The Holodeck | So. Many. Acronyms.

Have you ever stopped in your tracks and pondered the world of search engine optimization? Fluffy little clouds of SEOs, SERPs, PPCs and SEMs, CTRs, CPCs, UVPs, CTAs, RAOSs, and CPAs swirling above your head and begging the questions, “What does it all mean? And why am I standing in the middle of this sidewalk with a blank look on my face while passersby wonder if I’m okay?” No one? Yeah, me neither. But I will say that our latest Digital Marketing chapters on search engine optimization and paid search advertising have fascinated me. Not to the point of going into an acronym-infused trance, but fascinated just the same. (These chapters have also introduced me to the basics of coding and my control freak self is all over learning more about manipulating a link to bow down to my commands. But that’s a different blog for a different time.)

I’m a big fan of Google. “Google Magic” has been a legit term in my vocabulary for years. For whatever reason, I’ve placed my trust in this mammoth search engine. I type in what I’m looking for, click on its magical findings, and rarely go past the first page to see what other results might be available to me. Why? Because they’re obviously lesser than and don’t deserve my attention. (Hi. Rude much?) While I know that’s not actually true, psychologically, anyone past the first page is increasingly untrustworthy the further away they are. I drank the juice. And I’m proof as to why anyone hoping to shine a spotlight on their online presence should take the time to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) because you need to understand the ingredients of said juice to capture the world’s attention.

So, what the what is SEO and SEM?

SEO is the free guy and requires some patience and a bit of strategic genius on your part to ensure your website organically shows up on the search engine results page (SERP) – meaning you didn’t pay to put it there. And by ‘a bit’ I mean a lot. Website rankings (i.e.: where you appear on the SERP) are based on relevance and quality, so it’s crucial to nail down accurate and effective keywords, maintain a quality site with fresh and original content, and play the linking/backlinking game. The whole SEO situation could seriously melt your face off with the details to consider. Trust me, my face is half gone thanks to writing this blog post and I haven’t even scratched the surface. But there’s hope. In order to do this thing right, it would be worth your time to snuggle up to Google’s Search Central, which includes everything you need to know about the SEO world – including an SEO Starter Guide and links to the all-important Search Console, which is an imperative SEO monitoring and site management tool to help with your website’s performance on Google – and to avoid those pesky noncompliance penalties. (Truth be told – those links will also melt your face off, but it’s worth the facial in the long run.)

SEM (also known as PPC for pay-per-click advertising, but that’s not as flowy as SEM to my SEO) is the paid version of SEO that forces your company toward the top of the SERP. It’s more immediate than the long game of SEO. Three bonuses to this. One, you show up. Specifically, to an influenceable target audience who sought an answer (your fabulous product) to their question (generic, tell me what I need product). Two, it can work with your budget. As PPC implies, you pay a small fee when someone clicks on your ad – with the ability to cap the monthly spend. Three, it’s flexible. Budget-wise, you can pause the campaign and/or adjust your spend midstream. Reach-wise, you can tweak the message and/or the audience whenever your heart desires. (Love that.) But a big fat SEM warning, which goes back to the basics of SEO and knowing your target audience. Do your homework. Otherwise, your money and marketing efforts will be wasted on people who could care less. Check out Google Ad’s resource pages. Pretty interesting stuff!

I know I’ve loved on Google throughout this post. Again with being a big fan. But, obviously, Google isn’t the only search engine out there. Bing and Yahoo! swoop in at #2 and #3 respectively (with Yahoo! technically part of the Bing family). According to statcounter.com’s data, Google held 84.08% of the desktop worldwide market share last month, with Bing coming in at 8.95% and Yahoo! with 2.6%. Flip that to mobile search engines (because who doesn’t live on their phone?), and Google jumped to 96.17% with Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo!, Bing, and DuckDuckGo all struggling to reach 1%. (Yandex and Baidu who? Is this Kindergarten, DuckDuckGo? Who are you!?)

These stats are important to know for two reasons. One, Google rules the world. At a minimum, monitoring your SEO data and continually striving to increase your worth on their search engine is worth your time. Just as with anything pertaining to business, staying relevant is imperative. Two, Google rules the world. (“Wait. You said that already.”) Google’s big daddy status means there’s an insane amount of competition trying to capture that elusive spotlight. Mixing it up might get you on that magical first page of another search engine. Still do your Google thing, but diversify your SEO strategy in order to maximize your overall presence in this cluttered world.

So, what does this all mean for The Holodeck’s SEO/SEM endeavors? We need to do our homework. Nail down our target audience. (I’m feeling like that’s a massive ‘no duh’ at this point.) Research what keywords make sense for the business while meshing those with our website, the target audience’s quizzical searches, and how we can stand out from the competition. We then need to register and verify The Holodeck with Google’s My Business to ensure we appear on local searches.

While finagling our SEO situation and taking advantage of the glorious tools available to avoid brains exploding across the country and beyond, we look at an SEM campaign through Google and Bing that’s localized within a specific radius of the business. This will get our name on the SERP for locals and families nearby. We also focus on backlinks and how to get our business mentioned on other reputable sites. (I’m still loving the press release angle. Free and positive advertising is a super good time.) Possibly spend a little more up front and take advantage of the Google Display Network, where we can choose specific websites to display our ad and enlighten the targeted world around us who didn’t know they needed a family fun center in their lives until it appeared on their favorite website. And then we do it all over again. And again.

I’ll admit my face isn’t melting off as much as it was in the beginning. I mean, it is, but I’m trying to be cool about it.

REFERENCES

- Google Search Central | Web SEO Resources. (n.d.). Google Developers. https://developers.google.com/search

- SEO Starter Guide: The Basics | Google Search Central | Documentation. (n.d.). Google Developers.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide

- Google Search Console. (n.d.). Google Developers. https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome

- Desktop Search Engine Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats. (n.d.). StatCounter Global Status. https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/desktop/worldwide