Guiding Customers to Your Website

By Fred Palmer, WWWEnterprise, Inc.

With all of the web-based businesses competing for your customers, what can be done to better direct these customers to your website? How can you better help your customers find you and to purchase your services and products?

The most popularly used techniques of Internet Marketing, or Search Engine Marketing, are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC). The objective of these two functions is to bring potential customers to your website, who are actively seeking the services or products that you are offering.

What is the difference between SEO and PPC?

When a potential customer types a keyword or phrase into a search engine, they are asking this information retrieval system to search the Internet for web pages that have information that is the most relevant to that keyword or phrase, and then return that list of web sites to that customer. Those websites that most closely match the search criteria appear first on the list. On the most commonly used search engines, this list appears along the left side of the screen. These are known as "organic" or "natural" results.

The "organic" or "natural" list is the result of the search algorithm employed by the search engine. These algorithms are looking for web page titles, body content, Meta tags, headings, and the naming and destinations of links, seeking to match the keyword or phrase that was requested. What search engines have difficulty with is distinguishing images, PDF documents, Flash elements, and multimedia content. The more keywords or phrases that can be matched, the higher up the list and more accessible the website becomes. The final result ultimately being MORE CUSTOMERS!

Search Engine Optimization is the technique of creating websites that best integrate the elements that make a website visible to search engines and to customers. The benefit of good SEO is that this higher list placement is free.

The results that typically appear along the top and the down right side are called "sponsored links" or "sponsored results". If a customer chooses to click on an organic link, the website owner is not charged a fee. If the customer chooses to click on one of the sponsored links, the website owner is charged whatever the fee that they have bid on for that listing.

Pay Per Click advertising charges the website owner for the clicks that it generates for that website. How high up on the list of advertisers that your link appears, is dependent upon the fee that the owner has bid for those key words and phrases.

There are pros and cons to both marketing tools. The advantages of Search Engine Optimization include once reaching a top position, you should be able to maintain that position. More searchers click on "organic" results than sponsored. Over an extended period of time, Search Engine Optimization can be less expensive than Per Per Click. The disadvantages are that creating an optimized design can be time consuming. It is non unusual to take up to six months to realize effective results of Search Engine Optimization, and placements can not be guaranteed. As search engines evolve, it is possible to lose your position quickly and without notice.

With Pay Per Click advertising, website owners pay only when their link is clicked. Potential customers are directed straight to a relevant page. Budgets can be created and maintained, generating traffic to your website for a minimal investment. The results of what customers are searching for can be tracked and quantified, allowing for rapid changes in your marketing strategy. One of the biggest disadvantages is cost. If not properly managed, bids can become expensive, as well as the potential difficulty in managing large volumes of keywords and phrases.

Which marketing technique should you choose? Ultimately, both; both SEO and PPC involve risk that they each offset. With SEO, your website is at the mercy of the search engine to achieve a higher position on its results. With PPC, your risk of losing position is smaller. With a high enough bid, your placement should not fluctuate drastically. As the competition for your customers increase, you may find yourself in the position of having to increase your bid to maintain your position, resulting in an increase in advertising costs. However, the utilization of Search Engine Optimization AND Pay Per Click will help you keep YOUR website, YOUR services, and YOUR products in front of YOUR customers.

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