Showing posts with label Search Engine Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Search Engine Marketing. Show all posts

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Search Engine Optimisation Versus (PPC) Pay Per Click

Organic search engine optimisation and Pay pr click advertising are the two main methods of online marketing. Both these forms of online marketing are aimed at getting highly targeted visitors to your website by making your website rank on search engine results for the keywords that you are targeting.

Organic search engine optimisation refers to the search results that appear in the main centre section of the search results. Ranking within organic search engine results cannot be bought and ranking is a result of organic non-biased steps taken over a period of time. It is dependent on the overall popularity of your website on the internet in general among other on site factors. Organic listings are the results that appear in the main section of a search engine such as Google when we search for something. Pay per click advertising on the other hand refers to the paid listing or sponsored results that appear on the right of the search results page and not in main middle section of the page.

Pay per click result is paid for and results are almost immediate to achieve. However there are many drawbacks. The recent years have seen an exponential rise in competition and a steep rise in pay per click costs. Click fraud is another rising concern where an advertiser may be charged for clicks that are not by genuine customers.

1) Many surveys and search engine marketing studies have pointed than users are more likely to click on organic search results that appear on the main section of the page rather than the paid listings that appear as ads on the right.

2) Organic listings are non-biased and cannot be bought. As such users trust the results more than the paid listings which are a result of paid advertising. The conversion rate for organic listings is much higher than for paid listings.

3) Rising cost of pay per click. Pay per click campaigns are becoming more and expensive day by day as competition is increasing. It is common now a days to be pay as much as £1 or £2 per click for a op 5 position in pay per click campaigns like Google ad words.

4) The results of organic search engine optimisation campaign are more permanent that pay per click. In pay per click the results stop almost immediately at the end of the campaign whereas in organic listings the rank remains.

Pay per click advertising also has its advantages and is a much quicker way to get results. This is useful to advertise events and other marketing campaigns that cannot be planned months in advance. Organic search engine optimisation is a time consuming task and listings often take months to achieve.

In the long run investing an organic search engine optimisationis beneficial. It has lower costs and offers a high return on investment. Once a favourable ranking has been achieved it is more permanent. In pay per click the results will stop immediately when the payment has stopped and the campaign comes to an end. Organic search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign also has a wider coverage and generates maximum exposure for your business.


Organic search engine optimisation is hence a better rounded approach to online marketing and has a much wider coverage. Although you may not see the result within the first few months it will be an extremely useful marketing investment for any business. The benefits of an organic search engine optimisation far outweigh any risks involved with investing in a one year organic search engine optimisation campaign.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Search Engine Marketing Lesson 3

There are three search engine marketing factors that are
consistently important to achieving desirable search engine
rankings.

Though the search engine marketing rules and relative strategies
tend to change frequently, three factors remain important to
achieving a good rank. They are content, keywords, and links.
Content is important because the search engines cater to those
searching for information, not those providing it. When the
content of your website is relative to the terms a browser is
searching for, your website will be more desirable for indexing.

Keywords and keyword phrases are the terms that people use when
searching for something in the search engines and they are
central to your search engine marketing efforts. For your search
engine marketing efforts to be fruitful and to generate targeted
traffic, you need to do keyword research and find out what terms
your target audience is using. Rather than using the most
popular, competitive keywords, it is best if you can choose niche
phrases that provide targeted traffic but aren't highly
competitive.

Link popularity, based on the number of links connecting to your
website, and link relevancy, the relevance of those links to your
website, usually tend to play a role in search engine rankings.
Thus, part of your search engine marketing campaign should be to
establish relevant links to your website.

To build your link popularity, find relevant websites and request
that they link to your website, or offer to trade links with
them. Getting your website listed in online directories that are
relevant to your industry as part of your search engine marketing
efforts can also enhance your link popularity.

Search Engine Marketing Lesson 2

Whether you choose to pursue search engine marketing on your own,
or with a consultant by your side, there are a few things you
need to know about search engine marketing:

There is no magic search engine marketing formula for
achieving top ranking in the search engines.

There are a number of different search engines. The most popular
ones are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Each of the search engines has
their own rules for indexing sites, set their own algorithms, and
change them frequently. Be wary of search engine marketing
information that claims to be "the secret" or "the magic formula"
for achieving top ranking in the search engines.

Relatively, also be wary of search engine optimization companies
that guaranty top ranking. If you are offered such a guaranty,
get it in writing and check the company's references and do some
independent research in regard to their reputation. Doing an
internet search for the company name will likely give you some
good information about their reputation because whether they are
good or bad, they are likely to be the topic of discussion in
internet marketing forums.

You have to submit your website to the search engines.

Search engine marketing requires that you submit your website to
the search engines. The search engines use something called
spiders to index websites and the spiders may incidentally pick
up your website at some point, but to ensure your site is
considered for indexing, you need to submit it to the search
engines. To do that, you need to find and read the guidelines for
submission for each search engine.

Using an automated search engine submission tool isn't a very
good search engine marketing tactic because they generally submit
the exact same information to every search engine without
considering the individual search engines' requirements. When you
submit your website to the search engines, you cannot expect
immediate indexing. Sometimes it takes up to six weeks to get
listed.

Search Engine Marketing Lesson 1

Search engine marketing isn't rocket science, although many seem
to think that getting adequate ranking in the search engines is a
complex and impossible task. Without a doubt, search engine
marketing is one of the most complex types of marketing because
the search engines' rules and preferences evolve constantly. But,
considering that the majority of website visitors find the
websites they visit through the search engines, search engine
marketing is absolutely the best medium for internet marketing.

Search engine marketing and search engine optimization experts
may talk to you about complex things like algorithms, which are
really nothing more than mathematical formulas that reflect the
website ranking rules of particular search engines. Unless you
are a mathematician and you can get your hands on a search
engine's current formula, you will never in a million years
understand algorithms, so don't waste your time trying to. You
can be successful in your search engine marketing efforts without
knowing a thing about mathematical formulas.

Sometimes, the best way to get good ranking in the search engines
is through trial and error. You try different things, see what
works, and run with it. Sometimes, it may be best to hire a
search engine optimization specialist or consultant. Generally,
search engine optimization services are pricey, and because
search engine marketing requires ongoing efforts, they can get
really expensive. However, if you can afford it, hiring a search
engine consultant to get you on the right track is a great idea.

From my interviews with women who own their own internet
businesses, a comment made by one lady stands out in my mind. She
said, "I knew that getting listed in the search engines was
critical to the success of my business. I tried to achieve
ranking on my own, but I got so confused by all the information
about search engine optimization that all I really knew was that
I definitely did not know what I was doing. I couldn't really
afford to hire a consultant, but I had to redefine some
priorities to get it done. Without the search engine marketing
consultant showing me the way, my business would have never
gotten off the ground."