With billions of people shopping online, doing digital marketing is no longer a question of why. It is of when, and the soonest you can get your site up and running, the better.
The problem is many businesses are still not doing it. Over 30% don’t have a website, according to Small Business Administration (SBA). Meanwhile, a whopping 200 million sites are inactive. Companies are probably spending for them, but they lack updates and do not convert.
Businesses skip digital marketing or don’t take it seriously for many reasons. One cause is they don’t understand how it truly works. To finally settle the misconceptions, let’s correct some today:
1. PPC Is SEO
Digital marketing is broad and covers all marketing strategies that involve or work with electronic or digital devices. Thus, mobile marketing is digital marketing, and so is creating videos for YouTube or offering products on social media.
Most, though, are confused between paid and organic digital marketing, particularly pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO).
In PPC, you pay the advertiser every time someone clicks on the ad you publish. The costs can vary depending on the quality and volume (or popularity) of the keywords.
SEO is increasing the website’s visibility by optimizing the pages and structure (on-page) or doing activities outside of your site (off-page) that boost both ranking and web traffic.
Ranking refers to where you appear on the search results when someone uses your keyword, say, on Google. The higher you are, the better since most Internet users click on the first site they see on the list. The best position, though, changes over time. Today, it’s the featured snippet.
2. Any Digital Marketing Agency Can Do SEO
Many digital marketing agencies try to be a jack of all trades, but not all of them can be good at what they do. Some don’t cover all strategies or techniques. Several of those who do SEO also specialize. For example, some focus on non-profits while others are into SEO for mobile commerce.
When looking for expert marketing SEO services, you need to set some criteria to find the best team to work with:
- What are your goals and the nature of your business?
- Who among the options has worked on similar projects or sites as yours?
- What specific SEO strategies do they use? (Note some SEO techniques are not allowed, according to the guidelines)
- How much do they understand your market?
- How updated are they with SEO rules?
3. Once the Site Is Up, You Can Already Get Customers
A website doesn’t guarantee anything except the potential that online customers can find you. However, unless you implement digital marketing strategies correctly, you’re only wasting money.
You also need to remember that you cannot see results overnight. SEO, for instance, takes between four and six months before you reap the rewards of everyone’s efforts. The task doesn’t end there, too, since SEO rules can change.
Your digital marketing success also depends on the following:
- Objectives for every campaign (Is it to promote the site or sell a product?)
- User design (i.e., how user-friendly the site is)
- Mobile and social media marketing
- Level of expertise of your agency
To succeed in digital marketing is to be committed to it and work hard. However, you’re doomed to failure if you don’t have the best knowledge about it.
