Today online advertising has become one of the most basic mediums to
promote a business and make your presence felt in the market. The need
of the hour is to draw customers to your website by creating successful
campaigns coupled with unique ideas and quality products and services.
Since the concept of online business has taken a front foot in the
competitive market, it is important for businesses to realize that they
need to dedicate their time and efforts more towards website advertising
and marketing.
You may be in a quandary as to which technique to employ for advertising
your website. First, before you employ any technique to promote your
site, the golden rule is to clearly define goals that you wish to
achieve. This will guide you in selecting techniques more appropriately
and help you maximize your results within your budget.
Regarding the techniques, there are two options that have gained a lot of popularity in the recent times. These are:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is the activity of improving the volume and
quality of real time traffic to your site by optimizing your web pages.
The SEO technique involves getting the topmost ranking without paying
since your site is relevant to the search query entered by the user.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
This is an advertising model which requires an advertiser to pay when a
user clicks on the ad. Advertisers select keywords that they want to run
on and which are relevant to their business and then bid on these
keywords. Bids may vary from keyword to keyword depending on how
important and relevant the keyword is for the business. The advertiser’s
ad shows under the sponsored links when a user types in a search query
which matches the advertiser’s keyword.
Many times some commercial websites make use of both these options
simultaneously to advertise their website. This is also a smart option
as it not only leads to better website exposure and visibility but also
ensures a better ranking and real time traffic to your site. However,
gaining a better understanding of both these methods by analyzing their
pros and cons can help you gauge which technique would be more suitable
for you and is in align with your business objectives.
Search Engine Optimization Pros
More Credibility – By showing on top of search results you can enjoy
more credibility because real time traffic and popularity is achieved by
putting in lot of time and effort. The ranking is achieved purely on
the basis of quality content and relevance.
Free Placement – Unlike PPC, you do not have to pay for the clicks you
receive from organic search results. Getting on the top position is a
matter of how well you optimize your site in relation to your
competitors. It also saves you money in the long run once the process
takes off well.
Improved Website Ranking –SEO also helps you attain a better site
ranking with little effort. You can also hire SEO professionals like SEO
Traffic Spider who can carry out the optimization task on your behalf
which will reap you the benefits in the long run.
Qualified Traffic – You can expect a good amount of qualified real time
traffic to your site as a result of increased recognition of search
engines.
Long Lasting Results – The results you achieve from this method are more
lasting and stable. Also, it gives you a much higher return on your
investment. This is because usually users tend to click on organic
search results when compared to PPC ads and this brings more traffic for
less.
Search Engine Optimization Cons
Time Consuming – SEO is a complicated task and requires enormous amount
of time and effort to implement it the right way. Sometimes it may also
require you to completely modify the structure, layout, presentation, or
content of your website to make it search engine friendly and also
enhance user experience.
Results May Take Time – The true impact of SEO efforts cannot be known
immediately. It will not give you instant results in terms of traffic
and may take some time for your site to get the desired traffic. This
time gap may affect your profitability till the time you start seeing
true results.
Pay Per Click Pros
Instant results – This method brings you immediate results in terms of
traffic, leads, or sales. In a matter of few hours or days you can begin
to show on top of the sponsored links and enjoy the benefits of
increased traffic flow.
Appropriate for Temporary Offers – This would be an ideal option for
those who want to gain an entry into the online market for a short term
or for those with temporary product/service offerings. This is because
they can hope to gain better visibility and exposure by bidding higher
on keywords rather than waiting for SEO to be implemented and return
results.
Easy to Implement – PPC can be easily implemented without devoting much
time and effort to it when compared to SEO. It also enables the
advertiser to experiment with different keywords and landing pages to
see what works best. You can also bid on a variety of keywords that you
want to run on and which cannot be practically placed in your web pages
when implementing SEO.
Pay Per Click Cons
Expensive – It is an expensive option as it eats up on your profit
margins. Also, you end up paying even for clicks that may not convert
into sales. Additionally, in case of click fraud, you may end up wasting
a considerable amount of your budget on fraudulent clicks.
A thorough analysis of the pros and cons of both these approaches will
help you decide which option would be more suitable for your advertising
needs. However, the main highlight here is that PPC serves well as a
short term strategy over SEO. It is a good option for those looking for
quick results and a good ROI while waiting for their SEO initiative to
ramp up. However, using the PPC model will leave you with thinner profit
margins. From the long term perspective, search engine optimization
will bring in higher profitability and make the most of your advertising
dollars as it will extensively increase your margins in the long run.
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