Most Common SEM Mistakes That You Need To Avoid

The world of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is a virtual minefield and to succeed in it one must know what SEM Mistakes not to commit more than what to do to run effective campaigns.

Making Landing Page Uninteresting

Landing page makes the first impression on the prospective customers and it should be designed in such a manner that it is impactful. The page should be interesting enough to hold the attention of the visitors. Also, the penetration of smartphones is too deep now and not having a mobile-friendly landing page is a suicidal move. The landing page should have mobile-friendly content, which means less text with good quality images that are well arranged and of course easy navigation. All important details should be clearly visible and there should be no cluttering on the page.

Not Monitoring the Analytics

Any good service provider or wherever you hire knows the importance of analytics. Simply starting a campaign and leaving it without analyzing it for mistakes and rectifying them is one of the biggest SEM mistakes to avoid. You need to collect all the data and analyze it on a regular basis to see if the campaign you initiated is going along the curve you wanted it to or has deviated from its path. Unless you analyze it, you will never be able to know what went right or wrong and the probability of failure will increase multi folds.

Being Irrelevant

Make it easy for prospective customers to find what exactly they are looking for. For that, you need to be precise making use of the right and specific keywords, using ads that have specific landing pages with appropriate titles etc. If the users feel that you are relevant, clear and precise in what you are offering, they are more likely to buy or recommend it in their circles of influence. If the content is relevant, the traffic that will be diverted to your webpage will also be relevant, which, in turn, will enhance the conversion rate.

Targeting the Wrong Audience

PPC advertising is one of the fastest ways to generate customers for any business in a short time. If executed correctly, it can take the business to new heights, but the problem is that most of the people wreck up the whole campaign making some simple mistakes like targeting the wrong audience or improper bidding. The result is that most of the time they end up losing money in these PPC advertising campaigns without generating any leads or converts.

Forgetting the User Intent

This is again one of the drastic SEM mistakes that anyone can make. Using a specific keyword is not enough. It should be in line with what a prospect is thinking. Keywords can generally be categorized under three heads: Navigational, Informational and Transactional. Just stuffing the keyword in your content without understanding the intent will do more harm than good.

In the digital world where having visibility is an utmost requirement, Search Engine Marketing or SEM, as it is commonly referred to plays a crucial role. It is one of the best tools to be visible to a broad range of your targeted audience. But, if you want this tool to work optimally, it is very important to avoid the common mistakes, few of which are discussed above. Any mistake can prove too costly to mend, especially for those businesses that fall under small or medium size category as their budget for marketing and advertising is very limited.