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SEO or PPC:
Which One is Right for You?
Search Engine Optimization
By: Stephen S Alison
There are two major search engine marketing strategies in use
today: SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC
(pay-per-click). These two methods are very different, and
deciding which one is right for you can be hard. Which one do
you think will do more for your website? Well, that all depends
on what your website’s like.
One leading contributor to the difficulty in deciding which is
correct for your site is that you don’t really understand why
you can’t just use both. There is no real reason that you cannot
implement both methods when marketing your site, in fact, I
encourage this behavior as PPC can be integrated quite nicely
into an SEO plan.
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PPC is a good way to get users to become more familiar with your
site. Once they are used to seeing your site, they will probably
begin to stick around if they encounter it in a search engine.
The more often that your site is visited the more that search
engines will like it. This is one reason that it is so crucial
to attempt to get as many quality hits as possible.
Reading up on the pros and cons of each program lets you sit
down and decide in your own time which strategy would work best
for your website. Since search engine marketing is undoubtedly
the best source of targeted traffic out there at the moment, as
people will continue to battle for the top search engine
positions, even from day to day. |
As people continually try to find new and unique ways to being
additional traffic to their websites, the SEO industry continues
to grow. PPC refers to text-based advertising on a search
engine, and you will be charged by the click whenever a visitor
clicks on one of your ads. These order of ads is usually based
on bidding prices, meaning that the advertiser who bids the
highest price per click will be listed first. We’ve all heard of
sponsored listings, right? Well, that’s what they are: PPC
listings.
SEO tries to change your search ranking by looking at a number
of factors, including link popularity, PageRank, and so on.
Rankings you get through SEO will appear on the main, ‘natural’
search results pages, not over in the box with the sponsored
links. And you don’t have to pay for your clicks!
So, how can we tell which method is better? You can’t say that
one method will always be better, because they serve different
purposes. However, one is likely to be a better fit with your
business than the others.
PPC - PPC traffic, rankings and results tend to be more
stable and predictable than SEO, and, combined with its low
cost, this makes PPC one of the more popular ways of
advertising. Most companies try PPC before they try SEO, because
it’s seen as more stable and respectable.
In many cases PPC lets you rank high on the search engines,
without having to do the tedious work involved in SEO – no
finding link partners, posting links, and so on. As long as you
have the budget for it, the ranking’s yours, and another
advantage is that the listing will get posted when you add it,
not when the search engine gets round to it.
Sadly, PPC’s popularity makes it a competitive market. You will
find that CPCs (costs per click) are steadily rising, and that
hurts the little guys. Prices work as auctions – the more people
in the auctions, the higher the prices.
SEO - The main benefit of SEO is that it can be done
entirely for free, and let’s face it, who doesn't like free
traffic?
The disadvantages, though, are that your traffic is
unpredictable. You have to guess, adapt, and constantly change
strategies. One month you could just fall out of the top 10
without any warning, and there goes your income. SEO is also
slower than PPC, as the search engines only update their natural
listings about once a month.
So what should you choose? Well, it depends on how much money
you have to spend. If you have cash then PPC should be your
first choice, as it produces faster results. If you’re on a low
budget, you should look at SEO first. The best thing to do,
though, is to use both techniques together – use PPC for some
keywords and SEO for others, depending on the keywords’
price.
Search Engine
Optimization Techniques -
The Basic SEO Rules for All
Websites. Search engine optimization isn’t rocket science, but
it can feel complicated at times. To have a successful campaign,
just follow these simple rules detailed here – they apply to all
websites.
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