Best Search Marketing Practices and Strategy in 2024

Search engines are wildlands. Unless you apply search marketing best practices, it would be difficult to rank high or even be shown on the first page of results. This is often the dilemma of marketers who are tasked with optimizing their search marketing strategies.

Google, especially, regularly updates its search algorithms. It is a boon for those who use it because they are most likely to get relevant results. But it is a bane to marketers. In this guide, we talk about search marketing practices and strategies that you can use this 2022 in congruence with search marketing software. Though Google often makes changes, these are a few things that you can apply to hit your search marketing goals.

Search marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses activities like search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), search retargeting, and paid listings management. When you combine any of these, you get a search marketing strategy. But, of course, if you want to focus on only one at a time, it is possible. However, you could be missing out on opportunities if you do so.

Anyone can tell you that search engine marketing is important. It allows more people to discover your brand when they search for related keywords or keyphrases. Search engines are a greenfield for leads. Google has more than 3.5 billion searches per day, which amounts to around 1.2 trillion searches per year.

But do not forget that Google has competition in the search arena. Its tightest opponent is bing. Microsoft’s answer to search captured 7.61% of the market in January 2022. This is a far cry from Alphabet’s search mammoth, which had an audience of 85.55% in the same period.

What these numbers mean is that you have plenty of audiences to capture. The question, then, is how? In the following sections, we bring to you some best practices in search marketing that you can implement.

Identify Your Audience

In the planning phase of your search marketing, a critical step is identifying your audience. This might seem silly or redundant because you believe you already know who your buyers are. But take a closer look at the demographics of the people who walk into your store. Or those who buy from your online store, built with one of the best ecommerce platforms. You will find many things to uncover when you delve deeper into your customer base.

But why is this step important? According to marketing pundit Jennifer Yesbeck, “in marketing, if you’re trying to talk to everybody, you’re not reaching anybody.” That is why it is essential to know who your buyers are so that your message reaches the right audience.

After all, people are not likely to develop loyalty and affinity towards generic brands that have no personality. What they want are brands with which they can feel a connection. As well, people who are not a good fit for your brand can drain your resources. Instead, knowing your ideal consumers allows you to spend your ad money intelligently.

In the yesteryears of marketing, that would be a real challenge. It still is but fortunately, there are more tools available to make it possible. This 2022, search advertising expenditure in the United States is projected to hit $95.2 billion. That is a lot of money to spend on search advertising. But the method is also effective, so what organizations should do is make every cent count.

Audience Segmentation

Defining your target audience is a crucial step in search marketing. By targeting a specific group of consumers, you can make sure that your ads and campaigns are reaching the right people who might be interested in your product. Getting to know your audience also allows you to come up with more personalized marketing strategies.

One way to understand your audience better is by identifying the subgroups within your target customers. This is called audience segmentation, and this step can help you deliver more tailored campaigns to a specific group of consumers. To give you an example, here are some important data points that you can use to segment your audience:

• Demographic. This refers to some of the basic information about your buyers, such as their age, gender, marital status, working condition, income, and so on. By understanding the demographics of your audience, you can come up with more effective ways to address their needs and turn them into loyal customers.
• Psychographic. These are certain psychological traits, such as the social status, values, lifestyle, opinions, and beliefs that influence the purchasing decisions of buyers. With these data points at hand, you can have a better idea of which audiences are more likely to use your products and services.
• Firmographic. This kind of segmentation groups your target audience based on the particular attributes of a company, organization, or any other type of firm. Some of the most common factors to consider in a firmographic segmentation are company size, industry type, company structure, annual revenue, and more.
• Geographic. In this segmentation approach, you are targeting an audience based on their geographical location. This allows you to offer appropriate products and services based on the needs, wants, and cultural considerations of people from a specific area or region.
• Behavioral. Tracking the actions and behavioral patterns of consumers can help you to develop smarter and more effective search marketing strategies. Grouping your prospective market based on their online activities, such as page likes, downloads, and signups, enables you to deploy ad personalization and meet the needs of your prospects.
• Transactional. This refers to the purchasing behavior and spending patterns of your target audience. By analyzing what consumers are buying and how much money they are willing to spend on a certain product or service, you can tailor your search marketing efforts to a more specific group of customers who are likely to buy from you.

Enumerate Your Goals

What is it exactly that you are hoping to achieve by doing search marketing? Sure, the main goal is to increase visibility. But you need to be more specific. That is not all, though. You also have to make your goals measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Sounds familiar? You are correct! It is the adage of goal-setting, regardless of the setting. If you feel that you do not need to do that, get this. One survey shows that organized marketers are 674% more likely to achieve success. Similarly, those who set goals are 377% more successful than their non-goal setter peers.

Both tasks can be daunting. However, they bear fruit. Therefore, they are a necessary step to take in planning your search marketing strategy. And with the powerful features of search marketing software, you are on your road to success.

Determine and Analyze Keywords

What keywords are related to your brand’s products or services? That is an essential question you and your marketing team need to ask. And you both need to work together to identify and enumerate these. That is because they are central to the success of your search marketing strategy.

However, do not limit yourself to short-tail keywords only. Around 10,000 of the most-used search keywords are short-tail. These have a high search volume, which means intense competition. On top of that, they have lower conversion rates. You can, of course, include short-tail keywords in your strategy.

But do not forget long-tail keywords, or keyphrases, in the process. An example would be “ecommerce website builder for small businesses.” Having specific keyphrases means that there would be less competition because of the low search volumes. This is because the more specific they get, the less relevant they become for certain sellers.

Then why should you use long-tail keywords despite the low search volumes? As mentioned, there is less competition. If you are targeting a niche audience, this would be a boon for you. Moreover, keyphrases are most likely to provide you with more qualified leads. Plus, they result in more conversions; 2.5 times, in fact.

Do Not Forget to Update Your Content

As you are working on your search strategy, it is important to pay attention to your website’s content as well. Keep them relevant and ensure that they contain the right keywords or keyphrases. Of course, you need to add fresh content to your website or your blog, too.

When writing and updating, make certain that you maintain a consistent tone of voice. One study shows that 78% of high-scoring texts have this characteristic. The same research reveals other important content-related data: “Guide” articles bring in three times more organic traffic while “How To” articles pull in 1.5 times more organic traffic.

While you are at it, remember to think like a consumer. Two main things you need to ask are 1) what is the prospective customer searching for? And 2) why are they searching for that particular product or service? From there, you can craft content that hits different intent. By doing so, you can pull searches from leads who are in various stages of the marketing funnel.

But wait, there’s more! Taking care of your site pages and blog articles is good. But do not forget that your landing pages need to keep up as well!

Optimize Webpages for Mobile

Mobile plays a key role in search marketing best practices. There is no denying that most people are now more attached to mobile phones. Search statistics show as much. By the end of December 2021, mobile search volume was up to 54.86%. Meanwhile, desktops had 42.65% of the search volume, and tablets’ share of searches was 2.49%.

With these pieces of information in mind, it is best to optimize your content and align your search marketing strategies with mobile. Indeed, it is best to have a mobile-first mindset.

On that note, what are the things you can do to optimize search marketing for mobile devices? Here are a few search marketing tips you can do:

• Shorten the page title. Limit it to 45 characters only. If the title is longer than that, it will not show easily on small screens.
• Optimize images. Many people using search on their smartphones rely on mobile data. This means their connection is not reliable or fast all the time. Because of that, they are unable to see images immediately. Or if they do, they only get a pixelated or partially loaded version. This turns visitors off. Therefore, you need to optimize images. Choose the best file format for your site, which could affect loading speed. This brings us to the next consideration.
• Improve page speed. Images affect page speed. But they are not the only ones making your web pages load slowly. Other factors such as JavaScript and CSS files have a hand in it, too. Fortunately, some tools can help you diagnose problems so that you can fix them.

Include Voice Search in Your Plans

By 2024, there will be 8 billion digital voice assistants in use. This is unsurprising, considering there has been an uptick in the use of voice technology in the past few years. According to the latest voice search statistics, there was a 7% increase in the use of voice assistants globally in March 2020. This was likely due to the caution of people concerning COVID-19.

Consumers are not the only ones with an increased affinity for voice search, though. Retailers are also thinking about pushing voice assistants and setting aside touch-screen devices due to the novel coronavirus. Other industries are also hopping onto contactless transactional options.

So what strategy can you make to take advantage of this trend? One way you can ensure that your content can make it to voice search results is by creating content that answers frequently asked questions. After all, when consumers are utilizing voice search, they tend to make interrogative sentences.

To know what questions people are asking that are related to your brand, type an associated query on Google. There you will see a box that features what other questions people ask. Armed with that information, you can craft content that can answer those questions.

Develop and Implement Compelling Ads

What is the point of an SEM campaign if nobody clicks on your ads? For a successful SEM strategy, you need to have ads that compel your audience to click on them. As well, do not forget to make your ad trustworthy. You want to capture consumers who do trust the ads they see in search engines. In the US, only 38% of buyers believe in search engine advertising.

But how do you go about that? Here are some tips to follow that can help you gain success in that area:

• Align your copy with the searchers’ intent
• Make the benefit or solution of your product or service apparent
• Add relevant promos or discounts
• Include the appropriate keywords
• Compose an apparent call-to-action

Choose the Right Keywords to Bid On

You have short-tail keywords and long-tail keyphrases being used for targeting audiences. So what does choosing the right keywords to bid on mean? This has to do with your pay-per-click strategy. In this situation, you want to research keywords or keyphrases for which your ad will show up.

You can align your PPC strategy with the keywords that you have already determined. Still, you want to brainstorm terms that describe your brand, products, or service. You may even want to think about attributes that relate to the competition.

But when it comes to the actual bidding or buying part, focus on keywords that have buying intent. This is especially important if you only have a limited PPC budget. If there is plenty of wiggle room, you can bid on keywords that target the earlier stages of the buyer’s journey. That way, you can cast the net wider.

Where do you go for ad bidding though? One of the most popular, and the largest, platforms is Google Ads. To give you an idea of the cost of keywords on the site, current statistics show that “business services” is the most expensive keyword at a whopping $58.61. Rounding the top five is “asset management”, which would cost businesses $49.86.

Remember, Google Is Not the Only Search Engine

It is tempting to focus on optimizing your search engine marketing for Google only. That is understandable, as Google has captured 91.9% of the search engine market. But it is not the only search engine that people like to use. Due to privacy or other reasons, some people prefer to use DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Bing, Infoseek, and believe it or not, Yahoo!.

Including lesser-known search sites in your strategy can help you gain more leads. This is because there would be less competition for the top spots. Of course, you still need to know which sites members of your audience are likely to use when searching the web. Thereon, you can devise a strategy that encompasses not just Google but other search engines as well.

Create Conversion-Centered Landing Pages

Once your ads have reached the right target audience, the next step to successfully convert prospects is engaging and making them stay on your landing page long enough to make the purchase decision. However, this can only be possible if your landing pages are following conversion-centered design principles.

Used effectively, a landing page can increase your conversions, double your profits, and bring more leads to your email list for nurturing purposes. Based on a recent report by HubSpot, the average conversion rate for landing pages across all industries is 9.7%. Given that the benchmark for a good conversion rate is 10% (WebFX, 2020), this data shows that effective landing pages bring a longer list of leads to convert.

At its best, a landing page is meant to be persuasive, engaging, and user-friendly. Some of the best practices for creating landing pages are using a benefit-oriented headline, appealing color schemes, and simple and optimized content. Following a visual hierarchy for your landing page design can also help you draw attention to your CTAs and most important marketing visuals and messages.

Maintaining a 1:1 ratio of ads to landing pages is also a good practice that can generate more leads and conversions. Instead of creating a single generic page for all your products, tailored landing pages for each of your top products can help you turn your SEM-generated traffic into higher conversions.

Pair SEM Strategies with A/B Testing

The goal of any search marketing strategy is to make more money for your business. In an ideal scenario, the money you are investing in your search marketing strategies, especially in SEM, should pay off by increasing the ROI of your business.

One of the most effective ways to maximize the potential of your search marketing strategies is by performing an A/B testing of your landing pages. Now that you have already spent a considerable amount of money to draw people to your site, the next step is to make sure that your SEM landing pages are optimized and can generate higher revenue per visitor (RPV) and average order value (AOV).

A/B testing of landing pages allows you to determine the relevance of your campaigns and keywords to every person that interacts with your ads. This can also lead to higher quality scores, which in turn decreases your ad spend and lowers cost per click (CPC) rates. Analyzing the performance of A/B-tested landing pages can help you create more effective landing pages for your target audience.

Examples of Search Marketing Software

There are numerous search marketing solutions out there that vie for the attention of companies. But these are the ones that stand out because of their advanced features. So, you might want to start looking into search marketing platforms starting with these:

Semrush

Semrush is a leading online marketing platform that assists organizations in growing their organic traffic. It can do this with the help of its powerful SEO tools. Among these are an on-page SEO checker, which provides ideas on how you can further improve your pages.

SE-RankingVISIT WEBSITE

SE Ranking has a plethora of SEO analysis and marketing tools. With this, you can confidently track keyword ranking in real-time. You can also take a peek at your competitors’ campaigns to give you ideas on how you can improve yours.

Raven

Raven Tools centralizes SEO features such as trends tracking, ad campaign management, and link building management. On top of those, the solution has social network monitoring and management capabilities. Team members can work seamlessly together from this app, too.

Moz

You can get your basic and in-depth research tools from Moz. Using this, you can learn how to improve your SEO. Plus, it helps you find the best keywords for your site. It even conducts link analysis for you to know whether your linking strategy works.

UpCity

Rather than an SEO management software, UpCity is an online marketplace where you can find digital marketing services providers. It vets every professional or agency on the platform. Therefore, you can rest assured that you will be working only with the best.

Organize for Success

Believe it or not, search marketing is closely tied with content marketing. When you are strategizing for or optimizing your search marketing, you have to update your content to be in line with it. To be successful, your website’s content would have to click with your target audience. It’s one of search marketing best practices that you should consider.

There are a variety of methods you can test for that. Apart from those, though, there is the matter of having an organized workflow. Because as mentioned earlier, organized teams are more likely to be successful in their marketing endeavors.

Being organized is more than just having good communication tools like Flock and Trello, though. It is also in the system that you design. Improve your content marketing with an organized workflow that has a simple process. Assign a person to each task but also leave room for collaboration. For example, if an editor is assigned to do preliminary research and create an outline, there should be some flexibility there for the writer to give their two cents. They could exchange insights to come up with a better outline for better content.

When matched with well-thought-out strategies, you can look forward to achieving your search marketing goals.

By Jenny Chang

Jenny Chang is a senior writer specializing in SaaS and B2B software solutions. Her decision to focus on these two industries was spurred by their explosive growth in the last decade, much of it she attributes to the emergence of disruptive technologies and the quick adoption by businesses that were quick to recognize their values to their organizations. She has covered all the major developments in SaaS and B2B software solutions, from the introduction of massive ERPs to small business platforms to help startups on their way to success.