SEO or PPC - Deciding Which Type Of Search Engine Marketing Your Business Needs

SEO or PPC - Deciding Which Type Of Search Engine Marketing Your Business Needs
by: Chris Taylor

Before you get started with the Search Engines you should decide which of the two major Search Engine marketing strategies will work best for your site. This will help you to stay on track and not waste a lot of time needlessly.

The 2 major Search Engine marketing strategies that exist today are SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click). You should know and understand that these two methods are very different from one another. This will help you to be better enabled to decide which one is right for you and your web site. Of course, part of this decision will depend upon what your web site is like.

One of the main reasons why it is difficult to decide which of these 2 strategies is best for your site lies in understanding why you cannot use both of these methods. In reality, there really is no reason why you cannot use both of these methods. In fact, it is encouraged to use both strategies because PPC can work well with any SEO plan.

By using PPC you can help users become more familiar with your web site. Once these users become use to seeing your web site they will stick around. Plus, the more often that visitors come to your site, the better the Search Engines will like your site. This is one of the many reasons why it is so important to try to get as many people as possible to visit your site.

If you take some time to read about the pros and cons of both SEO and PPC then you can decide for yourself which strategy will work best for your web site. Since Search Engine traffic is still the best way to get targeted traffic to your web site, a lot of marketers are still going to do battle with Search Engine optimization.

You should understand that PPC is a form of text-based advertising on a Search Engine. Whenever you use PPC you will be charged per click whenever a visitor clicks on your ad to enter your web site. You will have to bid money in order to be listed first. In actuality, this is the same as sponsored listings.

On the other hand, SEO is an attempt to alter how you rank in the Search Engines by looking at factors such as link popularity and Page Rank. The rankings that you achieve through SEO will appear on the Search Engines’ main results pages, not in the box where the PPC links appear. A lot of people like this method because it is free, yet you will have to invest your time here.

Now that you know what is involved in each method, you are probably wondering how you can tell which method is better. Unfortunately, you really cannot say that one method is better than the other because each of these methods serves a different purpose. Usually you will be able to see that one method will be a better fit for your web site though. Here are some pointers to help you make an educated decision for your site.

If you are in search of stability and predictability then you will find this with PPC. You may think that this is going to cost you a fortune, but this really is not true. The stability and low cost are what makes this method so popular. In fact, most web site owners will try PPC before working with SEO because your site can rank high without doing all of the tedious work that is involved in SEO (i.e. finding link partners, posting links, etc.). As long as you have some money that you can invest in your web site then you can rank wherever you want with PPC. Another advantage to PPC is that your site will be listed when you add it, not whenever a Search Engine gets around to finding it. Unfortunately this is a very competitive market and CPCs (costs per click) are constantly increasing. This is because it works like an auction wherein the more people there the higher the price will be.

On the other hand, SEO can be done for free. Unfortunately the traffic will be unpredictable since you constantly have to guess, adapt and change your strategies. This is important to understand because you could rank in the top 10 one month and then fall out of the top 10 the next month, thus loosing some important income. You also need to realize that SEO is slower than PPC because Search Engines only update about once a month.

If you are still finding this a difficult decision to make you should think about whether or not you have money to spend. If you do have some money then go for PPC because it will have faster results. If your budget is tight then go for SEO because all you will need to invest here is your time. The best thing would be to use both SEO and PPC at the same time aiming for different keywords with PPC than you are using in SEO.

Needless to say, while people are constantly looking for new, unique ways in which they can bring more traffic to their web site, the SEO industry will continue to grow. Nevertheless, it is still important to understand what PPC advertising is. Once you have a thorough understanding of both SEO and PPC you will be able to decide upon the best Search Engine strategy for your site.

About The Author
Chris Taylor - author, internet marketer and SEO specialist - Catdynamics.
http://www.catdynamics.com/

For fast, higher rankings of your website visit learn seo basics or search engine placement package today.

25 Simple Blog SEO and Traffic Tips

25 Simple Blog SEO and Traffic Tips
by: Jeremy Steele

This is a nice concise list of 25 ways to greatly increase your blog's traffic and search rankings.

1) Content is king!

2) Submit your site to as many search engines as possible. After the initial indexing I would recommend resubmitting every 6 months.

3) Comment on as many blogs as possible. Make your comments thoughtful and not spammy.

4) Link up with popular blogs - trackbacks can be good for SEO as well as your traffic.

5) Write a good article and post it on a site like http://www.digg.com, although this won't help as far as traffic goes (you will get a HUGE boost for a few hours, then it will tone back down, you probably won't get any permanent readers from Digg) and it sure doesn't help with your relationship with your web host, it can create some new inbound links.

6) Use http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ . Instead of the GoogleBot searching for your pages you can tell it where your pages are. This is a great way to get your whole site indexed.

7) Content is king!

8) Get listed on web directories like http://www.dmoz.com/. Although many SEO "experts" think it is overrated no one disagrees that it can help boost your site's rankings.

9) Add some links for feed readers and blog aggregators like http://www.bloglines.com/, http://www.google.com/reader/, and http://myweb.yahoo.com/.

10) Add some social bookmarking links at the bottom of each post

11) Make it easy for your users to find your RSS feed

12) Add a "E-mail This!" link either on the header or the footer of each post

13) Content is king! (see a pattern?)

14) If you write a really good post try e-mailing the URL to some big-name bloggers with a short personalized message. You never know, they might like it and link to it.

15) Try asking some big sites who are in your niche if they would like to trade links. More often than not they will say "no", but at least give it a try.

16) Don't obsess over "get rich quick" schemes.

17) Don't obsess over "get lots of traffic really quick" schemes.

18) Submit your RSS feed to a bunch of RSS directories, http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-directory.htm has a large list of popular directories.

19) Use http://pingomatic.com/ to notify a ton of aggregators that your site has been updated.

20) Don't obsess over the numbers - it takes time to build up a good reader base.

21) Make your posts as keyword rich as possible. Whenever you can use a word that has to do with your niche, use it!

22) Use lists, especially if your site is targeted towards more tech-savvy users

23) If you have a MySpace page or a home page on a similar service put up a link to your blog.

24) Tag important keywords, using this site ( http://www.richardrodger.com/tags.htm ) you can tag keywords.

25) Last but not least, offer free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff!

The really important thing you have to remember is, just have fun. If your blog is causing you to become stressed out then it probably is not a good idea to continue blogging.

If your readers can tell you are having fun while providing good content they will become permanent readers.

About The Author
Jeremy Steele started his http://www.nusuni.com/ website in mid-2002. Since then he has joined the blogging community and runs four successful blogs. This article is copyrighted so please obtain permission before republishing or altering it.