Once you realize that effective online marketing requires some communication and a good ranking with the top search engines, you have to become familiar with two very different varieties of search engine marketing: search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC). The expense and time commitment required to operate a marketing campaign using each of these methods varies, so you have to learn about them both to determine what best fits your business and advertising goals.
Optimizing for the Search Engines
There are two aspects of SEO: off-page and on-page. Off-page search engine optimization requires building links pointing to your site from other high valued sites as well as various other strategies that are done off of your actual website in order to boost your own search engine ranking. On-page optimization includes producing keyword rich content and correctly naming each page of the site.
When SEO is done right, you receive an increase of “organic” traffic, which simply means people find your website through the natural means of finding you in a search engine results listing. You do not pay anyone for your ranking and placement with the search engines, so it is considered a natural and organic product of your own optimization work.
Too many people fail with SEO because they do not give it enough time to really take effect and deliver maximum results. SEO is a long term strategy that takes some time and patience to develop. You have to build up your site and prove the value of the site to the search engines in order to receive higher ranking and therefore pull in more traffic.
Pay Per Click
PPC campaigns entail purchasing sponsored listings that appear in the search engine results. When you make a search in Google, the sponsored results show up right at the top of the page, as well as down the sidebar of the page. Every link you see in these areas has been purchased.
If you are thinking it’s like advertising in the local paper, you’re wrong. It is a bit more complicated because you are not paying just to be placed on specific keyword results pages. What you are charged for instead are the individual clicks that your links receive. So, if no one clicks your link you won’t be out much but if you become extremely popular with searchers it could get quite expensive. The highest bidders are the highest ranked.
Fast results are what lure people to PPC campaigns. Most people cannot afford financially to start up with PPC right out of the box, but with time it is a very rewarding marketing strategy that delivers faster results.
As opposed to SEO however PPC of course costs you money. If you don’t target your market appropriately and bid on keywords strategically, you can end up wasting a good deal of money. Another important aspect of PPC management is developing effective landing pages that convert visitors who click on your links. This is extremely important when every visitor you receive has been paid for.
Clearly there are many differences between search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns. SEO produces long term results and doesn’t cost you money directly. PPC can produce instant results but will cost you every time someone ends up on your website.
An effective search engine marketing strategy which we teach at Carbon Copy Pro will usually incorporate pieces of both. It’s all about fitting a specific plan into a budget you can afford, and deploying tactics that help you achieve your specific goals. For example, if you just created a website and want to begin seeing traffic right away, bidding highly on some of your important key phrases will help you gain an immediate presence.
SEO is great for slowly improving your search engine ranking and converting more and more traffic with time, but PPC has a clear advantage at drawing in paying customers right away. This is why they have to be balanced according to your goals.
On their own, PPC and SEO strategies are quite effective as long as you know what they are designed to do and how much time they require to get established. When used together, these two marketing strategies can give you the best of both worlds: an immediate Internet presence and long term staying power.
Let Kevin Thomas an online entrepreneur SuperGuide and coach teach you more about SEO and PPC, visit his website The Carbon Copy Pro Times to learn more.