SEO & PPC – Web Traffic, Delayed Versus Instant
The internet is the largest marketplace in history – and the easiest one to enter. Your company, product and/or service can start enjoying the best positions in the internet marketplace almost immediately. But, you will have to pay for that position.
Don’t want to pay? You can still get the best position, but you will need to wait a little longer and do a bit more work.
The Best Position
Just like in traditional marketplaces, you need to position your company on the internet where you think more potential customers will be. While there is no common spot where everyone gathers on the web, we all search the web for something eventually. When potential customers search on the web for companies or products like yours, you want to be listed in the results they receive.
Your potential customers use certain terms to search for your products. “Red shoes”, “discount vacations” or “reliable mechanic” are all possible search terms, and, if your company provides a solution that fits, you want to be listed in the results.
The first page or two of search results is the best position in your internet marketplace – and there are two ways to get there.
PPC – Get the Best Position Today
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is the quickest way to get your message to the top of search listings. As soon as it is entered, a PPC ad can take the highest positions in search results. The best part? It doesn’t cost you anything! UNLESS, someone clicks on your ad, then you pay for the click, hence the name.
Clicks on PPC ads don’t have to cost a lot - or they can be quite expensive. It all depends on the search terms for which you choose to list your ad. If demand is high for a listing on a particular search term, for example, “real estate”, you will have to pay more per click for a top listing. If there is not a lot of demand for a listing on a term, for example “purple pooch ponchos”, you won’t pay as much.
To control your PPC expenditures, you can set limits on the total amount you spend. Your ad is removed from circulation when your limit is reached.
PPC is a great way to get your ad to the top of search engine rankings right away, but it can become expensive over time.
SEO – Get to the Top Organically
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, means optimizing your web site or page to rank higher on search engine results for the search terms you choose. To keep their customers (web surfers seeking information) happy, search engines want to list the most relevant web sites for a search term. They have devised sophisticated formulas to determine the relevance of a web site for a search term. Some of the criteria used include traffic to your site, the content of your site and the number of links to your site.
Internet marketers have an understanding of what makes a site more relevant and can apply that knowledge to help get your site higher rankings in search results.
Unfortunately, it takes time for the search engines to register changes to your site and determine its relevance. Even the best SEO practices can take months to show results.
SEO gets you to the top of search engine rankings, but you have to be patient.
Tip: The best internet marketing strategies will use a combination of PPC and SEO tactics. PPC will get instant traffic to your site and, when your SEO begins to take effect later on, you can reduce the dependence on PPC.
Learn more about how WSI can help you achieve your internet business objectives with our free, no obligation Internet Business Analysis.
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