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3 key search marketing strategies to consider in 2016

Laura Reinders BlogWhile you plan out your 2016 marketing roadmap, it’s a good time to evaluate your search marketing strategy. This strategy should not only take into consideration SEO for increased organic web traffic, it should also include SEM (pay-per-click) to attract specific geo-targeted traffic and remarketing, to draw previous visitors back to your site.

If this is new uncharted territory for you, this primer will provide you with a better understanding of the benefits of SEO, SEM, and remarketing.

We’ll start with the base — SEO (search engine optimization). SEO is used to describe the process of improving the volume of traffic to a website from search engines organically. In a broad sense, SEO is marketing by understanding how search algorithms work, and what consumers might search for to help match them with the offerings on your site.

Through good SEO practices, you can attract more qualified leads to your website and improve your organic ranking on popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo!/Bing. Results from organic SEO can be seen in 60-90 days.

SEM, also known as pay-per-click or PPC, is another method for improving your website’s search engine ranking. Since it is a paid campaign, it is more controlled than natural or organic rankings and can be designed to respond to selected keywords and industry specific terms. This is a more immediate way of driving traffic to your site from the search engines.

When considering an SEM campaign, identify keywords that will deliver the best results for your website. These keywords can be derived from the inventory on your site and should include your manufacturers, vehicles and services to drive the highest quality and most relevant traffic to your website.

Paid search results are much faster than organic. Results from a paid search campaign can be seen as early as 5 business days after the start of the campaign. This is not to say the entire campaign will be firing on all cylinders in a week, but you will notice improved results in an increasing manner after about 5 business days.

While paid search results can vary depending on location, inventory, competition, etc., research shows that websites can generally expect a 46 percent increase in traffic, page views and visitors with organic optimization. A 140 percent growth increase is the general trend with paid search campaigns. This also varies based on the above factors. Looking at the big picture, more traffic = more leads = more sales opportunities for your dealership.

While SEM brings in new site traffic, remarketing gives you a chance to bring back customers who previously visited your website through dealership branded ads displayed among the tens of thousands of sites within Google’s Display Network. Customers who visit your website are added to your remarketing lists. When they leave your website to visit other websites, your targeted ads appear, enticing them back to your website and conversion. According to Criteo, retargeted customers are 70 percent more likely to convert than someone who has not been remarketed to.

By utilizing a search marketing strategy that includes SEO, SEM and remarketing, you cast a wider web net to capture and drive more relevant traffic from new sites visitors as well as bring back those who formerly visited your site.

Source: Internal evaluation of dealers using Dominion search services

Laura Reinders is the product marketing manager for DX1. The DX1 Search Services Team collectively contributed to this blog.

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Contact: laura.reinders@dx1app.com

Website:  dx1app.com

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One Comment

  1. I am new to do this for the company I work for and I was wondering what is the best way or best website to do the pay-per-click program on to get the most business? I already post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Yelp, Bing and Google Plus. Is there anything else I can do to draw in traffic?

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