Skalfa eCommerce Press

SEO pt.III: SEO and PPC ads

Posted in Marketing | Tags: advertising · PPC ads · SEO

You already know what the magic ‘SEO’ abbreviation stands for. It’s for Search Engine Optimization unifying tools and methods intended to help your site get top positions in search results by means of optimizing its content strategically placing keywords and removing barriers for efficient indexation. Such methods, techniques, and traffic they generate are called ‘organic’ or ‘natural’.

Now here’s a brief explanation of what ‘PPC ads’ is. ‘Pay Per Click’ is an advertising model used on the Internet, and based on one condition: advertisers pay the hosts for showing their ads only as they get clicked. The Cost Per Click (CPC) is usually set through a bidding system – advertisers offer the maximum price they are ready to pay per each click bringing one visitor to their site. Sometimes a flat-rate model for defining a CPC is used. It is based on rate cards – lists of pre-set CPCs for different areas of the website that hosts ads.

The most popular and efficient PPC providers are: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter.

Here is how the PPC model works… Basically, when it comes to search engines, the PPC strategy technically gets your site placed to the first page of search results almost instantly. I am talking about those few links displayed at the very top or on the right of search results also known as ’sponsored links’ or ’sponsored ads’. Benefits for advertisers are obvious – you get immediate results in the form of traffic directed to your site. Bad news is that the traffic flow comes to halt as soon as you stop paying, which brings you back to where you started.

It is not so easy to decide which way to go – whether to put maximum effort in SEO strategy, which will require time and diligence, or to just go for a paid ad campaign, which will require considerable financial investments in return to fast results. Each method has pros and cons you have to study before making a decision.

1. SEO takes time and effort. You will have to think about the website textual content very carefully, find relevant keywords and place them on your site strategically. You will need to make sure that the site content provides no barriers for search engines indexation, and that it’s really interesting and useful for your visitors. Even if all these requirements are fulfilled, it may take many months before your site gets desirable ranking in search results.

PPC ads are as effective as they can be. They guarantee quick and noticeable results. Even if your site is a newbie in the world of search engines – you have all chances to attract visitors belonging to your target audience, and thus, start building a database of members.

2. SEO strategy is a cost-saving solution as compared to a PPC model. Optimizing the site content for search engines will take some expenses from your part, no doubt. But these will be mostly one-time fee costs diminishing as the time goes, since you will need to just maintain the content you built at the start.

When it comes to PPC, you will face some totally different figures. Don’t forget that with PPC each member click will cost you money, which is fine unless you start getting hundreds to thousands visitors daily. This is why a PPC strategy requires careful estimation of a cost-revenue rate.

3. Since SEO success requires your website content to be relevant and informative, it will inspire you to work hard on it, and build something really worthy. This content optimization will help enrich your site, make it interesting and attractive. Besides, you will get a considerable experience in website promotion, and probably get closer to understanding the principles of search engines operation.

PPC will not take this much of your time and effort. But for most of us this will be an advantage rather than a drawback.

4. PPC model allows you to have full control on your advertisement content. For instance, you can change keywords any time, which will not affect your website position.

As to Search Engine Optimization, such changes may lead to your site ad content being compromised.

So, if you are planning a website with dynamic content that needs to be updated on a regular basis – SEO might not work for you.

5. Statistics shows that users tend to show more trust for natural search results rather than for sponsored links. Serious businesses also give more value to obtaining high search ranks by ‘organic’ means.

It is difficult to decide in favor of one of these promotion methods. Actually, I would recommend to go for both at a time, as this combination will surely be the most effective, and might bring you up to 3 times increase in clicks through rates.

I am sure though that each of you will make a choice based on his own vision of the site promotion strategy, and of course, on his own opportunities.

However, your opinion is very important. So, I will be grateful if you take some time and leave a comment sharing your opinion and probably experience on how to get closer to the goal – top rankings in search engines.

Best wishes,

Irene

Bookmark this post