 Buying Traffic Directly or Search Engine RankingPublished Date: 2008-06-27 17:32:40 WorkOnInternet.com
Ideally a small business should utilize both of these methods, however, the question still remains: How, Why, When, should I use either of these methods. In this article I will try to answer these questions either directly or indirectly by writing the pros and cons of each. PPC means "Pay Per Click", and it is where you purchase advertising space from another website, and everytime you get a click on one of your ads you have to pay a certain amount of money. Usually with PPC you will buy a certain amount of clicks, and then the ad company will deliver those clicks to your website. Organic traffic is another form of advertising. In this method, you try to get your website listed highly in the SE's (Search Engines), such as Google, and Yahoo. You will try to make it so that if someone types in a keyword related to your site, such as the product you sell, your website will be the first to appear. Here are the pros and cons of using each method: Benefits of Organic Traffic: - People are looking for your product If someone does a search for your particular product, or service, chances are they are looking to buy it. With SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you are allowing people to find your product on their own, and thus they will be more likely to buy it if they do find it, which if you are doing proper SEO, they will find it. - More permanent With PPC ads you purchase a certain amount, and then the ads are done. Unless you buy more traffic, you won't get any more page views to your website (unless of course they return on their own). SEO instead will last longer, the way SEO will work is if you do something, the results will last for at least a few months, and then will start to go down slowly, untill you need to repeat the process, in order to get any traffic at all. Of course you should continually work on your SEO practices, constantly trying to improve your keywords, and doing link building. - Doesn't appear as biased When most people come across an ad, they usually just assume that it's part of the pages content (which it is) without thinking that it is an ad, even if it says "advertisement" right on it. If this is the case (which it usually is) the ad won't appear biased, however certain people (specifically internet marketers) know that they are ads. They will assume that the owners of the company put the ad their, and thus the review is more biased. With SEO you usually need to get someone else to link back to you, meaning that someone else thought your product or service was useful. PPC Advertising Benefits: - Results Immediately With SEO, it will take at least a few weeks, and probably even months, before you start seeing traffic coming in. On the other hand, with PPC, you will start to see results almost immediately, probably you will see the results that day. - Calculation is Easier SEO doesn't really allow you to calculate directly how many page views you get. PPC on the other hand does. You can calculate exactly how much money you make per click to your website, how much you pay per page view, and how much you make for every dollar spent on advertising. Eventually you will find out, with some experimenting, what PPC keywords you can buy, that will make you a good profit. - Testing CPM With PPC you can tell exactly how much money you make per thousand page views (CPM), this allows you to know the value of your site, and then it will show you what you can do to optimize it. PPC gives you a better idea of how you can improve your site, and how your site is currently doing. PPC is the best option for people looking to test out their site, and get an ROI (Return on Investment) that is fairly consistant. SEO is better for people looking to create more long term results, but are willing to risk a little bit more, and don't care as much about their ROI, but are ok just as long as there will be a profit in the end. I reccomend SBI for any small business looking to create a website. Partly this due to The Hidden Costs of Other Web Hosts. If you want to learn about the applications of the book Good To Great, please Click Here.
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