The main purpose of marketing is to promote your company or business. It is aimed at creating widely spread awareness about your products or services to attract and convince interested parties to pick you. How universal search engine marketing plays a role here is key in making your business’ overall marketing efforts as effective and productive as possible.

What are universal search results?

Universal search basically produces all types of results for a searcher from all around the world- hence the term ‘universal’. A single search box is used to access content from a number of different databases. This content now includes posts, videos, news and locations.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing encompasses all the steps taken by a business’ marketing team to increase the amount of traffic towards its website. This deliberate form of Internet Marketing aims to increase a business’ search visibility through a variety of search engines like Google and Bing, etcetera. Basically, the whole point is to make your business rank higher in search results and prompt action by potential customers that would be favorable for your business.

Hence, universal search engine marketing is a term that refers to the conduction of Internet Marketing to make your business gain one of the top most ranks in the world on SERPS (search engine result pages).

How does universal SEM work?

This process can be implemented and enforced by using different techniques which optimize your brand’s website and increase its chances of making it up the search results ladder. It is extremely important for your business’ website to be well-designed from a SEM perspective as at the end of the day, it is going to help your potential customers reach you and convert themselves into actual customers. There are three main ways you can approach and implement to carry out effective SEM for your brand.

1. PPC (pay-per-click) or ‘Sponsored Search Results’.

This is a form of online paid promotion which Google labels as an ‘ad’ or ‘sponsored’ on its SERPS. This works quite simply: advertisers rely on keywords that act as triggers and prompt their brand’s or business’ name to appear in search results. The business (advertiser) pays a fee to Google every time it bags a ‘clickthrough’.

2. Organic SEO.

This type of SEO process enables your website to gain increased and improved search visibility organically, in all search results that are unpaid and non-local. Every search made by a searcher results in organic results, which are displayed somewhere in the middle of SERP. The organic ranking of your business will be affected by more than 200 different factors. These factors can be categorized into four main areas: website architecture, content, backlinks and competitors, with competition growing tougher day by day.

3. Local SEO.

This type of SEO aims at getting your business suggested or listed in response to search     queries that have local content, meaning that they involve location of the searcher and the businesses. ‘Near me’ searches are the best example of local searches.

Overlooking one of these can impact your online visibility and make your marketing efforts less effective in reducing the friction between you and your potential customers. The ultimate goal of SEM must be met: making it easier for your potential customers to find you and transact with you.

Hence, we recommend incorporating all of the SEM strategies in your Internet marketing portfolio to create a ‘perfect’ and balanced blend. Here’s why:

How universal SEM helps your business

Captures audiences’ attention at the right time through precise targeting

Effective and well-implemented SEM will ensure your business and its ads appearance just when your potential customers are looking for you or someone like you. Geo qualifiers as well as ‘near me’ filters aid this form of targeting.

Allows you to use search intent to your advantage

What people search for and what is trending can be a crucial aspect of your online marketing campaigns. By using SEM, you, as a business, have the chance of targeting your audiences based on their ‘search intent’. Having knowledge related to consumers’ search intent and content can allow you to optimize your own calls-to-action, page landings and adcopy messaging accordingly.

Quality online visibility

Being visible online and ‘being there’ is essential for all businesses looking to increase their reach and target audiences on a large scale. Universal SEM assists businesses in doing just that! All areas of SEO as well as PPC play a role here. As mentioned above, you need all methods to integrate in a balanced fashion for SEM to reap maximum ranking results for your business.

SEM ensures that your business’ name pops up in search results for pre-set keywords associated to your brand by you. Hence, SEM not only helps in increasing traffic to your website, but it also attaches the ‘good quality’ tag to it. Good quality traffic and leads are most likely to take action, convert and become your customers.

Cost effective

Search Engine Marketing methods are more efficient and cost effective when compared to other traditional forms of advertising that were once very popular. Many SEO opportunities can still be availed for free (Google My Business, etcetera) and others that need to be paid for do not cost too much today.

Moreover, another element relevant here is the reduced wasted exposure as a result of the ability of SEM to target precise audiences and direct qualified leads to you. This precision also results in higher conversion rates, which ultimately contributes to your business’ revenue.

Measurable and Track-able

Monitoring and tracking progress is an integral part of conducting any campaign, including universal SEM. By tracking customer data (with their consent), your business’ marketing team can make necessary calculations to assess the effectiveness of your SEM campaign and the value it has brought to your business as a whole.

Insights into customer data can be gained by using a number of different tools to track their online behavior and response to your marketing efforts. Overall, measuring and tracking will allow your marketers to keep enhancing and optimizing your SEM campaign as much as possible.