Effective SEM - Search Engine Marketing France

Sun, 09/11/2011 - 00:49 — admin

Choosing your Search Engine Marketing approach in France

When it comes to SEM or Search Engine Marketing in France, how do you decipher the maze of pros and cons between Pay-per-Click (PPC) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the best results for your French SEM campaign?

Honestly, you don’t have to. PPC and SEO can work together with each channel playing an integral role improving your whole French marketing campaign. Yes, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages with each option; however, aren’t we used to that in life?

Google AdWord’s Pay-per-Click service is quick and effective for new businesses in France getting on their feet that need instant traffic to their site. It’s fairly simple: you pay the search engine only when your ad is clicked on.

You can choose precise keywords and run an impeccably focused campaign. You have exact control over which landing page your visitors see, access to accurate tracking figures, precise specificity over which regions and countries see your ad, as well as when. Plus, you can easily adjust your campaign if you find the numbers aren’t up to muster.

In short: With PPC, you can actually buy your way to #1 on the search results page if you’ve successfully outbid the competition for your market’s keywords.

A word to the wise though: Google AdWords are more likely to show ads from sites that people have previously visited. This little trick can be expensive if you’re an existing PPC client being charged for clicks by people who already use your website!

A French SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign is slower, however with a good SEO company for low to moderately competitive keywords you could be on the first page with Google using organic SEO in under a month. When choosing an SEO service in France, look for the following:

Assistance choosing keywords - it's important that you target keywords that sufficient people search for in order for the results of your SEM campaign to generate sufficient return on investment.
Links from high PageRank websites - PageRank is Google's measure of the value of a link from a web page. Directories and Social Media links are useful in generating traffic directly to your site, however to appear high in Google's search results, you will need links from other high PageRank websites in France as part of your package.
Good anchor texts - the links going to your site should include a good variety of keyword rich anchor texts.
When choosing keywords there's a difference between PPC and SEO. In PPC you will only appear high for the precise keywords you have chosen, meaning it's important to choose keywords that generate a good return on investment (ROI). If you have a real estate website that only covers Paris, it's probably better not to spend your PPC budget on generic searches like 'real estate' or 'real estate France'. Instead focus it on Paris and/or specify that you only want your Adwords to appear to residents in Paris.
With SEO, you can focus primarily on specific keywords, however links to your site will improve your position in search engines for ALL related keywords. Also, once you stop building links to your site, those organic links generated via an SEO campaign will stay there for months or years to come. With a PPC campaign, once you stop paying for the clicks, you will immediately disappear from the search results.

Combining both Search Engine Marketing techniques, is a perfect marriage. SEO and PPC each get impressive results in their very unique ways, but over the long term - SEO generally generates a better return on investment.

For an effective France Marketing service, visit Search Engine Marketing in France.