Organic กNaturalก Search Engine Optimization versu

Organic กNaturalก Search Engine Optimization versus PayPerClick Search Engine Advertising

by: Matt Hockin

When you purchase visitors or ขclicksข from a search engine, this is called ขpayperclickข (PPC) search engine advertising (or PPCSE). PayPerClick Search Engine Advertising allows you to quickly get top search engine placement by ขbiddingข (paying) for keywords related to your product or service.

ขOrganicข or ขNaturalข search engine optimization (SEO) is accomplished by optimizing your web pages and by increasing your ขlink popularityข by acquiring or paying for links that point to your web site. This gives you high rankings at the Search Engines for your chosen search terms.

In this article, we will explore the strengths and weaknesses of both methods of search engine marketing.

ขNaturalข Search Engine Optimization

Today, there is a big myth that natural search engine optimization is inexpensive and easy. For example, if you wanted your web site to rank high for the keyword phrase ขlife insuranceข or ขdebt consolidationข you’re going to need to budget a minimum of $50,000100,000 a year!

Yet still, natural search engine optimization usually gives you a much higher return on investment than pay per click. This is true for two main reasons:

1. More searchers click the natural search engine results versus the pay per click ads, so you’ll get much more traffic for less.

2. One of the biggest factors to improving your rankings with natural search engine optimization is by boosting your ขLink Popularityข by acquiring or paying for links that point to your web site. These links give you lasting results by giving you top rankings and traffic from the search engines. Plus, the links themselves will provide a significant boost in long term traffic.

With that said, the biggest weakness of natural search engine optimization is the time required to generate links and ขtweakข your web pages and keywords to get those prized high rankings you so desire. It can literally take 3 months or more to finally enjoy the benefits of your search engine optimization campaign.

Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising

The biggest benefit of pay per click is the fact that it will provide you with an immediate boost of qualified visitors, lead and sales giving you fast results within just hours or days. In fact, a pay per click advertising program is your best option if you seek fast results and a good return on investment while you are waiting for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program to กramp up.ก

Depending on your traffic goals, you can budget $100 or $100,000. PPCSEs also give you the added benefits of being able to quickly test your web site and track your conversion rates (leads, optins, and sales) and turning keywords (visitors) on and off easily.

So, as a short term strategy pay per click gives you the clear advantage over SEO. But, the disadvantage is the cost involved. Depending on the market demand for your keywords and clicks, your PPCSE campaign can generate tons of traffic and can cost hundreds, even thousands per day. With various optimization strategies you can lower your costs, but over the long term natural search engine optimization will give you a higher return on your marketing dollar.

In Conclusion

The golden rule in marketing is that you should constantly strive for maximum results and ROI for your budget. In other words, if your marketing is making you a profit even if it’s a thin profit it’s worth it. By this model, pay per click is worth doing, but overall pay per click will leave you with thinner margins.

The reason for conducting a natural search engine optimization campaign is to significantly increase your margins over the long term.

By Matt Hockin

Interactive Marketing, Inc.

http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com

About The Author

Matt Hockin is President of Interactive Marketing, Inc., a small business marketing consulting company and the editor of the Interactive Marketing newsletter, one of the Internet’s leading free small business marketing newsletters. Subscribe now at http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com.

This article was posted on November 08, 2004

by Matt Hockin

Why Optimize Your Site For Search Engines?

Why Optimize Your Site For Search Engines?

by: John Metzler

Sometimes a search engine optimization company will miss that glaring question posed by potential clients and assume the benefits of search engine optimization are obvious to everyone. While shelling out a couple thousand on an SEO campaign is common sense to some, others may find it hard to part with the cash unless they know it is an investment in their business that is sure to bring a good return.

Search engines account for a huge portion of traffic to web sites. Data varies depending on what sources you read, but the bottom line is that search engines are used millions of times each day by consumers searching for goods and services. And having your business displayed at the top of search results is essential if you want to do any business from the major search engines. Nine in every ten users will find what they’re looking for in the top 10 results and won’t go to page 2.

Itกs obvious that people can make a lot of money from online sales, but how you advertise your products has a large bearing on what kind of profit you make. If you buy advertising space on Google AdWords or other services that charge per click, you may only shell out 10 cents for every visitor to your site But what if it takes 100 clicks to make one sale? If your products only sell for $10 a piece, then there is no profit being made. Payperclick (PPC) campaigns will also never stop costing you money. Search Engine Optimization, on the other hand, can be very affordable over months and years.

Many SEO and Internet Marketing companies will say that ongoing maintenance is needed to reach and keep top search engine rankings. While this is true, be careful how the company says they do it. There is an affordable way and then thereกs a way to pad the pockets of the กexperts.ก For more on this issue, read my other article entitled กWhat Constitutes a Complete and Effective SEO Campaign?ก In short, the affordable way will involve an intense content optimization followed by work to raise link popularity. This link popularity development should be the bulk of any ongoing maintenance. A couple times a year keyword research should be done again and the content should be looked at. Search trends can sometimes fluctuate so you want to make sure your content is still aimed at the right audience.

What is affordable and what isn’t varies greatly from company to company, industry to industry. In the bed and breakfast industry, $30 per month may be enough to keep a top 5 ranking on Google if the market is not very competitive. A web site competing for a top spot in a database administration field may be looking at several hundred a week if not more. The bottom line is, if you pick the right Search Engine Optimization company, your return on investment from an SEO campaign can be over 1000%.

While there are other ways to advertise a web site (No, search engine optimization is not the beall and endall of online advertising) very few can match the wide targeted audience and affordability that search engines provide.

About The Author

John Metzler is the cocreator of Abalone Designs, Inc. www.abalone.ca, a Search Engine Optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. He has been involved in web design and web marketing since 1999 and has helped turn Abalone Designs into one of the top SEO companies in the world.

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09

by John Metzler

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

by: Seamus Dolly

While it can be spelt a variety of ways, agreement after that can be difficult.

It is a business to some, and understandably, they extol their own theories.

However, search engine optimisation doesn’t have to be complicated beyond the reach of the average site owner.

Its essence is to simply make your page as spider friendly as possible, and having keyword, search phrases, density somewhere close to the accepted requirements of search engines.

Too high a density may be considered กspammingก, and is dependent to some degree on the particular engine in question. The correct density is one that will satisfy such an engine that the keywords, phrases, are repeated often enough not to be incidental. Logically, the word กfalse teethก which is now within the body text of this article should not cause a search engine to believe that is what it is about. Remember, we are not dealing with a human editor, and relevance must be established with software, less sympathetic to context, in its English meaning, as we are.

Search engines can have different algorithms or indexing criteria.

S.E.O. must change as the indexing criteria changes, so what is good today, may have to be reconsidered tomorrow.

The view of many is to make the site/page easy to navigate, with respect to internal and external links. Java script can present a problem for some engines, and should perhaps be kept to a minimum. Some people will tell you that raw HTML is simpler to ‘readก, spiderwise. Sure, it might be simpler, but javascript rich pages are indexed none the less.

For anyone to guarantee that they can get you to number one, is a little optimistic, as everyone cannot practically or theoretically achieve such a goal.

Surely, anywhere on the first page of matches would not be a bad thing. All of us don’t necessarily opt for the number one match, and those with any research experience will กskimก through the descriptions, to go some way in deciding the best match. Descriptions, should you be favoured by an engine, may tip the balance towards you.

Of course, this approach doesn’t represent all surfers, so variables will always exist.

To achieve number one for a spurious or unusual term/word/phrase is relatively easy, and no great boast. Like wise, for less unusual terms or keywords for rare products or less competitive markets.

Little or no search engine optimisation experience should be needed in such cases.

It is almost certainly true to say that any advantage in the case of competitive keywords/markets, is really where the benefits of search engine optimisation come into play.

It is also true to say that where searches are confined/focused or country specific, the task is somewhat easier than if the search was กwebwideก. For example, if your product was rubber tyres and you only delivered within your own country, then the web results will have a less commercial benefit to you.

Of course, another variable would be if your country produced unusually high numbers of rubber tyres, in which case search engine optimisation would need extra consideration and input.

Generally speaking though, any use of the search engines may convince you that the major players seem to dominate. However, it is not to say that they cannot be toppled, so to speak. From an enginesก relevance viewpoint, these may or may not be ‘tightly themedก, but often have relevance, with respect to time. This is a bid by the engines to return results appropriate with the time we live in. The annals of history are not foremost on the minds of surfers/researchers, and therefore updated content carries some weight.

The events of history can be searched more specifically, where that is the desire of the user.

An issue for some people is to be indexed in the first place.

You can join the queue and wait, or get indexed through a spidered link on a site that is regularly indexed. One purpose of a spider/robot is to follow links, and this also ties in with suggestions that javascripted links may obstruct/slow down the spidering process.

A simple way to get such a link is to contribute something/anything to the article directories. In return for your ‘textualก input, a link via your resource box can point to your domain.

It is generally agreed that spiders like text, or more importantly, new text.

A sensible defence of such a claim is that we don’t especially want MATCHES for banners, images or anything uninformative. Such images, like the annals of history, can be searched specifically.

Another logical defence of such a claim is that we really are living in the INFORMATION AGE, and mediums to relay information are still predominately verbal and textual, however delivered.

While it may be an overstatement to say that Search Engine Optimisation is to webpages, as Neural Linguistic Programming is to humans, it may not be too ridiculous.

Remember

1. You are dealing with software that is attempting to analyse like a human. It cannot do this as readily as organic intelligence.

2. You are dealing with software, familiar with abusive human strategies of deception, and has inbuilt counter measures. There are humans behind the software, wise to the will of cheats.

3. You must help it with your selected keywords/search phrases, which you deem to relevant. Their densities will determine relevance from a textual degree, whatever about a ขsiterelevanceข degree. Too often is word spamming, and not enough is irrelevant. Anywhere between two and five wouldn’t be too bad, and depends on who you talk to, or indeed, listen to. Make more pages instead of trying to fit every conceivable keyword into one page. A lot of people do this at the beginning, which is understandable as well, but the body text just won’t make any sense and any visitor will get a headache as surely as you will. Spare both parties.

4. Some engines insist on robot text, and should probably be facilitated, even though some have a commercial interest in their insistence. Robot text is not difficult to learn or implement and the name of it, should not be a deterrent.

5. Metatags are designed to assist as well and are nothing to be feared, but favoured, should you decide to use them.

6. You must get indexed, to bear any optimised fruit. This should no longer be difficult either.

About The Author

Seamus Dolly is at www.CountContol.com.

This article was posted on January 09

by Seamus Dolly

Search Engine Optimization A Must

Search Engine Optimization A Must

by: Alec Duncan

As you surf the web take a look around at many of the sites you see. Do you notice anything that seems strange? Well, let me point it out to you. There are hundreds of thousands of web sites that just don’t get much traffic. Some of these sites house hundreds of articles, reviews, tutorials, tools, products, forums to mention a few things, yet still they do not receive large amounts of traffic. What is their problem? They have the content. What is left?

The problem is these sites aren’t optimized for the search engines. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SE Friendliness, however you refer to it doesn’t matter, the fact is it works and Iกm going to tell you whatกs involved.

Before we continue let me familiarize you with some relevant terminology in my own words.

**Search Engine Optimization**

Search engine optimization can be referred to as the addition and modification of all variables and extended variables of a web site in hopes of achieving a better position in the search engines. By variables I mean components of a website such as META tags and content. By extended variable I mean things such as links from other sites.

Different SEOs, search engine optimizers, may have different opinions on this but alas this is only my own.

**What is a Search Engine Optimization Company? **

A search engine optimization company is a company that offers the service of creating and adjusting all the variables involved in search engine optimization in order to get your web site the best ranking they can achieve, during the designated project period, for all the major search engines.

**Search Engine Optimization Hurdles**

Back to the question of why these sites rich with content aren’t bringing in the numbers. There are several reasons why sites small and large aren’t optimized for the search engines, fortunately these can be remedied.

1. Many webmasters/site owners believe in กIf You Build It They Will Comeก. This attitude will get your web site no where fast. Sure if you build it you will get users maybe even a decent amount of users but you will not be unleashing the real potential of your web site.

2. Not feeling that your site can do better than it is. Websites can always be further optimized. Search engines change their algorithms all the time so what worked 2 months ago may not work as well or at all in present times. For any of you that fee you can get your site optimized better, think of the story of the Little Engine and don’t think you can, KNOW YOU CAN.

3. Laziness is also a major contributing factor. Many webmasters feel it is just too hard or too time consuming to do search engine optimization.

This is partially true. Search engine optimization is not easy but then again, anyone can do it. It does take time though and time is a precious commodity. In situations where you just can’t devote the time to search engine optimize your site I would recommend seeking the services of a professional search engine optimization company. You can choose one here http://www.lilengine.com/seocompanies.php

4. Time + cost = a deterrent. For a situation like this I would recommend optimizing little by little on your own. Eventually you will become better and better at it and be able to accomplish more in less time.

5. Another problem is many people think กWell my site is only a small site, there is no way I will be able to compete with the larger sites that have top spots in the search enginesก. If you think like this I’d like to say this to you. It is possible that that if you optimize your web site you may not be able to compete with the larger sites and may not be able to get a page 1 or 2 ranking in any of the search engines, BUT, what if you did. Always shoot for the stars so if you fall short you will at least hit the sky.

Now for those of you who plan to better your websites via Search Engine Optimization here are the stages you need to follow in order to have an efficient and effective SEO campaign.

**Planning Your Search Engine Optimization Campaign**

Planning is an essential factor in your SEO campaign. Knowing exactly what steps you are going to make and in what order and how you are going to go about achieving each of those steps will save you not only time but it will save you frustration as well. Planning is essential.

**Researching the Most Effective SEO Strategies**

What works and what does not. You will need to learn as many optimization strategies as you can that are currently effective with the search engines. This will be one of the most time consuming steps in your SEO campaign as you will have to sift through information as well as participate in SEO related forums to get additional information from professional. You can take this process in stages and apply your newly gained knowledge as you get it. There is also some useful software available both free and paid that will greatly help with this effort. WebPosition Gold is one of the more popular ones.

**Search Engine Optimize Your Site**

This should be done in stages so you can see the effectiveness of the applied strategies you are using. Don’t change your entire site all at once, instead, change a few areas at a time and see what results they produce. If you are satisfied with this then move on and optimize another section.

Search engine optimization does not only deal with your site it also deals with the relationship other sites have with yours and yours with theirs. Keep this in mind when utilizing your link building strategies.

**Monitor Your SEO Progress**

There are many ways to do this you will have to find the best method for you. You will need to monitor your search engine ranking for the keywords you are targeting after each update. Changes should be recorded and used as references to monitor progress and for strategy adjustments. There are many tools for this process as well. I recommend SEOCount.com for monitoring your progress on the Google search engine as it is very easy to use and you can monitor several domains and keywords all from within the same account. It also gives you the option of viewing the number of backlinks.

These steps follow the Plan Do Review methodology which is a proven strategy for engaging in any task. It is again unfortunate that there are so many webmasters who overlook this entire process; hopefully this article will stop you from making this same mistake. For more information on search engine optimization visit http://www.lilengine.com.

Copyright © LilEngine.com 2003

About The Author

Alec Duncan is the founder of Liกl Engine a search engine optimization site. Get more great SEO tips at http://www.lilengine.com and visit their new Web Hosting Resource at http://webhosting.lilengine.com as well as http://www.grindinggears.com for Open Source Development information.

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 17, 2003

by Alec Duncan