SEO or PPC: Which One is Right for You?

Filed Under (SEO Tips) by admin on 02-10-2009

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There are two major search engine marketing strategies in use today: SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click). These two methods are very different, and deciding which one is right for you can be hard. Which one do you think will do more for your website? Well, that all depends on what your websites like.

One leading contributor to the difficulty in deciding which is correct for your site is that you dont really understand why you cant just use both. There is no real reason that you cannot implement both methods when marketing your site, in fact, I encourage this behavior as PPC can be integrated quite nicely into an SEO plan.

PPC is a good way to get users to become more familiar with your site. Once they are used to seeing your site, they will probably begin to stick around if they encounter it in a search engine. The more often that your site is visited the more that search engines will like it. This is one reason that it is so crucial to attempt to get as many quality hits as possible.

Reading up on the pros and cons of each program lets you sit down and decide in your own time which strategy would work best for your website. Since search engine marketing is undoubtedly the best source of targeted traffic out there at the moment, as people will continue to battle for the top search engine positions, even from day to day.

As people continually try to find new and unique ways to being additional traffic to their websites, the SEO industry continues to grow. PPC refers to text-based advertising on a search engine, and you will be charged by the click whenever a visitor clicks on one of your ads. These order of ads is usually based on bidding prices, meaning that the advertiser who bids the highest price per click will be listed first. Weve all heard of sponsored listings, right? Well, thats what they are: PPC listings.

SEO tries to change your search ranking by looking at a number of factors, including link popularity, PageRank, and so on. Rankings you get through SEO will appear on the main, natural search results pages, not over in the box with the sponsored links. And you dont have to pay for your clicks!

So, how can we tell which method is better? You cant say that one method will always be better, because they serve different purposes. However, one is likely to be a better fit with your business than the others.

PPC.

PPC traffic, rankings and results tend to be more stable and predictable than SEO, and, combined with its low cost, this makes PPC one of the more popular ways of advertising. Most companies try PPC before they try SEO, because its seen as more stable and respectable.

In many cases PPC lets you rank high on the search engines, without having to do the tedious work involved in SEO no finding link partners, posting links, and so on. As long as you have the budget for it, the rankings yours, and another advantage is that the listing will get posted when you add it, not when the search engine gets round to it.

Sadly, PPCs popularity makes it a competitive market. You will find that CPCs (costs per click) are steadily rising, and that hurts the little guys. Prices work as auctions the more people in the auctions, the higher the prices.

SEO.

The main benefit of SEO is that it can be done entirely for free, and lets face it, who doesn’t like free traffic?

The disadvantages, though, are that your traffic is unpredictable. You have to guess, adapt, and constantly change strategies. One month you could just fall out of the top 10 without any warning, and there goes your income. SEO is also slower than PPC, as the search engines only update their natural listings about once a month.

So what should you choose? Well, it depends on how much money you have to spend. If you have cash then PPC should be your first choice, as it produces faster results. If youre on a low budget, you should look at SEO first. The best thing to do, though, is to use both techniques together use PPC for some keywords and SEO for others, depending on the keywords price.

How to Choose an SEO Provider.

Filed Under (SEO Tips) by admin on 22-09-2009

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As the demand for search engine marketing continues to grow, so does the demand for experts in the area. In recent months, mass emails seem to be the new promise of top search engine rankings. How do you choose an SEO provider that will understand the needs of your website and provide quality service?

Lets breakdown the elements of SEO, to make it easier for you to recognize a good product. To find a good SEO provider, look for these things:

They need to be able to check your current site, evaluate it and set goals for it. They should develop a list of target keywords relevant to the site, write and insert good meta tags for you, and check all other tags to make sure that theyre alright. They should also check all your content and make recommendations on how to improve it to get better search engine rankings.

They should provide link-building programs, including writing and submitting listings to directories and giving you ideas on who to ask for links from. Reports tracking search engine referrals to your site are always good, especially if they explain what they mean and how they can be improved.

Website maintenance is a very important aspect of any SEO program. Once their site has been optimized, many people dont realize that they need to keep up these methods over time. If you let your site lapse back to the way it was as you add new content, then youll need to start all over again.

What kind of price can you put on all this? Well, pricing structures for SEO vary a lot between companies. Some companies will charge more because they include a monthly maintenance fee, while other companies offer customized proposals based on a websites specific need. In general, good SEO can cost as much as $150 an hour, so be prepared for that. Keep in mind that the larger your site is, the more work will be involved. It will naturally take less time to optimize a smaller, simpler site, so keep this in mind when you consider the pricing.

After youre more comfortable with what the services offered are and how theyre priced, youll want to make sure that the company youre choosing as your SEO provider has the knowledge and skill to complete the work for you. You should talk to three or four companies before you choose one. Be sure to ask them these questions, and back off if you dont feel like youre getting an honest answer:

1. How long has your company been in business? Can you explain what your previous experience is and what principles your SEO works under?

2. What other services do you provide besides SEO? Do you provide Internet marketing services?

3. What kinds of industries have you serviced previously? Can you provide me with checkable references?

4. How will you break down the cost of your services?

5. How much will I need to do myself for this SEO project to run smoothly?

6. How much time do I need to set aside to communicate with you during the process?

7. How long does it usually take to achieve results? (SEO is a gradual process, so a reply of anything under 6 months should be a red flag for you).

8. Is it possible to have someone from your firm teach us how to maintain your SEO once its done? (If they tell you that you wouldnt be able to do it yourself, then thats another red flag).

When they do send you a proposal on the project, you will want to make sure that it contains everything you spoke about, and everything else that should be there. If the answers to any of these questions are missing, you should walk away:

1. What specific services are included in the contract? Are any omitted? Make sure that what you discussed and wanted is included.

2. What is the name or position of the person you will be working with? Are you dealing with a salesperson, a designer, or someone else?

3. Are allowances made for communication with you? Are there any additional fees for contact?

4. How will the company be providing support? By email? On the phone? Do they stop supporting you after a month or so?

5. Are there extra fees for re-optimization or additional consulting? Is it really necessary? What maintenance is provided? If not, what is the additional cost of it? When maintenance is not included with the plan you need to be careful, as there are people who will charge you exorbitant amounts of money to maintain their optimization.

6. What reports are provided and how often will they provide them?

7. What are the total charges? Are there any additional charges?

By taking steps like this you will guard yourself against bad practices, you will also have a better understanding of the service you are getting, and you can easily compare offers to find the best one. But how can you tell if your provider is operating ethically? Well, thats is pretty easy. Heres a list of the sales pitches that bad SEO providers will use on you. If you hear any of these from a company, use someone else instead.

1. Guaranteeing top-ranking placements. This is impossible to do since the algorithms of the search engines change often, and any good SEO provider will tell you that.

2. Offering a service that includes the development of doorway pages. These designs often dont take your visitors ease of use into consideration, and search engines will ban your site if they catch you using them.

3. Telling you that you need more than one domain name pointing to your website. You can get banned for domain spamming, so dont take the risk.

4. Any company that says it will get thousands of inbound links to your website they will be using free-for-alls, which are very bad for your rankings.

5. Companies that offer you search engine submission software. Good positions always come from hand submission. If they tell you that submission by hand is not the best way to go, dont stick around.

Many SEO providers use unethical spam practices because they are cheap, easy to implement, and do provide very short-term results. Beware of any provider that uses them.

The best way to tell if the providers SEO practices are ethical is to ask: “Do these changes benefit visitors to my site as well making it more search engine friendly?” A good SEO provider will always say yes, as SEO is as much about the users as it is about the engines. After all, whats the point of a high ranking page if its nothing but unusable rubbish that will have people rushing for the Back button?

Dont be overwhelmed by these things, but always be on the look out to make sure that youre getting the best service possible. Good SEO companies can boost your sites traffic without resorting to unethical practices, and keep up with changes in the industry.

SEO Dos And Donts

Filed Under (Free SEO) by admin on 20-09-2009

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You dont have to be a SEO expert to make a fortune on the web. Search engine optimization is not complicated at all. It may be exhausting and annoying. You may get frustrated. But it is so easy if you know the basic rules. Read the following SEO Dos and Donts and start making money.

SEO Dos :

1. Stay natural Search engines like natural behavior. Remember it whenever you get a tempting proposal to pay for software that will boost your search engine optimization and get you to the top search engine ranks.

2. Links, Links, Links The online world equivalent to: Location, location, location. Links are the foundation stones of your SEO strategy. The quantity and quality of the links pointing to your site are the main criteria that affect your search engine ranking. Never stop creating new links to your site using techniques like links exchanging, articles submitting, affiliate marketing, link buying etc.

3. Page and site optimization Remember, Search Engines like what human like. Optimize your site according to valuable keywords, you have found on wordcount.com or overture. Make the navigation on your site easy and clear.

4. Automate and delegate Do not work on your own use software to automate processes and outsource some of the search engine optimization to others.

SEO Donts:

1. Do not shoot and forget Search engine optimization is an ongoing task. You will not see results in a day or in a month. Do not work on one site too much too fast. In other words, add links and pages to your site gradually.

2. Do not optimize only for the best search engine Google is not the only search engine and all search engine change their ranking algorithms every once in a while. Do your best to get your site in a high place in at least three of the best search engines.

Now that you have read the SEO Dos and Donts, all there is to do is work on your sites search engine optimization. It may take time but it sure worth it You can have fun and lots of money. Good luck.