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PPC vs. SEO – Which route is best for you?

Written by: Greg Pipe

Article Overview: OK, so you've got a website! Either it's been around for a while, just had a revamp, or is just freshly out of it's wrapper, whatever state it's in you know you need to promote it. But with the choices available to advertise online almost as varied as the number of websites around, where and how do you go about it. In this article I look at the two most popular forms of online marketing, Pay per Click, or Google Adwords to you and me and Search Engine Optimisation.

PPC vs. SEO – Which route is best for you?

It's sometimes difficult to produce online marketing results and as this is a relatively new industry, many people find they are at a loss when trying to decide how to optimise the effectiveness of their website. No matter how good your product or service is, customers won't purchase it if they cannot find out about you. Traditionally, websites looked to increase their potential customer base by using "Search Engine Optimisation" or SEO, however this holds many disadvantages compared to "Pay Per Click" advertising, also known as "PPC."

SEO is a method of "mining" a website with "keywords" so that it appears high in the rankings of search engines. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN use robots who scan the Internet looking for keywords, which they use to "rank" sites. A site with more instances of a certain keyword is likely to be more relevant. After all, a website which sold shoes probably uses the word "shoes" more often than one which sells cars. There are, however, problems with this. Sites that “mine” their web pages with keywords can end up looking ridiculous, as they repeat a single word many more times than is necessary. Not only does this look unprofessional, it gives customers the impression that the website is only interested in getting hits, rather than providing useful information.

PPC is a method of bringing viewers to a website by advertising to them. Banner ads and other click-on advertisements are all methods of this. PPC has the advantage of being simple and direct, as a website and it's services are summarised in a single eye-catching ad. Also, unlike SEO, PPC advertising brings instant results that are quantifiable, as you only pay for the clicks through to your website. SEO is a slow burn, with months of work and manipulation of a website to ‘hopefully’ deliver a result. This ‘time’ is often expensive and can be too long a period for companies to wait for results. PPC can potentially deliver leads the second the ad appears.

Additionally, PPC methods of positioning advertisements, allows them to be placed where viewers can see them when visiting other websites. For example, an online company which sells luxury holidays may put a PPC ad up on a website which discusses good ways to relax, ensuring that the people who visit the website, wishing to learn how to relax, will also see an ad telling them of a good place to go on holiday. PPC can thus be more targeted than SEO, by seeking out potential customers, instead of just relying on people who are searching for a specific keyword in Google.

Both SEO and PPC are important to running a successful Internet business. PPC however, provides many advantages over SEO and should maintain the majority of the focus. It is better at reaching out to customers without compromising the professionalism of the site and can do so in a quantifiable way.

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Article Tags: google, marketing, pay per click, search engine, SEO



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