Search Engine Marketing There are more than 125 million websites!  How are your customers going to find your site?  Reaching customers on the Internet requires Search Engine Marketing.  There are more than 6.5 billion Internet searches every month.  Ninety percent (90%) of web sales start with a search engine.   A famous bank robber once said that he robbed banks because that’s where the money is.  The same logic applies to search engines.  That’s where your potential customers are.    There are two forms of Search Engine Marketing:  Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. Search Engine Optimization focuses on improving natural rankings so that your website will appear at the top of the search page for selected search terms (keywords).

The primary advantage of SEO is that you don’t have to pay for listings and clicks.  However, a major investment of time and money is required to optimize your website.  The most important element of SEO is building a network of links to your site which establishes you as one of the top authorities in your field.

Making it to the top of the search rankings is a long term process, and the results are uncertain because search engine ranking algorisms are constantly changing.   

Pay Per Click Advertising
By far the fastest way to start attracting Web traffic immediately is a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign. Pay per click (PPC) advertising allows you to pay to have your ad listed on the major search engines. Pay Per Click ads are the “Sponsored Links” or “Sponsor Results” which Google and Yahoo display at the top and right side of the search page.

Pay Per Click advertising has been extremely effective for many marketers.  Pay Per Click spending is projected to double by 2010.   The key to the success of Pay Per Click is the high level of relevance provided by this medium.  With traditional advertising you can’t avoid the cost of communicating with many unqualified prospects.

In contrast, Pay Per Click advertising produces highly qualified leads.  Your ad is only displayed when a prospect is searching for your product, and you only pay when they visit your website.  

You have enormous flexibility to control cost and improve the effectiveness of your advertising by experimenting with different keywords, ad copy and landing pages.  You can also target specific geographic areas.

Using the SEO strategy, even the best websites can only be optimized for a limited number of keywords.  However, PPC advertising enables you to target an unlimited number of keywords.  There is no additional advertising cost to expand the number of ad groups and keywords.

Pay Per Click is probably the most flexible advertising medium available today.  PPC campaigns can be launched or paused instantly allowing for adjustment based on special promotions, product changes, inventory, and seasonal trends.

Search Marketing Strategies
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising are both reinforcing and independent strategies.  Based on the availability of resources, the best strategy is to invest in both SEO and PPC.  PPC marketing can help identify the best keywords to use in optimizing your site.

Optimization will always improve your website and should produce long term benefits.  Pay Per Click is an extremely effective tactic to generate Web traffic and can make a major contribution to your Internet marketing program.