SEO for Your Website
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.
Search Engine Optimization Versus Pay Pay Per Click
PPC or pay per click is a service in which an advertiser selects specific keywords or phrases and then creates a listing that will show up when someone searches for that phrase. The advertiser selects an amount they are willing to pay for each click on their listing which results in a visit to their site - thus the term "pay per click". At Google, you can bid anywhere from $.10 up to $50.00 for each click.
If other advertisers have selected the same keyword or phrase as yours, you then are competing against them for the highest position. Whoever is willing to spend the most shows up first and the others following in order.
PPC marketing, like Google AdSense and others are a
short-term strategy, with short term results many times, with a
quick result. In many cases, you can see a same day, and even
same hour increase in traffic, and possibly sales, as a result
of a Google Adsense campaign. As many of you already know,
increased traffic does not always translate into increased
sales, which is why PPC campaigns fall short. Other reasons
include:
1. expense of running a long-term PPC
2. failure to convert visitors to customers
3. inability to determine why visitors did not convert
SEO marketing on the other hand can be a very good long-term
strategy (months to years) but is never a good idea for same
day, or even same week results. The main issues with SEO
marketing strategies are the turnaround time - developing
strategies, research, content and web development time,
implementation, testing, and finally tweaking, can be time
consuming. Not to mention the lag time for Google and Yahoo to
spider and re-index pages that have not been altered in some
time.
Pros and Cons of Pay Per Click
First of all you must understand that PPC will never help improve your positioning in the regular organic search results. They most always appear in a Sponsored area which is usually at the top and side of the regular search results.
While it is nice to "show up first" there are still a lot of online searchers, that do not click on the "paid" listings but rather will search through the regular organic search results in the first two pages.
Pay per click will not optimize your site so that it reflects who you are and what you offer. If your site is poorly optimized before you begin to advertise it with PPC, it will still be poorly optimized afterwards. Another downfall is that when you stop paying for PPC, it disappears and so does the traffic it brings!
On the other hand, a well executed SEO plan will improve your position in the regular organic search results. You will have a finely tuned web site that reflects who you are and what you offer. You are not held hostage to having to continuously throw money at search engines to maintain your listings.
SEO considerations should always be part of any web marketing strategies, and any PPC activities should be weighed in any evaluation in relation to a long-term strategy.