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. 

What is a press release or a news release?

A press release or a news release is a written announcement directed at members of the news media about something claimed as having news value. This encourages the journalists to write a news article on the subject giving you a lot more exposure for free. Press releases can announce a range of business news such as: scheduled events, awards, accomplishments, new products, new services, executive promotions, sales and other financial data, etc.

A well-written press release should contain embedded links to key web pages on your site. Then, when it is distributed through a press release distribution service and is syndicated and posted on numerous third-party websites and blogs, you automatically have a powerful set of links (with chosen anchor text) back to your site. This means those links serve as a link signal for the major search engines and elevate your search visibility for your website. 

Here are some tips for ensuring you optimize your next press release: 

Make sure your press release is newsworthy

The first step you’ll want to take before you sit down to write your release is to make sure you aren’t just writing a marketing pitch. A press release should let people know about something new that’s happening, whether that’s internal company development, or a larger trend/story that your news/company fits into. 

Clearly define your goals and target audience

Think long and hard about exactly which types of publications you are hoping to target with this release, and then write the release with those publications in mind. Really think about whom your ideal audience would be, what story hook would appeal to them and how you might be able to interest them in your story. 

Structure your release like a news story – and focus on getting your keywords in first two paragraphs

Structure your release like a news story. If you studied journalism, you are familiar with the infamous inverted pyramid theory. Stick to that structure. The more the release is written like an existing news piece you might see in the press, the better chances you’ll have of getting it picked up. 

In addition, search engines place a disproportionate amount of importance on the content early in your release — specifically the headline, subhead and first two paragraphs. Make sure to use your targeted keywords as often as you can within this space.

How to Write a Press Release?

So, how to write a press release? That's a million dollar question. If done right, it can indeed bring you a million dollars in revenue. Let's get started by answering what a press release is.

"A press release is simply a statement prepared for distribution to the news media announcing something claimed as having news value with the intent of gaining media coverage."

A press release consists of following elements:

Headline

The headline is the first single line of text in the press release and tells what the press release is about. It can be a very effective tool to grab the attention of the journalists, so writing it from a journalist’s perspective is very important. Think what headlines catch your eyes in the newspaper.

The headline should be descriptive but not too long. For the later reason, PRLog limits it to 100 characters. The headline should be formatted in title case, that is, each word in the sentence should have first letter capitalized, and rest of the letters in lowercase. Acronyms can be in uppercase.

Summary

The summary lets you build up your chance to sell your press release to the journalist. It is generally a requirement of online press release services. Identify a unique feature about your product or service and then write how it is going to revolutionize the world.

The summary should be a single paragraph with about three to five lines. Beyond 250 characters is too long, so this is the limit for PRLog. All sentences in the summary should be in sentence case, that is, only first letter of a sentence should be capital, and all others should be lowercase. Again, acronyms can be all capital letters.

Body

Dateline

The dateline contains the release date of the press release and usually also the originating city of the press release. For online press release services like PRLog, the date stamp is automatic and should not be entered.

Introduction

The introduction is where the press release body starts. It is the first paragraph in a press release, that generally gives basic answers to the questions of who, what, when, where and why.

Details

The details come after the introduction. It gives further explanation, statistics, background, or other details relevant to the news and also serves to back up whatever claims were made in the introductory paragraph.

The body should be at least 3000 characters or 500 words. PRLog allows you a much higher limit of 8000 characters. The body should have a minimum of two paragraphs. All paragraphs should be ideally between 5 to 8 lines each. There should be a blank line after each paragraph for good visibility.

About

The about section is also called the "boilerplate" as it used over and over again. It is generally a short section providing background information on the press release issuing company or organization.

Media Contact Information

This section contains the contact information like name, phone number, email address, mailing address, etc for the media relations contact person. For good credibility, the email address should be the same as the organization the press release is about. For example, if the press release is about an organization with a website called abcd.com, then the email address should be email_address@abcd.com.

General Tips

A press release should be written in third person. Instead of using we, us and ours, your should be using they, them and theirs.

It is very useful to look at other people's press releases. Feel free to take a look at the most viewed press releases, as it usually gives a lot of insight into how to write a press release.

Press Release sites list:-

1. http://www.prnewswire.com/

2. http://www.prleap.com/

3. http://www.i-newswire.com/

4. http://pressreleaser.org/

5. http://www.1888pressrelease.com/

6. http://www.24-7pressrelease.com

7. http://www.clickpress.com/

8. http://www.freepressindex.com/

9. http://www.free-press-release.com/

10. http://www.marketpressrelease.com/

11. http://www.mediasyndicate.com

12.http://www.newswiretoday.com/

13. http://www.onlineprnews.com/

14. http://www.openpr.com/

15. http://www.scoopasia.com

SEO Techniques: Article submission

Article submission is a powerful internet marketing service in which we write articles related to our industry and then do manual submissions in quality article directories, relevant blogs and content rich websites. For which our website link will appear faster in the Search Engines because these directories are regularly crawled, also get more amount of visitors and backlinks as well which indirectly helps for ranking well in search engines.

But remember Article submission is only helpful if we are submitting unique content on high quality article site.

There are various benefits of article submission including advertising, marketing and publicity of your business on the World Wide Web. Two of the main benefits are:

• Article submissions can enhance and improve the ranking of your online business in search engines byincreasing the quantity of backlinks and PR.
• Another benefit that article submission offers is that of establishing the particular website owner as an expert in their industry. By providing valuable detail and information within articles, it builds the trust of potential customers thereby giving them a reason to visit your website.

5 key points to consider while writing articles

During the process of article submission do not forget to consider below 5 key points. Following these points will meet the purpose of both i.e. your target audience and search engines.

1. Articles should be original and information rich.
2. Articles should be keyword rich but not excessive to the point of keyword stuffing.
3. The average length of articles should be between 500 and 700.
4. Give a unique title to your article with main keyword into it so as to make it easy for web crawlers to identify and classify the topic of your article.
5. Giving subheadings, bullets and numberings to articles make it presentable and easy to read for potential customers.

Article Submission sites list:-

1. http://ezinearticles.com/

2. http://www.articlesbase.com/

3. http://www.articlesnatch.com/

4. http://scriffon.com/

5. http://slashdot.org/

6. http://www.articlebiz.com/

7. http://www.articlecube.com/

8. http://www.articlealley.com/

9. http://www.amazines.com/

10. http://www.articlesphere.com/

11. http://hubpages.com/

12. http://goarticles.com/

13. http://www.articlecity.com/

14. http://www.isnare.com/

15. http://www.articledashboard.com/

16. http://www.articlecontentking.com/

What are On Page SEO and Off Page SEO?

Search engine optimization is the term used to describe a set of processes that aim in optimizing a website for search engines. SEO is important not only for getting high quality visitors but it is also a way to increase the credibility of a website and to expand brand awareness.

Search engines are using complex algorithms to determine which pages to include in their index and the order they show these pages in the search results. SEO is the way to ‘speak’ to search engines in a language they can understand and provide them with more details about a website.

SEO has two major components, On Page and off page SEO.

On Page SEO: -

On Page SEO refers to settings you can apply on the website so that it is optimized for search engines. The most important on Page SEO Tips are:

• Optimized titles and descriptions
• Proper URL Structures
• User friendly navigation (user sitemaps)
• Optimized internal links
• Text formatting (use of h1, h2, bold etc)
•  Image optimization (image size, proper image names, use of ALT tag)
•  User friendly 404 pages
•  Fast loading pages
•  Google Authorship verification for all pages
•  Top quality fresh content (This is always the most important SEO factor!)
•  External links (no broken links or links to ‘bad’ sites)

Off Page SEO

Unlike On- page SEO, off-page SEO refers to activities outside the boundaries of the webpage. The most important are:

•         Link Building
•         Social Media
•         Social bookmarking

Why is Off-Page SEO important?

Search engines have been trying for decades to find a way to return the best results to the searcher. To do that, they take into account the on-site SEO factors (described above), some other quality factors and off-page SEO.

Off page SEO gives them a very good indication on how the World (other websites and users) perceive the particular website. A web site that is useful is more likely to have references (links) from other websites; it is more likely to have mentions on social media (Facebook likes, tweets, Pins, +1’s etc.) and it is more likely to be bookmarked and shared among communities of like-minded users.

What are the benefits of ‘off-site SEO’ to website owners?

A successful off-site SEO strategy will generate the following benefits to website owners:

Increase in rankings – The website will rank higher in the SERPs and this also means more traffic.

Increase in PageRank – Page rank is a number between 0 and 10 which indicates the importance of a website in the eyes of Google. It is the system invented by Larry Page (one of Google’s founders) and one of the reasons that Google was so successful in showing the most relevant results to the searcher.  Page rank today is only one out of the 250 factors that Google is using to rank websites.

More exposure – Higher rankings also means greater exposure because when a website ranks in the top positions: it gets more links, more visits and more social media mentions. It’s like a never ending sequence of events where one thing leads to another and then to another etc.

Link Building

Link building is the most popular off-Page SEO method.  Basically by building external links to your website, you are trying to gather as many ‘votes’ as you can so that you can bypass your competitors and rank higher. For example if someone likes this article and references it from his/her website or blog, then this is like telling search engines that this page has good information.

Over the years webmasters were trying to build links to their websites so that they rank higher and they ‘invented’ a number of ways to increase link count. The most popular ways were: -

Blog Directories – something like yellow pages but each entry was a link back to a website.

Forum Signatures – Many people where commenting on forums for the sole purpose of getting a link back to their website (they included the links in their signature).

Article Directories – By publishing your articles on an article directory you could get a link (or 2) back to your website. Some article directories accepted only unique content while other directories accepted anything from spin articles to already published articles.

Shared Content Directories – Websites like hubpages and infobarrel allowed you to publish content and in return you could add a couple of links pointing to your websites.

Link exchange schemes – Instead of trying to publish content you could get in touch with other webmasters and exchange links. In other words I could link your website from mine and you could do the same. In some cases you could even do more complicated exchanges by doing a 3-way link, in other words I link to your website from my website but you link to my website from a different website.

SocialMedia

Social media is part of ‘off-site SEO’ and if you think about it, it’s also a form of link building. It should be noted that almost all of the links you get from social media sites are “nofollow” but this does not mean that they do not have any value.

Social Media mentions are gaining ground as ranking factors and proper configuration of social media profilescan also boost SEO.

SocialBookmarking

Social bookmarking is not as popular as it used to be in the past but it is still a good way to get traffic to your website. 

Conclusion

Off-page SEO is as important as on-site SEO. If you want your SEO campaigns to be successful you have to do both. When thinking about link building doesn’t take the easy way, but try to get links from hard-to-get places. The more difficult is to get a link, the more value it has.

In the past you could easily get thousands of links and rank higher but nowadays you have to do more than that.  My advice is to forget about link building all together and put all your efforts in making a great website, promote it correctly and everything else will follow.