When it comes to marketing your business if you know little about internet marketing in can be difficult to know which route to go down. There are two main options when it comes to internet marketing; SEO and PPC. SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is used to get your website ranked on search engines for targeted search terms increasing your traffic. PPC stands for pay per click. PPC is paid advertising which is displayed above organic results on search engines and is used to increase conversions. Choosing which method is best for your business can be tricky if you don’t know the details, so here is a look at both and when they should be used-
SEO
When it comes to looking for a product or a service online almost everyone turns to search engines to do this. This is why as a business it is important you are ranked well on search engines for your targeted key words. Being on page one of Google and page two can be the difference between getting 1000 visits a month and 10 visits a month.
SEO does take time and it’s safe to say that when it comes to SEO slow and steady wins the race. SEO cannot be used as a quick fix and takes time, commitment and perseverance. Choosing search engine optimization means your traffic will slowly increase month after month and you will see a slow and constant growth in traffic to your site.
Choose to use SEO if your business is doing well but you wish to grow it slowly over time leaving you able to adjust and expand as your rankings improve.
PPC
PPC unlike SEO is paid advertising on Google. Like the name suggests you pay a set price every time someone clicks on your advert taking them through to your site. PPC is displayed above the organic results at the top of Google and are the first results the user sees. You can set a daily budget for clicks when using PPC and once this budget has been spent your ads will no longer appear to avoid any over spending.
Use PPC if you want to see quick results, unlike SEO PPC results appear right at the top of Google straight away, if you are willing to spend the money Google are happy to put you straight to the front resulting in more clicks. PPC is a great way to get a start up business off to a kick start or help pick up a business that is struggling.
When To Use Both
There are no rules against using both SEO and PPC. You may choose to do this if your business needs an extra kick when you don’t have time to wait for the results of SEO to take effect. Using PPC and SEO means you can bring in the traffic you need whilst increasing your organic rankings until they are ranking well enough to bring in enough traffic without PPC.
About the Author
Eilidh MacRae would recommend using SEO or PPC to help grow your business and bring in targeted traffic. She works for Marketing By Web who are a Bristol SEO Agency.
This is an original article from WP Cypher Copyright 2012
