The internet opens up more opportunities for businesses to reach a larger audience through online promotion, the question is raised, how do you even start competing with the millions of other websites and companies out there?

The answer is search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM).

When these terms are heard for the first few times, they can be frustrating, especially if you’re not a particularly web-savvy business person and you’d rather put your time and effort into running your business than marketing it in a space you aren’t familiar with.

The problem with this type of thinking is, the whole world is turning to online as its main research tool, so if your business isn’t being seen on search engines like Google or online directories such as InfoLink, you are missing out on valuable business, and it could be your competitors who are picking up the customers.

What is SEM?
SEM is about getting your website to be highly visible on search engines. A search engine marketing campaign can include different tools including pay per click advertising eg Google AdWords, banner ads on websites and online newsletters and paid listings on online directories.

Most commonly they are AdWords which are the “Sponsored Links” you see around the search results when you search for something on Google. If you’re searching for “Wine Racks”, then you should see Ads relating to “Wine Racks”.

What is SEO?
SEO is all about using techniques to drive the right people to your website. These include key words, back links and valuable content that will help search engines naturally find your site without paying for ads.

If your website’s SEO is done well your website can rank highly on search engines like Google, so your site is one of the first people see when searching for your goods or services.

Search engines put the websites they think are most relevant at the top of their lists. Here are the key SEO factors to remember when building your website that will make your site appear important and valuable.

Keywords: Think of the words that your customers would type into a search engine if they were looking for your business. Then use these words frequently within the copy on your site. Search engines will then note that you provide plenty of quality, relevant content on your specific topic of interest and this can boost your page ranking.

If you are writing a blog or article to be posted online, be sure to also include your chosen keywords in your title, using one or two keywords per article will help your SEO effort.

Links: A search engine can track how many links to other websites are included in your page and how many other websites link back to yours. The more links tells search engines the content you have on your site is rich and valuable, so your page ranking goes up.

Get Listed: The opportunity to be seen on Google is greatly increased if your business is listed on relevant online resources, such as industry-specific directories. Even companies that don’t have a website can take advantage of SEO and make it to the top of Google by listing their business details such as phone number and address on an online directory that specialises in SEO such as Infolink.

The objective of SEO along with SEM strategies is to get your business and website in the limelight on search engines like Google. With a little SEO and SEM knowledge, your company’s online marketing strategy is much more likely to succeed.

Infolink is one of Australia’s online directories for the architecture, building, construction and design sectors. Owned and operated by Catch, an online division of Reed Business Information Australia, Infolink provides a central online source containing the latest product, company and industry news updates.