Oh, the marketing dream of making sales on the Internet without the need to pay for the marketing itself. SEO, search engine marketing, that is! Just, no: it isn’t!
In this article, I will clean up the myth that still occupies way too many minds – that SEO search engine optimization is the perfect replacement for paid SEM, search engine marketing. It really isn’t.
Here is the most important point for you: SEO will never replace paid search engine marketing because those two marketing strategies are completely different and can’t be compared to each other.
If we are really honest, SEO is not even a real “internet marketing strategy” if you look closely enough. SEO has become a measurement technology that search engines use on how to present your websites to the right audience.
SEO is not something that you can do or can’t do. The search engines are doing SEO for you already – if you want it, or not.
It is the artificial intelligence behind Google and other search engines, that analyzes the real human behavior on your websites and rates the quality of the information that you provide.
SEO is the important Internet strategy that you need to follow in order to have your website presented in the most optimal way – to the right customers and potential language students will find your offers and book their training with you.
SEO is actually an ongoing marketing strategy that is not free at all – it costs hundreds of work hours being invested and it is not a one-time activity where you add a few keywords and some description to your websites, and then leave them alone.
SEM, search engine marketing, however, is the important and paid way to leverage search engines to display ads to people who actively search for specific keywords. It is a marketing strategy that needs a clear budget and can drive customers on-demand to your website.
SEO and SEM do not compete for each other. They are needed both to signal one very important thing to your customers: TRUST.
SEO ranks your websites based on quality and interaction with real human beings and being listed “on top” when someone searches for language courses, for example, shows potential language students that your website is up-to-date and relevant to them. SEO can’t be cheated, it is an ongoing quality process.
New websites for example always have a disadvantage against long-term older websites that Google already loves and trusts. SEO quality can only be proven over time and needs patience and constantly added quality content to your website.
The harsh truth: many companies are running out of money before they make their first sales based on SEO alone.
If you need “sales fast” the only way to be seen on search engines and social media is with paid traffic strategies, namely SEM, search engine marketing.
The same is true for social media marketing. If your website features unique interesting and entertaining content then the right people will share it on social media with others. This can’t be forced either – it is similar to SEO.
So for social media marketing, we have the same situation: naturally shared content “for free” or paid social media ads that try to get the attention of social media users.
The myth, that SEO is the cheaper alternative to SEM is really a dangerous mind trap. Google and other search engines are way ahead in knowing which websites are new, which one are visited most and which websites are visited for the longest periods of times. All those factors can’t be faked.
It is time to get started to improve the structure and content of your language school website. We are here to help with our SEO language school marketing services for you.
