Small Business Marketing: Pay-Per-Click or SEO?

When it comes to boosting traffic to your website, you have two basic options: pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or search engine optimization (SEO). You can pay for traffic using the PPC advertising programs provided by Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and others.

A common question that every small business owner has when it comes to driving visitors to his or her website is whether search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is the best option. These are the two most effective traffic sources and each has pro's and con's to consider.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC):

 

PPC advertising, also known as “Paid Search” or “Search Engine Marketing (SEM)”, is the process of paying for advertising on sites and search engines but the advertiser is not charged unless someone clicks on an ad. Most often (but not always) PPC is an auction where you compete for position against other advertisers.

PPC can allow for much quicker wins in visibility or conversions for advertisers whereas SEO is a long term effort of building a community to help your organic presence. While it can take a long time to rank #1 organically on search engine results pages via SEO, advertisers can use PPC ads to appear above organic or SEO results, seen in red in the image above, within minutes of opening an advertising account.

Advertisers select keywords to bid on, which match to the search queries, or actual words users are searching for. Similar to SEO, content (in ads) and relevancy are significant factors in getting ads to show in the top position. Search engines like Google give each ad a quality score (1-10 basis) based off of numerous factors which they unfortunately won’t elaborate much on. That quality score is then multiplied by your bid to get an overall Ad Rank.  In an auction setting like Google’s, an advertiser only ends up paying just a bit more than the one below them, after all Ad Ranks are evaluated. So the amount an advertiser bids is not necessarily what’s charged upon a click.

Pay-Per-Click Pro's

• Instant traffic to your website -- pay-per-click gives you the ability to have ads on the top of search results almost immediately after setting up a PPC campaign.

• Full control -- you are in complete control of your ad copy, the keywords that will trigger your ad and the destination URL that the visitor is sent to after they click on your ad.

• No worrying about algorithm updates -- PPC ads are not impacted like the organic (unpaid) search results are when search engines perform an algorithm update.

• Complete brand dominance -- Paid search marketing lets you control prime real estate in the search results when your brand shows up in both the natural results and the paid search results.

• Laser target your audience -- you can target your ideal customers by controlling what geographical locations will see your ads, allowing small businesses to only target potential local customers.

Pay-Per-Click Con's

• Can be very expensive -- pay-per-click can be very expensive if the campaign is not correctly set up, resulting in a depleted budget with little to nothing to show from it.

• Must test extensively -- PPC takes a lot of personal experience and ongoing testing, which is the reason many small businesses hire digital marketing firms to handle their PPC management.

• Must optimize constantly -- Paid search marketing is not a "set it and forget it" advertising option, as PPC campaigns require constant optimization and fine tuning in order to keep the ads performing and producing a ROI.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

 

SEO is about getting a website found and ranking high on search engine results pages. It is also often referred to as organic or natural search results, highlighted in blue above. When a searcher decides to click on these results there is no fee charged to that website.

The hard part is optimizing a site so that the search engines recognize it as highly qualified and relevant to the search query. This process can take time, and there’s no concrete answer for how to rank #1. While clicks on these links may be free, it can take an investment of time and money from a business to make the right optimizations to their site to produce the desired results.

It’s also important to remember that search engines are not real-time rankings; they’re an index of sites the engines have visited over time and they may only visit some sites every few days. A SEO manager’s job is to understand what these search engines deem relevant and high quality in order to make savvy and efficient decisions which will increase natural rankings when a site is surveyed or crawled. In order for a website to rank higher, there are two main factors search engines consider: On-Page and Off-Page factors.

On-Page factors include everything on your website that help search engines find it. Among many other factors, these elements include:

• Keywords that are relevant to the things people are searching for.
• The site’s architecture.  For example: load time, internal linking structure, title tags, search friendly URLs, and others.
• Content on the pages relevant to the products and users.  Content is KING!

Off-Page factors focuses on getting other sites to include a link/reference back to your website. This is seen as a vote of confidence in the eyes of the engines. Known as “Link Building” for SEOs, this process is best managed by building relationships and generating quality links vs. spamming links across the web. A few strategies for building links can be through guest blogging, sponsorships, discounts, infographics, building a resource or an asset.

Search Engine Optimization Pro's

• Natural exposure and credibility -- holding a top organic (unpaid) search result not only provides a lot of exposure but many consumers view organic search results as being more credible because they are not paid ads.

• Large ROI potential -- the organic search results will typically attract more clicks which bring in more conversions and revenue, and ultimately a solid ROI. 

• Exposure on several search engines -- high quality search engine optimization can provide your small business with exposure on several search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, AOL, and Bing.

Search Engine Optimization Con's

• Quality SEO takes time -- SEO can take many months to notice results, but when it is done the right way it can result in consistent website traffic and a nice ROI.

• High competition -- some business categories and keywords have very high competition and your small business might be trying to fight an uphill battle against corporations with huge budgets and resources. No business owner starts a search engine optimization campaign or hires a SEO company with the intention of going after page #2 -- everyone wants first page rankings and ultimately the top spot.

• Susceptible to algorithm updates -- an algorithm can really shuffle the search results, causing organic rankings to fall and months of hard work and money to be flushed down the drain -- this is why it is so important to use a SEO company that uses content marketing and social engagement rather than mass link building strategies. 

Final Thoughts

While pay-per-click marketing can produce immediate results you must be willing to spend the money, but it allows you to dominate the top paid search results. Search engine optimization can deliver a solid return in the long run and while it takes time to do it correctly you do not want to take any shortcuts that put your website in danger of a penalty.

Still wondering whether search engine optimization or pay-per-click is the right choice for your small business? Using a combination works really well, although it really comes down to your available budget and goals. 

The Anchor Tag and SEO

Anchor Text is the visible, click able text in a hyperlink. In modern browsers, it is often blue and underlined. SEO-friendly anchor text is relevant to the target page.

Tag: <a>

Syntax: <a href="url.html" title="keyword-rich link title here" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Viewable text</a>

Anchor tag indicates that the element located within will become a hyperlink. Hyperlinks are links on a page which point to other web pages. HREF stands for hypertext reference and its attribute is set to a URL. Anchors are links on a page which point to a particular position within a page. Both use the anchor tag syntax and have a number of attributes which can optionally be used. The title is displayed when the user moves their mouse over the link, while the anchor text (denoted by the string "Viewable Keyword-rich text" in the syntax description above) is the text which is displayed permanently on the page for everyone to see.

How Search Engines Use Anchor Text in SEO?

Search engines use the descriptive text in the anchor of a link in order to help determine the relevancy and topical nature of the page that it’s linking to.

For example, if a particular webpage has lots of backlinks with the anchor “digital marketing”, “digital marketing tips”, “digital marketing and seo blog”, and then search engines will be able to recognize and understand the context of the target page.

In addition to anchor text, search engines also analyze the content of the source page (i.e. the page the link is on) and the keywords and title tag of the target page in order to determine relevancy and content. This process then allows Google to return more relevant results to their users in the search queries.

Finally, SEOs have proven in the past that when you have two links on a page that both point to the same destination, Google only counts the anchor text of the “first” link when assigning relevancy.

What SEO’s should know about the <a> tag?

• Always use targeted keywords in the anchor text, i.e. <a href=”http://codigitalmarketing.blogspot.in/” title=”digital marketing and seo”> digital marketing and seo</a>.
• Never use meaningless words like Click Here in your anchor text.
• While the title attribute is not indexed and taken into consideration by search engines, it is still advisable to use it, i.e. <a href=”http://codigitalmarketing.blogspot.in/” title=”digital marketing and seo”> digital marketing and seo</a>.
• Make sure that the content of the linked page contains the keyword you use as anchor text for the link to that page.
• Ideally, the anchor text in your link should be repeated at the beginning of the <title> tag of the linked page.
• Consult with the copywriter (if any) about the anchor text of the link if he/she wants something, and you want something else. Explain to him/her the importance of keyword rich anchor text.
• Don’t link to and don’t get linked to from junk websites.
• When building links from external websites, frequently alternate the anchor text with alternate versions of the targeted keywords.
• No followed links from external website may not pass links, but they are useful if they send targeted traffic (i.e., Wikipedia links are not followed, but they can send qualified leads).
• Don’t get stuck on keyword density, and don’t try to screw up the copywriter’s work.

What copywriters should know about the anchor tag?

• The anchor text is important for both search engines and readers.
• You should balance creativity and SEO.
• Use strong call to action verbs outside the anchor text.
• Don’t use generic terms like Click Here to link a page.
• Put the most important keywords in links, at the beginning of the anchor text if possible.
• Don’t stuff your copy with links on the same exact targeted keywords; use keyword variations (i.e. plural vs. singular versions) for the anchor text.
• Search engines use stemming (reducing a word to its stem or root) in their algorithm.
• Don’t repeat the same anchor text more than 2 times per 100 words – use synonyms instead. 

Short Tail vs. Long Tail: Which Type of Keyword is best for Your Website?

Keywords play a big role in Search Engine Optimization of your Website. The question of which type of keyword your web pages should be optimized for simply has no clear-cut answer that applies in all situations; short tail and long tail keywords both have a role to play in driving traffic to your site. Your choice of short tail or long tail keywords largely depends on your marketing goals.

The idea behind his words still resonates with today’s SEO practitioner: 

“Use head keywords to generate volume and long tail keywords to generate profit.”

We're sure that some of you might already know what long tail keywords are. For others, here is the definition – 

“A long tail keyword is a combination of 3-6 words that are specific and relevant to the products you sell. In simple terms, any generic keyword that has product features, Model number, SKU no. price range, etc. can be taken as a long tail keyword.”

Here is an example of both long tail and short tail keywords:

Long Tail Keywords:

• Canon power shot digital camera 2MP
• 17 inch LCD TV free shipping
• Barack Obama action figure

Short Tail Keywords:

• Digital Camera
• LCD TV
• Desktop
• Mp3 Music player

Long Tail keywords vs. Short keywords

A short tail keyword, also known as a head term, is a broad root keyword that represents a single idea. A person who is using short tail keywords (general keywords to be specific) such as digital camera may be looking for different brands/models available in digital camera or might be conducting some research on how digital camera works. So it is better to make your category pages filled with short keywords. Example: Digital Camera, Desktop, etc…

Ranking well for short keywords is not a bad idea, but at the same time it may not work always. A person who is using long tail keyword such as “Canon power shot digital camera 2MP “has already done some research and may be evaluating the product price, merchants selling it, etc… and is more likely to purchase the product.

Short tail keywords generally have more search traffic potential than longer phrases, but are also harder to rank for.

While long tail keywords deliver less traffic than short tail head terms, they are usually considerably easier to rank for than short tail keywords.

In addition to being easier to rank for, long tail keywords deliver a better conversion rate. When users type in longer and more specific search phrases, they are generally closer to making a purchase decision. Users who are still in the product research phase tend to use shorter and less specific search terms.

Advertisers running pay per click ad campaigns can also benefit from long tail keywords. When you bid on long tail terms, there is usually much less competition than for shorter head terms. Less competition means that your cost per click is going to be considerably lower.

A good marketing strategy is to have pages that will target bigger subsets of users by using short tail keywords and others that will attract specific users by using long tail keywords. You aren’t limited to one or the other so use both types of keywords.

Optimize for a Combination of Short and Long Tail Keywords

Most websites will benefit from optimizing for both short and long tail terms. Short head terms are great for driving volumes of visitors to your site who could potentially be added to your email list as well as for establishing brand awareness.