SEO or PPC - which is right for you?
June 30th, 2005
When it comes to marketing your website you can choose from two primary vehicles, SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay-per-click). Both have their uses and there will be cases where it’s more beneficial to use one over the other and cases where both should be used. We’ll explain each method in detail and show some examples of how to best utilize each.
SEO (search engine optimization)
Search engine optimization is a technique where the pages in your website are modified in such a way to attempt to manipulate their placement in the search engine results. This is done using a combination of on page and off page optimization. When it comes to SEO there are some things you will need to know.
1.Content will need to be added to your website.
In order to achieve ranking for competitive keywords you will have to actually have content related to them available on your website. This includes the keyword itself.
2.This content will be visible to visitors.
Attempting to make content available to the search engines while hiding it from your visitors will put you at a high risk of being banned from the search engines all together. Contrary to what many people believe, there’s nothing that you can do to “hide the SEO work in the code.”
3.This content is based on keyword research.
Research is conducted to choose relevant keywords based on the number of times they are searched for each month. Some of the keyword phrases that will be presented to you may seem odd or grammatically incorrect but keep in mind, they are based on the actual searches entered into the search engines.
PPC (pay-per-click)
Pay-per-click is basically a form of advertising in which advertisers bid for the top spots in the search engine results. The number of PPC listings and how they are displayed varies by search engine. PPC allows you to determine what keywords will cause your ad to be displayed and to control your budget precisely.
How to determine which method to use and when to use it
PPC is very effective in generating instant exposure in highly competitive markets such as real estate, insurance or weight loss without a large up front investment. SEO is an excellent tool for delivering strong, long-term results and with a continued optimization program in place, future results will be gained progressively faster. You will generally want to use SEO by itself when you are targeting non-competitive keyword phrases, use both SEO and PPC together when targeting keywords that are average in competition, and use PPC by itself when targeting highly competitive keywords.
