Is any one form of web site traffic better than another?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group

Many business owners wonder why (or if) they should choose organic search engine optimization over pay-per-click or banner advertising. The short answer is that you shouldn?t necessarily choose one over the other as they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The choice of which option or combination of options is right for your company depends of your needs and your budget.

Search Engine Optimization

With proper keyword phrase selection, search engine optimization delivers extremely targeted traffic consisting of visitors that are actively searching for whatever it is you offer. Think about it like this ? if your web site holds the #1 position for the keyword phrase ?tampa real estate agent? you can be sure that all of your visitors that arrive as a result of typing said phrase into Google, Yahoo or MSN are looking for a real estate agent in Tampa. They may be at various stages in the buying process, but they all are somewhere in the buying process. The biggest weakness associated with search engine optimization though, is that unlike other forms of marketing or advertising, it can take a considerable amount of time to see any results. The length of time depends on the competitiveness of the selected keyword phrase. For example, if you sell children?s pogo sticks, you will be competing with approximately 425,000 other web sites, but if you sell plasma TVs you will be competing with approximately 8,330,000 other web sites. As a result, it will take considerably longer to achive a #1 ranking for the keyword phrase ?plasma tvs? than it would for the keyword phrase ?childrens pogo sticks.? Another caveat to your search engine optimization campaign is that the major search engines are often able to detect your attempts to artificially affect your rank if you?re not careful and if you don?t know what you?re doing, you can actually end up getting your web site banned from their listing altogether. Search engine optimization is best compared to a marathon ? planning and a solid long-term approach will deliver the best results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

You can begin to receive immediate targeted traffic when you implement a pay-per-click campaign. The upside is that your traffic is directly proportional to your investment and you can start with just a few dollars a day. The downside is that you pay for each visit whether they are serious or just curious. Also ? if your competition is on the shady side, chances are they will click your ads just to churn through your marketing budget. Most businesses use the PPC ads by Google, but Yahoo has a similar offering. Either option provides a pretty detailed set of stats to help you make more effective choices in your PPC campaign. The best way to utilize PPC is to supplement a solid search engine optimization campaign. You can use PPC to target the more competitive keyword phrases which generally deliver more traffic, while using search engine optimization to target the less competitive keyword phrases.

Online advertising

This can consist of static image ads, animated ads or even rich media ads. Online advertising was the love child of the 1990s internet bubble and after the bubble burst, it was bounced from foster home to foster home. Lately, this form of advertising has been making a strong comeback thanks in part to the low cost to implement it and in part to some recent realizations. Online advertising generally has a low click-though rate, less than .5% in many cases, but it also has a low CPM in most cases. This makes it extremely attractive to smaller businesses on a budget. A fairly recent realization is that even though the click-through rates are low, most visitors do see the ad, which over time has a powerful effect on your branding efforts.

When utilized collectively, search engine optimization, PPC and online advertising will help turn your company into an internet marketing powerhouse, giving you a serious advantage over your competitors. Remember ? prior to making a buying decision, most people begin their research online, regardless of the industry. Are you where they?re looking?

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