Organic Search Engine Optimization

Versus Pay Per Click Advertising

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Search engine optimization is a key component of online marketing. It offers strong benefits for virtually any business and costs much less than conventional advertising. Although this excellent option is available to all companies, there is another path that many consider: pay per click advertising. Pay per click seems to offer many of the benefits that come with organic search engine optimization, but its results only last as long as the company continues to pay for it, just like conventional TV or radio ad time. Organic search engine optimization costs nothing to maintain, continues to benefit the company for years to come, and appears far more trustworthy to the millions of people who use search engines every day. Unpacking The Search Engine: What You See When You Type In A Keyword Discussing search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) marketing first requires that you know exactly which is which. Both of them will be evident on the first page of results for any search term. If you are not clear on the definition, go to Google, Yahoo!, or Bing, and type in any word or phrase you like – kitchen design, for example. When you type in the words kitchen design into a major search engine, at the very top of the page you will see three or four links to websites. If you look carefully, you will see that they are sitting against a different background color, and are identified by wording in the top right corner as sponsored links, or ads. There are more of them along the right hand side of the page, again marked with the separate coloration and noted as sponsored ads. These are the paid results. Every one that appears on the page is there because the company is willing to pay for the clicks they get as a result, hence the name pay per click. Now look below the sponsored links. These are the results from organic search, or search engine optimization. These websites are not paying for their position. They are simply the results that the search engine believes is most relevant for the chosen term. They are also the most coveted spots on the Internet. Ranking on the first page among these results virtually guarantees that you will be seen by customers who are searching for you and want to buy your products. Joining the ranks of the first page has turned startups into runaway successes. Unlike the PPC ads elsewhere on the page, these spots cannot be bought. They can only be obtained through aggressive, targeted search engine optimization. But once a company obtains that spot, unless it stops its marketing efforts entirely, it's likely to maintain that ranking unless a very strong challenger comes along. Side Note: Google's Terms Of Service Google handles more than 70% of all search traffic worldwide, making it the most important focus of SEO (and PPC) efforts. Google is also leading the way in a crackdown on so called black hat SEO, punishing people who violate its terms of service to unfairly inflate themselves in the rankings. It's easy to avoid violating the terms of service, which are posted prominently online – just make sure you read them before starting any SEO plan yourself or agreeing to one proposed by another company.

Basics Of Organic SEO The goal of search engine optimization is simple. Using a number of different techniques, your company will raise its rankings in major search engines for certain keywords important to your business. These keywords should be chosen ahead of time, and should be woven-in throughout the different elements of your SEO plan. There are two main factors that influence the success of a typical search engine optimization endeavor. The first is the content found on the website in question, including its keyword density. Organic search engine optimization relies upon having enough quality content with a good targeted keyword density, which tells the major search engines that your website will provide information that its searchers want to see. The second component is more difficult because it relies on links to your website from other websites. These links show the search engines that other people consider your website as an authority for that particular term, and so you receive higher rankings. Maintaining SEO Is Cost-Free A successful search engine optimization campaign will get your company onto the first page of search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Although your company is not guaranteed to stay there, you are not paying for that position. Your ranking is completely independent of payment; if you decide to stop spending a penny on marketing, you wouldn't automatically lose visibility. In addition, search engine optimization can be self-perpetuating. People search for keywords, find your site, and then you get backlinks from other websites that are looking to you as a leader on your search terms. Inbound Marketing In Its Pure Form SEO is an example of inbound marketing, a contrast to many of the traditional outbound, or push, marketing methods. Inbound marketing involves finding the many people who are already looking for you, rather than convincing someone to become interested in your product. Search engines are a vital element of inbound marketing because they are by far the most common way for people to connect with products. The web is the world's largest marketplace, and SEO is the way to put your name out there for people to see. If they're interested in your product, strong search engine optimization ensures that they can find you. Pay Per Click In contrast to organic search engine optimization, pay per click advertising (as its name implies) has companies pay every time someone clicks through to their site. You choose keywords, select how much money you're willing to actually pay-per-click through, and put a daily limit on how much you're willing to spend. When an individual searches for that keyword, your website will come up in a very clearly defined paid advertising space.

Problems With Paid Search Advertising There are two big drawbacks to pay per click. The first is that it will last only as long as you keep paying. The moment funds run out, you won’t be able to continue financing the campaign, and it will immediately stop. Your website will have no lingering visibility after you stop paying per click. In effect, your website will just disappear. The other problem is one that will appear from the moment you start a pay per click effort. The simple truth is that people trust paid advertisements a lot less than they trust organic search engine results (unpaid). Paid advertisements are considered little better than push advertisements which interrupt people and bombard them with unwanted sales pitches. Pay per click ads are not inherently push marketing because they do change depending on the search query, at least a little bit. Someone searching for "dog kennel" isn't going to find results for a bookstore. But they might find information from a company offering alternatives to a dog kennel, or perhaps a sales pitch from a new brand of dog food. Because this type of marketing can so often appear like a traditional push, most search users will simply tune out pay per click ads. Exploring The Value Of Pay Per Click And Search Engine Optimization Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization are both related to search engines, but are actually quite different and very disparate in their effects and how they help boost your company. Search Engine Optimization:

• Requires time to reach its full potential. Your company will not see results immediately, as it takes time for major search engines to change their rankings. SEO tends to manifest itself in a snowball effect, slowly building momentum as your website rises to the top.

• Has a hard to measure ROI, especially when combined with other programs. Determining the number of people who visit your website from a search engine is possible, but determining how many of those become customers is less simple. It can be tough to understand exactly how much value you're getting for each dollar of SEO.

• Obviously works or fails, leaving no ambiguity. After a short lead-up time to let the SEO campaign get rolling, you'll be able to very quickly see whether your efforts have met with success or not. You can objectively track your ranking for various keywords, so you'll know when you rise and when you stay the same.

• Has staying power for every dollar. Everything you invest in good search engine optimization will create lasting value. Think of it as money well spent on a classic branding campaign rather than a temporary ad blitz. Search engine optimization creates the foundation for your company to remain high in the rankings long into the future, although maintaining that will require some maintenance of your initial SEO strategy.

Pay Per Click: • Is easily measured. You can tell exactly how much you pay for each person that

visits your website. You can't tell how many of those visitors ultimately become customers, but you have a high degree of control over your total costs.

• Starts working immediately. Assuming you're willing to pay enough to rank for your chosen keyword, your link will start showing up in the sponsored results as soon as you start the campaign. There is no wait time, no lead up time, just immediate presence.

• Stops working once the money runs out. When your payment is done, there is nothing more from PPC. It has no impact on your company's overall web presence. You get no benefit with the search engines from having used this method of marketing. If you have not used search engine optimization to get your company on the map, when your PPC funding runs out, you'll disappear from the search engines entirely.

Running The Numbers For The Best Value What is the better value, SEO or PPC? For most companies, the answer is SEO. You might not see results immediately, but once those results start coming in they tend to be a lot stronger than from PPC alone. People trust organic results, making every incoming visitor more likely to become a customer. PPC advertising receives less baseline hits, and few of them turn out to be qualified leads, giving it an overall lower return on investment. PPC can be a useful tool, especially when combined with SEO and used with the guidance of an experienced web marketer. But when you are looking to understand what gives the best value for search engine marketing, organic SEO always comes out on top.