into consideration that the link that you have removed can't be added anymore by another user but you. You can add unlimited amount of links for any type of network.

How to get points

• You can get free points by liking/following/viewing/subscribing/listening to the others pages/accounts/videos/profiles/music.
• You can receive daily bonus points (100).
• You can choose their affiliate programs to earn more free points. You can share your referral link where you want, you can also use "Share on Twitter" and "Share on Facebook" buttons to do it quickly on Facebook and Twitter. If new user(s) (coming from your referral link) registers on Addmefast network and becomes an active user(s) you earn 200 points for each. Anytime you can check your referral status here.
• You can buy points via Paypal.

Services Offered By Addmefast:

 

Adding Your Sites / Pages to AddmeFast is easy and only takes seconds:

Earning Points is fast, easy and convenient, because you won't have to leave the addmefast member's site.

As you can see on the image above, you can earn up to 9 points for giving one Google +1 to another member's site. You can use these 9 points and get several +1's for your own site. The higher the number of points you are willing to give to another member for voting for your site, the faster the votes will come in.

In the beginning, I thought that it will take forever to get some votes. However, it only took about one hour to get 50 Google +1's and Facebook likes.

Of course, you can also buy points. This is a great option if you do not want to spend time visiting and voting for other member's sites.

All in all AddMeFast is a great service if you are looking for a cheap (Free) and FAST way to get tons of Facebook likes, Google+1, Twitter followers etc.

* The higher your Site's/Page's CPC, the more chance you have for it to be visible. You can add unlimited sites/pages, Add web page, or facebook, google plus, etc. pages. Increase your site/page media activity. Get more and more fans, followers and likes. All categories of site/page are allowed (cars, food, music, fanclub, artist, film) except adult content. All sites with the adult title, link or content will be disabled.

Additional information

Addmefast doesn't sell likes/subscriptions/followers/views/hits. 

Addmefast will never request for usernames or passwords of your social network accounts and will never post, tweet or update status from your accounts.

The information of your account will never be reachable for the third party unless you agree. Only In the case of selling any or all of our business to a third party your information may be shared.


For questions, further information, requests or comments please feel free to contactAddmefast supports stuff via support centre.

Join AddMeFast Now! (It Is FREE + You Will Get 100 Points Instantly!) - 

CLICK HERE