There are a variety of ways to advertise your site on the web. Banner ads were popular in the late 90’s, but now are just a good way to throw away money since nobody clicks on them yet they charge by impressions. Email campaigns were also all the rage for a bit, but spam laws are so broad that you can break them without even knowing it. Internet search engine placement is the one marketing platform that has and will always work.
Admittedly, internet search engine placement is a vague term. For some people, it refers to buying link placement on pay-per-click search engines such as Google Adwords, Overture or the new paid platform of MSN. For others, search engine placement is all about optimizing a site to get top rankings in the natural listings for Google, Yahoo and MSN. In truth, internet search engine placement encompasses both of these platforms.
Pay-per-click search engine placement is a popular method for obtaining immediate traffic to a site. The advantage of this approach is, well, you immediately get traffic. Less obvious, however, is the fact you can test the content of your site to see if it converts. If you find the conversion rate of visitors to sales is to low, you can tweak the site and try again till you find a good approach. The downside to pay-per-click search engines is two fold. You are paying for the traffic, which means you must monitor your return on investment. Second, you run the risk of people clicking on your links with no intention of buying, a concept known as click fraud. Perhaps 20 to 30 percent of all clicks fall in this category.
Search engine optimization is extremely popular because high rankings in the natural listings in the search engines produce massive amounts of free traffic. For instance, one our personal finance sites will receive upwards of one million visitors a month during the tax season with the obvious benefits. The downside to optimization is it can take three months to see the first rankings on MSN and six months to a year for the same on Google. Obviously, the process involves a lot of patience and hard work, but ultimately is very worth the effort.
Internet search engine placement is all about combining these two approaches, not picking one over the other. Since it takes time to see results from optimization, every campaign should start with a pay-per-click effort. As rankings begin to appear, the corresponding ads in the pay-per-click accounts are simply turned off. This allows you to cover your industry from the start while gradually phasing out your paid marketing positions. This is a time tested approach that always works.
Admittedly, internet search engine placement is a vague term. For some people, it refers to buying link placement on pay-per-click search engines such as Google Adwords, Overture or the new paid platform of MSN. For others, search engine placement is all about optimizing a site to get top rankings in the natural listings for Google, Yahoo and MSN. In truth, internet search engine placement encompasses both of these platforms.
Pay-per-click search engine placement is a popular method for obtaining immediate traffic to a site. The advantage of this approach is, well, you immediately get traffic. Less obvious, however, is the fact you can test the content of your site to see if it converts. If you find the conversion rate of visitors to sales is to low, you can tweak the site and try again till you find a good approach. The downside to pay-per-click search engines is two fold. You are paying for the traffic, which means you must monitor your return on investment. Second, you run the risk of people clicking on your links with no intention of buying, a concept known as click fraud. Perhaps 20 to 30 percent of all clicks fall in this category.
Search engine optimization is extremely popular because high rankings in the natural listings in the search engines produce massive amounts of free traffic. For instance, one our personal finance sites will receive upwards of one million visitors a month during the tax season with the obvious benefits. The downside to optimization is it can take three months to see the first rankings on MSN and six months to a year for the same on Google. Obviously, the process involves a lot of patience and hard work, but ultimately is very worth the effort.
Internet search engine placement is all about combining these two approaches, not picking one over the other. Since it takes time to see results from optimization, every campaign should start with a pay-per-click effort. As rankings begin to appear, the corresponding ads in the pay-per-click accounts are simply turned off. This allows you to cover your industry from the start while gradually phasing out your paid marketing positions. This is a time tested approach that always works.
