When it comes to garnishing traffic for your business site, you have two methods to select from. The first is to utilize paid search terms, which is offered by services such as Google adwords. The second option is Search Engine optimization, which focuses on achieving a high organic ranking instead. There are pros and cons to each strategy and determining which one is best for you situation can be a difficult challenge. To help you discover the benefits and drawbacks of these different approaches, they will be examined in further detail below.

The first method you can employ to drive focused traffic to you webpage, is pay per click advertisements. These are offered by search engines such as Google, and can represent a tremendous advantage for your marketing campaign. What benefits do services like adwords possess over organic rankings?

First, they allow you to bid for and win competitive keyword phrases, ones for which you could never rank through Search Engine optimization efforts. The niches for highly sought after keywords can be difficult to break into, as the top ranking pages will often have millions of viable backlinks to their page. Google uses search bots to scour the web, and uncover legitimate links which point back to individual websites. The more of these links which it finds, the more weight Google gives the page, and this is how top ranking sites come to be placed first in the listings. If you are targeting users for extremely popular keyword phrases, adwords gives you a shortcut through this difficult rating process straight to the top of the page. In fact, your paid search result will display above the organic rankings, meaning users will see your link before any other.

However, a note here needs to mentioned. Competitive keywords cost much more than lesser so options, and the cost per click can be prohibitively high. Whether or not this is a viable option can depend upon the product or service you are marketing. Some high dollar products will need only a few sales to defray the advertising costs. Yet, if you have a smaller profit margin you may be better served to split your online campaign into smaller, less competitive segments. How can this work? By bidding on keywords with only a medium level of competition, you will tend to get less traffic from one term alone. However, by running many separate keywords at once, you will reach the same amount of traffic as when procuring one frequently searched phrase.

A second major benefit of adword campaigns, is the targeted traffic which they provide. As any experienced online marketer will tell you, traffic is meaningless without accompanying sales. Sales are the lifeblood of any business and the income they can provide are what make your advertising efforts sustainable over time. You want users who are truly interested in your offered products, not people who are merely curious, who will simply pass through. When paying for each visitor to your page, you need high quality traffic, which will provide a high rate of conversion. Therefore, it is important to choose your search terms carefully, to ensure users are interested in what you are selling.

The third advantage to using adwords rather than Search Engine optimization is the instant feedback which it provides. With the built in tools which are now available, you can track and adjust each campaign in real time. This gives you the ability to maximize your marketing dollars, and will give you a higher cost to profit ratio in the end. The precise data which you receive will give you an accurate picture of the success of your current endeavor. Though you can steer your SEO efforts as well, these are much more difficult to gauge correctly, and it often takes months to see the effect of any changes.

Finally, pay per click ads have several other features as well, which you can’t replicate with Search Engine optimization. With PPC services you control important variables, such as the time when your ad is displayed. You can also select your preferred region as well, focusing your efforts to the audience with the most chance for success. Also, you can steer your visitors to the page of your choice, unlike traffic which stems from organic rankings.

It is now time to turn our attention to the benefits which Search Engine optimization alone offers. Its primary advantages can be summarized by two features: their cost per click and greater consumer trust. As you are probably aware, once you’ve achieved a high organic ranking in the search engine’s results, you will begin to receive a steady flow of free traffic. Unlike pay per click marketing strategies, you incur no expense for this privilege, and this can make a drastic impact upon your profit margin. Without the need to invest in an advertising budget, your business’ income stream can head steadily upwards unabated. While SEO strategies are by and large free, they aren’t without an investment of time and effort. It will take diligence and patience on your part, but high rankings can be achieved.

Search Engine optimization holds another attraction as well – consumers give organic listings a higher level of credence. Today’s online users are highly sophisticated, and they are well aware that paid listings sometimes represent an inferior choice. Since companies can buy these page placements, some have chosen irrelevant search terms, which don’t correlate well to the topic in question. Consumers know of this tendency, and place more confidence in the organic search results as a consequence.

Using SEO strategies to garnish organic rankings holds a third advantage as well – it has much lower risk. With paid search campaigns, you must incur an expense (often a large one), without any guarantee of closing one sale. While you can adjust your campaign in real time, doing so is not promised to help. Search Engine optimization has no upfront expense, so if you are unsuccessful you’ve only lost the time spent on the project.

In conclusion, both adwords and SEO efforts have features which commend them and pitfalls to be aware of. Adwords will give you the top ranking instantly, for terms which may be unobtainable through any other approach. Also, you receive targeted traffic, maintain control over which page users first visit and can track your changes instantly. However, the costs involved can negatively impact your profit margin and represent a higher level of risk. In contrast, Search Engine optimization has no associated expense, favorably effecting your bottom line. Further, consumers give organic listings a greater level of trust and it carries less risk to pursue. Yet, it can take time to produce results and can be difficult to track and adjust.

When selecting the appropriate option for your situation, your particular needs must come into play. To determine which method will best fit your needs, you must weigh the pros and cons of each strategy. If instant results are most important, then adwords is a good option. Yet, if money is tight instead, then Search Engine optimization could be the correct choice. While either approach will yield results, this careful consideration will ensure you are pleased with the outcome.

If you need help with either organic SEO or Paid advertising please contact us we can help you.