Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization (SEO)’ Category

SEO and PPC: Friends Forever.

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

While most online marketers agree that SEO and Pay per Click are essential tools in search engine marketing, many people are on only one side of the fence.  One internet marketing guru posted a rundown of why he thinks Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is better than Pay Per Click (PPC).  Although there were some interesting points in his blog post, my experience has been that SEO and PPC should go hand in hand. Together, not separately.

Pay per Click and Search Engine Optimization should be on intimate speaking terms.  If they are, you come out the winner.  PPC and SEO should be your two best online marketing friends.

Of course, making the first page of a regular (organic) search results in your niche market is a sign you or your webmaster have done your homework – both from the standpoint of good business, as well as understanding the critical importance of online search engine marketing.  Organic search is an extraordinarly powerful tool in today’s marketing mix, and can provide you with significant sustainable advantages over your less savy competition. But the operative word here is “organic.”  As we all know, nothing organic sprouts up overnight.  Among other things, that’s something PPC can do very well.  If you suddenly discover a hot new trend that you want to exploit, for example, you can be on top of it and visible in Search in a matter of minutes.

Pay-per-click campaigns, when executed properly can also offer amazing insights into what people are actually searching for online, and how you can maximize your exposure in your niche and geographic area to those searchs.  It also offers key insight into which words and phrases convert best and yield maximum ROI.  All these insights can be directly applied to the message on your website to convert website visitors into valuable sales leads.

Most search marketing agencies offer at least an organic SEO campaign or a paid search (PPC) campaign. But to maximize your ROI, you need to get both your organic Search Engine Optimization Program talking to a properly managed Pay Per Click campaign.  If you do, chances are you’ve got two very valuable and complimentary friends in your corner which will compliment each other and expose your company and brand to not only as many people as possible, but as many of the RIGHT kind of people as possible.

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Posted in Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Marketing | 4 Comments »

Paid Search or Organic? Which is Better?

Friday, July 16th, 2010

In an article posting on July 16th, WebProNews entitled “Paid Search to Overtake Organic?”  According to the article, the organic and paid search dynamic has changed dramatically in recent years. 

In the article, Andrew Goodman of Page Zero is quoted as saying, “Those on the organic side argue that 80 percent of clicks come from organic. Those on the paid side, contend that more business revenue comes from paid as opposed to organic. For example, Microsoft conducted a study in which it found that 60 percent of revenue across thousands of sites was driven by paid and 40 percent of the revenue was driven by organic. However, all these reports are misleading,” says Goodman. 

Read the entire article and watch the video here.

Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Marketing | No Comments »

Marketing to the Curb

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Don’t Let the Parade Pass You By

Wow, so much to see! It seems like each float, each balloon is bigger and better and more fantastic than the one before… it can be kind of overwhelming. But it’s the Big Parade, and it goes on each and every day.

Sometimes a group stands out because it makes more noise, or plays a catchier tune. One float’s colors may be brighter, or have more sparkle. Sometimes it’s just about being different enough not to blend in.

There are a lot of ways to stand out, from a well crafted website to compelling social media, and they aren’t necessarily all about size or volume. The important thing is not to get lost in the crowd.

Internet Marketing can be like that. Just because you’re “the little guy,” you don’t necessarily have to walk in the shadow of the biggest balloons (although sometimes having a sharp pin on hand can pay off).

Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Marketing | No Comments »

Understanding Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing, Part 1

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Having a website so potential customers can find you and evaluate your products and services is extremely effective.  In a recent survey, it was  found that over 95% of all prospective buyers utilize one or more of the major search engines to find what they are looking for and to qualify (or disqualify) you before ever picking up the telephone.

Depending on your market niche, getting good search engine visibility can extremely competitive, as well. In the search engine world, there are two basic ways to go about gaining visibility and attracting visitors to your website: Pay-per-Click (PPC) and organic search engine optimization (SEO).

Both pay-per-click and SEO are designed to get your website placed as close to the top of search engine results as possible. With pay-per-click, you can gain almost instant visibility, while with traditional SEO, it can take several weeks.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most search engines, including the three largest players, offer. Simply stated, you are bidding for your position (on the first or second page of search results). The more you bid, the higher your position. Bidding is done on a “cost per click” basis, which means that every time somebody clicks on your search engine ad and is taken to your website, you pay the bid amount. This can be an ideal mechanism to drive traffic to your website while you are gaining natural, or organic, visibility in regular search.

Pay-per-clickAs with all marketing campaigns, there are advantages and disadvantages. If you understand the process and monitor your pay-per-click campaign daily, it can be very effective. Just set a budget, pay the fees, and attract visitors to your site.

The downside of pay-per-click is that it is essentially a bidding war. A higher bid than yours will lower your position on search engine results. This means that you will have to raise your bid to regain your position – which can obviously become quite expensive, especially if you are bidding on particularly popular keyword.

One customer of ours came to us after having spent upwards of $7,000 per month for over two years on pay-per-click, where his target keywords ranged in price from 50-cents per click to over $11 per click.

Clearly, pay-per-click has a valuable place in internet marketing, but it would be a mistake to consider it a viable, long-term business model.  Because when you stop paying for clicks, you disappear from search results.

More on the rightful place of pay-per-click later. And more on gaining viable, long-term search engine visibility in search results through measured, thoughtful organic search engine optimization (SEO).

Posted in Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | 10 Comments »