Search Engine Optimization versus PPC Advertising
The hardest thing about setting up an online business is getting people to visit your website or blog and then getting them to purchase your services or products. Most people use PPC or Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But which is the best option? I will explain...
Search Engine Optimization
Firstly Search Engine Optimization is where you optimize your website or blog to appear, hopefully on the front page of Bing and Google. There are many anomalies that have to be in place for your website to be ranked high enough for Google to put you on the front page. Even if you get on the front page, Google changes its algorithm quite often so this has to be monitored and adjusted accordingly for you to stay there. It’s quite a specialized operation to get your website on the front page of Google using Search Engine Optimization. It’s basically a popularity competition.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is the quickest way to get your website on the front page of the major search engines however; if you get this wrong it can cost you a small fortune before you have even really begun to understand how it works. Basically you pay every time someone clicks on your advert; this will be triggered by keywords you have chosen. The more popular the keyword the more a click costs, big companies will pay huge amounts for certain key words that generate big revenue for them and you will be up against very rich multimillion dollar companies when bidding for keywords. Any decent keyword is going to cost you a dollar per click at least. If you don’t sell anything you can soon rack up a huge deficit before you even get started. If you go this route you must learn as much as you can about PPC and how to best use keywords. Many people make great money using this system of advertising but it is risky for beginners.
You also need to understand targeted keywords, for example if you were selling baby clothes, don’t pay for the keyword ‘baby’ as this is too vague and people that click on your advert may not want baby clothes and you have wasted your money. You would use the key phrase ‘baby clothes’ because you then know that that person is actually looking for baby clothes. With ‘baby’ you would get more clicks but not targeted clicks whereas with ‘baby clothes’ you will get less clicks but more sales.
Search Engine Optimization also uses keywords or phrases, for example if you optimize your website for the key phrase ‘baby clothes’ you will appear on the front page of searches for free with no need to pay per click, attracting targeted visitors and customers, generating sales for free. You can optimize your website yourself there is plenty of help online but it will take about six months to get your website optimized and ranking on the front page of search engines. But once there... all your traffic is free!
So in conclusion both options work, PPC is quick but expensive and risky whereas SEO is for people in it for the long haul and will eventually be a very cheap way of selling your products or services. Even if you have to pay a company to optimize your website it is reasonably cheap and pays a great dividend in the end. I have used SEO for my website and now all our sales are generated for free which obviously has increased our profit margin and allowed us to be more competitive in the market. And in these difficult trading times this is essential to a company surviving these next few years. Good luck I hope this helps you make it!
The company we use is called ineedhits and has put us on the front page of Google for many key phrases, click the banner below for free tools and information on SEO!
