Mistakes in SEO and SEM strategies

Published 02/24/2022 by Ingenuity & Solutions in Digital Marketing - Last updated on February 24, 2022

Mistakes in SEO and SEM strategies

There is a frequently repeated mistake by many entrepreneurs or directors of digital projects, and that is to select a single billing lever. Better two channels than one and four channels better than two. SEO and SEM are the optimal combinations.

Although you see SEM as a good substitute for SEO, in no case should you do without the organic positioning of your website.

The conditions of the advertisers' platform can change from one moment to another, and your business can be really affected. Or, even if your budget drops or you have to stop doing SEM campaigns, your website will completely disappear from the search results, and this is something you should avoid at all costs.

That is why you should never forget the importance of the natural positioning of your website. You're probably not an expert, but there are plenty of online tools like Search Engine Visibility that will help you give your website a boost. With keyword or content suggestions, SEO analysis, or the use of a virtual assistant, everything will be much easier than you thought.

Common mistakes

1. Believing that SEO and SEM cannot be combined

The first thing you have to do is eliminate from your mind the idea that both cannot go hand in hand. Commonly, companies have this misconception when they start a digital marketing process.

This is one of the most recurring questions among business managers who want to launch into the digital plane.

When it comes to online marketing, it is an excellent idea to combine several strategies to achieve our desired results.

In addition, you must remember that both one technique and the other have marked differences that simultaneously support each other, so in a certain way, you will be complementing the lacks of one with the benefits of the other. It is fundamental to know when is the best moment to use one tool or another.

2. Not combining SEO and SEM

Now you know you can mix SEM and SEO. But another mistake is being aware of that combination and not doing it. If we decide to dedicate all our efforts to SEO and only get clients through this channel, Google may punish us tomorrow.

And it is that although it does not penalize us because we are developing it naturally, the competition also works SEO and can take us ahead.

If we decide to dedicate all our efforts to SEM, Google may paralyze us tomorrow Google Shopping for a specific policy of products, descriptions, prices, or images.

These problems can occur in any digital channel, so testing which ones offer us a positive ROI and diversifying based on it is necessary to establish our digital position and solidify customer entry.

3. Believing that investing in SEO and SEM is an expense instead of an investment

As we have seen in previous articles, a certain amount is paid each time the user clicks on an ad in SEM. The more clicks, the higher the cost, and the greater the chances your visitors will convert to your website. You do not pay for the times the ad is shown but for those who click on it.

On the other hand, in SEO, we do not have to assume any cost for each visit as in the Google AdWords platform, but this does not mean that it is cheaper. The work and time of optimizing a website to position it naturally in search results can be much higher.

Although an SEM campaign can indeed become more expensive in the short term since you need an expert in AdWords, in addition to the cost of the campaign itself, things change in the medium and long term.

SEO is not one of those tasks that you perform on your website once and that you can forget about. The generation of content is a task in which you must constantly work to publish it periodically and update it. In addition, the optimization of the web itself and updates are something that you can never stop.

4. Forget tracking strategies

Sometimes problems arise that should not occur due to skills and others. We see clear examples in companies that hire an agency for SEO management and another different agency for SEM management.

As both agencies are direct competitors because they both offer parallel services, it turns out that they do not provide each other with valuable information that would allow scaling in each of the channels.

These cases are unfortunately common. A recommendation for the contracting company is to supervise both the execution and the previous planning to check if different channels are being promoted among themselves or not.

5. Not detecting what works best

SEO is a long-distance race. However, you already know that SEM allows you to reach the finish line in the form of a sprint. So that the investment in SEM is not always significant, you must know how to read the results.

SEM campaigns allow you to target specific SEO actions because you will know your audience and what works best in your field.

After all, the question still arises. What are the drawbacks of working with an SEO and SEM strategy? Simply that the investment will be more significant, but, as its name suggests, it is an investment from which it is intended to obtain a positive return.

Is it necessary to bet on a joint SEO and SEM strategy? Of course not. You can opt for SEO or SEM individually. Of course, you will have to be very clear about both the advantages and limitations they can offer you.

If you want to implement the best strategy to achieve your goals, you must interpret how your business reacts to SEO and SEM strategies.

6. Having separated teams

The same team must manage SEO and SEM. It is a mistake that different departments handle them separately and do not have the necessary communication. This means that, on many occasions, they end up carrying out different strategies. It is a terrible mistake! The ideal is to complement each other. You are working on the same traffic source, and you want to impact the same users. Why doing it in different departments? Therefore, it is best that the same department is dedicated to Search Marketing, both SEO and SEM.

7. Forgetting the periodic changes

A comprehensive SEO and SEM strategy will help you dominate the SERPs. By running organic and ad campaigns in concert, you'll have more valuable data to optimize your efforts.

You will discover more details about your Buyer Persona and use that information to refine your PPC and SEO strategies.

Keep in mind that both SEO and SEM are constantly adapting to changes in Google's algorithms. This way keeps advertisers continually evolving to offer a better experience to users. You must be aware of the news and prepare for changes in a sector with so much movement, such as digital advertising.

Do not choose between SEO and SEM. Take advantage of the best of each of the strategies to improve your website. SEO and SEM are, at the beginning, totally different marketing strategies with different roles and purposes. Although they are different in many aspects, they both have something in common: they are the two faces of search marketing.

Finally, the common goal of SEO and SEM is to drive users to your website. There are many ways that SEO and SEM efforts complement each other and contribute to a more practical search strategy. However, avoid making the mistakes that we have mentioned in this post.

At Ingenuity and Solutions, we will help you with your company's digital presence. We can also advise you on the best strategies for positioning your brand through understanding tools such as SEO. If you need help with digital marketing, contact us. If you are interested in more content, do not forget to visit our blog.

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