When it comes to Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing are the two most important techniques to master. But which one is better? Both are effective ways of driving traffic to your website. However, when you want to drive traffic to a specific page, which could be your Pay-Per-Click link or your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) links, SEO will often give you a wider range of targeted traffic. On the other hand, PPC may only get you visitors who are specifically looking for what you have to offer by using search engine optimization techniques.

There are basically two types of internet marketing – Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Optimization. The first involves placing ads on search engines such as Yahoo!, Google, and MSN that direct readers to a specific web page or specific ad unit. The second involves placing paid advertisements on other websites, both on and offline, that direct readers to your website. Typically, sponsored results are displayed on the right side of search results, above the organic listing. In general, if a user types a keyword query in a search engine, your sponsored results will be shown first.

A typical scenario would be an online retailer opening a brick and mortar store, choosing a location, getting permits and equipment, and purchasing products to display in the store. As part of the planning process, the owner would choose keywords for the website, place ads for them on various sites, and write blogs and articles to describe their products. He would also create a Pay-Per-Click budget to maximize the amount of traffic directed to his website. Eventually, when inventory was full and he needed to fill orders, he would simply use his Search Engine Optimization budget to pay people to click on those ads, resulting in increased sales. The owner’s efforts were then translated into increased click-through-rate (CTR) – a calculation used by the search engine results pages to measure how many times a user searched for a given keyword and how many times he or she clicked on an ad.

Search Engine Optimization is also referred to as SEO.

An enterprising individual, working from home, can implement Search Engine Optimization to boost web traffic to his website. He does not need funding, employees, or space; he simply needs to implement PPC ads on partner websites. Through Search Engine Optimization, he can increase website traffic without paying additional expenses. For example, a website owner may choose to place AdSense ads on partner websites that have relevant content to attract visitors. Each time a visitor to one of the partner websites clicked on the AdSense ad, the owner would be charged a small fee.

Search Engine Optimization works best when the ad copy and ads are well-written. One way to write good copy is to use the same keywords that you are advertising. Search engines will give higher results when your keywords match those used by users in searching the internet. You can also use keywords that are searched in search results or content.

Pay-per-click optimization works by bidding on specific keywords and using keyword phrases that are related to the content. If your keyword is a high ranking keyword, it will likely draw attention because your ad shows up first during a user’s query. However, if your keyword isn’t a top ranking word, it will be more challenging to get ranked in search engines and therefore harder to reach top rankings for the same keyword in advertisements.

Search Engine Optimization is not guaranteed to increase organic traffic.

Organic traffic refers to visitors that come to your site without purchasing anything, such as traffic generated through affiliate marketing programs. Search Engine Optimization will increase organic traffic, but paid traffic will be much faster. PPC can help increase organic traffic but paid marketing will drive more visitors to your site.

The bottom line: Search Engine Optimization is essential to growing a website, but it does not guarantee rankings. SEO works best when you have a well-written article with relevant keywords, relevant back links, and lots of high quality content.

• Pay-per-click campaigns can help draw attention to websites with good rankings.
• However, you can drive organic traffic to your site by using good keyword research and choosing a profitable niche market.
• As you can see, SEO vs PPC are an important choice for your business.