In the world of online marketing, there are many TLAs (three-letter abbreviations) flying around and for the uninitiated, they can add to the confusion when attempting to learn about website promotion and marketing.
The biggest TLAs in online marketing are SEO and PPC. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) are the preeminent inbound marketing techniques in use today. They both attempt to solve the problem of making a website easy to find when someone is searching for a company’s goods and services, but they approach the problem differently. The goal of both methods is to help a website rank or appear as close as possible to the first page of Google’s search engine results.
Neither SEO nor PPC are once and done activities since both require ongoing management and work. The big difference is that PPC can help a website land on page 1 almost immediately while SEO can take months to get there (and there is not even any guarantee of getting there).
PPC uses paid search and SEO uses organic search. Paid search is the practice of paying for ads to be displayed when people search using specific terms or keywords. SEO focuses on getting sites to appear in search results based on selected keywords, not as paid ads but appearing where they naturally or “organically” rank compared to other sites. It is much easier to pay to appear on page 1 than to rank there organically.
There are advantages and applications for both SEO and PPC. Some businesses will benefit from the long-term organic rankings resulting from a well-managed SEO campaign while others need to get on page 1 ASAP, in which case, PPC might be the better choice. Some businesses opt to do both SEO and PPC to gain the benefits of immediate placement on page 1 through PPC and the long-term, residual effects of SEO over time. Most SEO and PPC campaigns pay for themselves over time.
When embarking on either of these types of marketing campaigns, a KWA, or Keyword Analysis is one of the first steps. This helps understand how the website will perform for different keywords. While it might be easy to rank for some keywords, it might not be worth the effort if those keywords are not used often. To determine how often people are searching for keywords, AMS, Average Monthly Searches (also known as ASV, Average Search Volume) can be estimated based on research. A competitive analysis is performed to see how many other websites are using the keywords; the more other sites using the keyword, the harder it will be to rank.
Using SEO online marketing techniques will ensure that content on the website is consistent with the selected keywords and backlinks from strategically chosen websites to the company website will help boost the site’s rank in search engine result pages.
In the paid search world, CPC works double duty as Cost Per Click and Cost Per Conversion. They might seem similar, but they are very different. Cost per click is the price each click will cost. There is no fee for displaying an ad but once someone clicks on the ad and visits the site, the cost per click kicks in. The cost per click can vary widely depending on how many other sites are using the same keyword. The cost per click can vary throughout the month because the competition for the keyword can change. It is the internet marketing company’s responsibility to manage the monthly click budget in line with the client’s direction and goals.
The other CPC, Cost Per Conversion, is calculated when a site visitor “converts” which means they called, submitted a contact form, scheduled a demo or webinar, or met any other pre-defined criteria. To determine the cost per click, the total number of clicks and their associated fees are divided by the total number of conversions (as defined at the beginning of the campaign). On some sites, a conversion translates to a completed sale, and on others, it can be a request for more information or a call.
The website and its hard-working SEO and/or PPC campaigns can generate many leads but often, it is the case that the company itself must close the deal and turn a lead into a paying customer. The cost per conversion helps a company know how much they are spending in their marketing efforts to gain warm leads but it does not determine the number of sales or the amount of increased revenue. But, if a company has a track record of closing deals on say, 15% of their leads, then increasing their leads by 100% through an aggressive pay-per-click campaign could lead to the reasonable expectation that they would continue at that same performance level and thus double their overall new sales and revenues.
A well-designed website is a great start for growing a business. The next logical step is to make that fabulous website easy to find. It is worth noting that those who are searching for goods and services on the internet will have a better chance of finding a site that appears on the first page of the search engine results; whether by SEO or by PPC.
It is complicated work but companies consulting in internet marketing SEO services can create and manage effective online marketing campaigns. These campaigns make it easy for interested customers to connect with businesses offering the goods and services they seek.
Landau Consulting, an SEO and internet marketing company helps small businesses with online marketing by simplifying the ABCs of the proven and effective techniques of SEO and PPC.
Check Landau Consulting for a free consultation to assist in sorting through the alphabet soup of online marketing.