Pay-per-click (PPC) vs. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Everyone knows how important it is to get on the first page of Google. There are two ways to get there, SEO and PPC. Interestingly they cost about the same but PPC gets you there immediately while SEO takes months. Both require continual effort (and money) to keep you there.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.
Pay Per Click (PPC) is a search engine marketing technique where advertisers pay only when their ad is clicked and a visitor is directed to their website. You and your competitors “bid” on the keyword phrases you’d like your ad to show up on when people enter them into the search box on the search engines. You can bid as low as $0.10. If it isn’t a competitive phrase, you’ll only pay that $0.10 if someone views your ad and decides to click it and visit your site.
Pay-per-click advertising and campaigns are the primary way of advertising on the internet.
A PPC campaign lets you determine exactly who comes to your website. You only pay for clicks to your site if a person clicks on a search engine link, or banner and lands on your site (aka PPP pay-for-performance advertising). If the person only sees your link, but does not click through, this is called an impression. Impressions are “the number of promotional units a person is subjected to” (Cone, S. 2008. Power lines) you do not have pay for impressions. There are also pricing models based on impressions, which charge per thousand (CPM). Whether or not the purchase of impressions is interesting for you will depend on your product and target audience.
Pay Per Click (PPC) is the cornerstone of E-Tech’s design architecture. Many E-Tech clients enjoy top search engine placement for hundreds of relevant search phrases, thanks to our dynamic, search engine-friendly keyword analysis. We empower site administrators with the ability to optimize every page on a website.