The differences between SEO and SEM

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

SEM, or Search Engine Marketing is the process of gaining traffic or visibility on, search engines through organic and paid search. A Search Engine Marketing campaign may include the following elements:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Pay per click marketing, eg Google Adwords
• Paid inclusion and trusted feed programs

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation, also called SEO, organic or natural search focuses on search positioning and on-page optimisation as well as link building to get your website ranking on search engines. SEO is a long term strategy and will take longer to get results. Where your website appears on search results will take time, and will depend on industry competition and other factors that search crawlers take into consideration when ranking your site, eg keywords, unique content, meta tag descriptions, link building efforts etc.

What is PPC or paid search?
Pay-Per-Click marketing is when an advertiser bids on keywords associated with an advertisement in order to achieve a higher position on Search Engine Results Pages. PPC ads will appear in the sponsored links section for searches for that particular keyword. Your ad will usually appear on search results within a few hours (once you set up your ad and chose your keywords). PPC is flexible and allows you to adjust your spend depending on your budget and how much you want to spend on keywords. PPC campaigns can be activated or deactivated as you wish.

What is paid inclusion?

Paid inclusion is simply the practice of paying a Search Engine or a directory to add your website to its database immediately, rather than setting up that site so that it will be found by the Search Engine spiders on its own.

The pros and cons of SEO and SEM

Below are some of the key differences between SEO and SEM:

Cost:

• Organic search - it costs nothing to index your website on a search engine, but if you engage the services of an SEO company to assist with your rankings, you will need to pay a monthly fee
• Paid search - you are paying on a cost per click basis. Click prices will vary depending on the keywords chosen and how many people click on your ad each day

Control

• SEO - You can't control where your website will rank and it will fluctuate day to day
• SEM - you have control over where your paid ad appears on search engine results as this depends on how much you are willing to pay per click per keyword

Immediacy

• SEO campaigns take months to get your rankings up on search engines - it is a long term strategy to get your website ranking on search engines
• PPC campaigns are effective immediately

Segmentation

• SEO - your website will show to all markets in the geographic area
• PPC - you can target your ads to appear to a particular geographic area

We believe that using a combination of organic and paid search strategies will help your website perform better. Speak to our marketing consultants on 07 3040 3588 about our SEO and SEM services and how we can help your website rank on search engines.

Using the new Facebook timeline for your business

As you will now be aware, on 31st March, Facebook changed all business pages to the new timeline layout. But if you're still a bit confused on how it all works, below are some key points you need to know about the new timeline layout.

Timeline banner image
You can now include a large banner image at the top of your Facebook page to showcase your brand. However, please note that there are some strict guidelines about what you can put in the banner image. Your cover image is 851 pixels wide x 315 pixels high and can your logo, but it can't contain any call to action, 'like' instructions and it can't promote or sell a product. Eg 'like' us now to win, 50% discount etc. The banner can't be used to market your Facebook page, increase likes or market/sell a product or service.

Profile picture
The profile picture is 125 pixels wide by 125 pixels high. You can use your logo or an image as your profile picture.

Tabs
The new Timeline layout means new visitors will automatically land on your timeline. They won't first arrive at your welcome or specific landing page, as was the case previously. The new timeline gives you the option to add more tabs or apps to appear under your cover photo. The photo tab is fixed and cannot be moved, but your other tabs/apps can show up here in this panel after the photo tab and the order can also be changed.

The width of the Timeline app page has also increased to 810 pixels. If you don't change the width of your design, the design will just appear centered on the page.

Highlights
You can now highlight a post and it will display over the whole Timeline (2 columns) rather than just on one side of the Timeline. This is great for photos.

Pinning a post
The new timeline allows you to pin a post to the top of your timeline. A pinned post will stay at the top of the timeline for 7 days before it goes back to its chronological place in the Timeline. A pinned post is great if you want to promote a particular promotion/offer.

Milestones
The Milestone feature allows you to paint the story of your business throughout the years. You can use the milestones feature to celebrate major achievements, changes to your brand, products or services or functions or events.


If you would like more information on Facebook marketing or would like a facebook app design, please speak with TA Fastrack on 1300 659 289 or visit www.tafastrack.com.

Using Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that helps you understand how visitors interact with your website. Below are some of the key metrics you need to look at on Google Analytics in relation to your website

Bounce rate
The bounce rate refers to the percentage of website visitors who only looked at a single page on your website before leaving. The bounce rate is a great tool to analyse your visitor's experience on your website and whether they found the page and its content relevant and useful.

When a person enters a certain search criteria and links on your page, do they read the content and continue on to view other webpages, or do they simply leave straight away? Visitors will only stay on your website and continue to browse through other pages if they find what they are looking for and enjoy the experience. If they don't get the information they want straight away, they will leave.

A high bounce rate means that the content on your site is not relevant to the visitor. You need to make sure that your website is relevant to the search term that the visitor is using to find your site and your website has enough information to make the visitor want to stay and continue browsing through the site.

Time on page
The average time on page metric provides you with information on how long a visitor stays on the site and each page. This will help determine whether your site provides value to your visitor in terms of design, user friendliness and relevant content. The longer someone stays on your website the better. The aim is to attract the visitors and keep them there.

Pages per visit
The number of pages visited will give you an indication of whether your visitors are having a positive experience on your site. If they find the content relevant and interesting, they will continue to browse through other webpages.

If you find that visitors are not staying on a page as long as other pages, you may need to refine the content on that particular page.

For more tips on how to improve your website experience for your visitors, contact TA Fastrack on 07 3040 3588. If you need a new website design or need professional copywriting services, speak to TA Fastrack today for a quote.

Developing a social media strategy that works

Social media is a long term strategy that is used to build brand awareness over time.

Below are some tips on what you need to know if you want to get started with social media marketing:

Where are your customers?
There are so many social networks out there, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg etc. If you want to get on social media, make sure you only use the networks that your target audience are using. Do some research. If your customers are using Facebook, but not LinkedIn, there is no point in setting up a LinkedIn account.

Be Active
Social media works if you dedicate some time to it. Merely setting up an account and having an “if I build it, they will come” mentality won’t get you far. Once you set up your account, make sure you go on the site every morning, or every couple of days to post comments and photos, answer customer questions etc.

Have a Conversation with your customers
Social media is about interacting and engaging with your customers. Your customers want to know you're listening to them.

Share relevant content
Include links in your posts to drive traffic to your website, add links to videos or photos or news articles that your fans will find interesting. Include call to actions and links to your special offers.

Encourage your fans to share
The more people that see your content, the better and if they find the content interesting, they will share it with their network of friends. This will help increase your visibility and reach far beyond your fan base.

For assistance with social media marketing, speak to one of our marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 1300 659 289 or visit www.tafastrack.com.

The latest Google Algorithm update - Penguin

On 24 April, Google released its latest search algorithm update called Penguin. This update focused on 'webspam', which involves any practice that aims to rank a website higher in search engines, purposely using techniques that are against Google's guidelines and best practices.

The Penguin update primarily dealt with devaluing sites that were deemed to be participating in link schemes (or that had an unnatural number of links pointing to them), or websites that were ‘over-optimised’.

We recommend that you check your Google Analytics statistics, and if you notice a significant drop in traffic immediately after April 24th, then you may have been hit by the Penguin update. If you think you've been hit, speak to TA Fastrack about an SEO audit of your website to see what may have caused this penalty and provide advice on how to fix it and make sure your site is following all best practices and Google’s guidelines.

You can read more about the Penguin update here.

Pinterest: Do you need to start using it yet?

Is it time to add Pinterest to your marketing mix?

Here are a few key points for you to consider:

• Pinterest has an increasingly high amount of referral traffic.
• Research shows that Pinterest’s largest demographic is women aged between 25-44 years. Research also found that 44% of the women surveyed trust recommendations from fellow Pinterest users —that’s more than the trust levels for Facebook (33%) or Twitter (31%).
• Pinterest became very popular first with people who aren’t considered social media “power users.” This gives marketers a new audience to target.
• It's a great way to build a community and brand awareness with your customers.
• While Facebook and Twitter gives users the ability to add photos to their posts, Pinterest is the first social media site to combine the visual with outbound links.

For more information about social media marketing or if you need help getting started with Pinterest, speak with one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 1300 659 289.

Get yourself out of a slump and back on the road to success

We've all been there, when you're feeling unmotivated and seemingly incapable of doing the tasks that need to be done.

Here are some tips for getting yourself out of a slump and getting back on track:

1. Write it all out - what do you want, what changes are you looking to make, what is your big dream.
2. Pick one goal - drill it down to just one goal, make it easy to achieve, now is not the time to challenge yourself too much.
3. Break it down into steps - write out all the little steps it will take to achieve this goal, and then number them in order of what needs to be done first.
4. Get organised - what do you need to get it done efficiently, de-clutter your space.
5. Delegate if possible - recruit others to the cause, or outsource to specialists.
6. Give yourself a time frame in which to get it done, and try to stick to it.
7. Re-read your goal and tasks several times a day to keep you focussed. If you find yourself slipping off into the land of YouTube or Facebook, then it is time to read your goal and tasks again.
8. Look at the other areas in your life that have been pushed off to the side and start to integrate them back into your daily routine. This might be as simple as walking the dog, or getting your receipts filed. 
9. Congratulate yourself on a job well-done. Every time you achieve something, even the small stuff, give yourself a pat on the back.