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What is better: SEO or PPC?
Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise
their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC
(pay per click advertising).
Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use
both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.
Pay per click advertising (PPC)
Advantages:
- You get instant results. If you advertise your website
on pay per click search engines, then you will get traffic
now and not several months later.
- PPC ads are perfect for time limited offers such as holiday
sales.
- You can stop PPC ads at any time.
- PPC ads make it easy to test different keywords and landing
pages.
- PPC ads also work with websites that are not very well
designed and wouldn't get good search engine rankings.
- PPC ads allow you to bid on a large amount of keywords,
including misspellings and other keyword variations that
you cannot put on your web pages.
Disadvantages:
- PPC advertising can become very expensive if you bid
on the wrong keywords or if you don't calculate the maximum
bid price correctly.
- Click fraud can be a problem. Not all clickers are potential
customers.
If you advertise your website with PPC ads then you should
use a ROI
tracking tool to make sure that you don't waste your
money.
Search engine optimization (SEO):
Advantages:
- Traffic through organic search engine results is almost
free if the up-front work has been done.
- After optimizing your website you can use your money
for different things and the optimized site will still
run.
- A larger number of visitors and search result clickers
is not a problem.
- Search engine optimization delivers long term results
that don't require permanent financial input.
Disadvantages:
- SEO can be relatively time-consuming up-front.
- SEO can require a redesign of your web pages to make
your website search engine friendly. However, this usually
also results in a better user experience.
Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and
it costs considerably less in the long term. However, you
must make sure that you optimize
your website correctly, if your want to get high search
engine rankings.
Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization
both contribute to the success of your website. If you use
both wisely, you can get many new visitors and customers
without spending a fortune. See the recommended resources
below for PPC and SEO software tips.
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