There are two major search engine marketing strategies in usetoday: SEO (search engine optimization) and (pay-per-click).Both strategies are entirely different and it is tough to decidewhich one or which combination is right for you.

To decide which strategy is best for you, consider the basics.It is easier to judge the pros and cons when taking the bigpicture into account. People will continue to battle for the topsearch engine positions. Search engine marketing is undoubtedlyone of the best sources of targeted traffic.

As people continuously try to find new and unique ways to getadditional traffic to their web sites, the SEO industrycontinues to grow. refers to advertising on a search enginethat charges on a per click basis whenever a visitor clicks onone of your ads. The order of ads is usually based on biddingprices, meaning that the advertiser who bids the highest priceper click will be listed first. These sponsored listings areknown as listings.

SEO tries to change your search engine ranking by looking at anumber of factors including link popularity, Page Rank and soon. If your web site is search engine optimized then obviouslyyou are more likely to have a good ranking in the searchengines. A well-optimized and marketed site will be listed inthe top results whenever a person searches for related keywords.One of the best benefits of SEO marketing is you don't have topay for any clicks! So, how can we decide which method isbetter? Both methods actually serve different purposes. However,one is likely to be a better fit for your business than theother one.

PPC

PPC traffic, rankings and results tend to be more stable andpredictable than SEO, and, combined with its low cost, thismakes one of the more popular ways of advertising. Mostcompanies try before they try SEO, because it's seen as morestable. In many cases lets you rank well on the searchengines, without having to do the tedious work involved in SEO -no finding link partners, posting links, creating content and soon. As long as you have the budget for it, the ranking is yours.Another advantage is that the listing will get posted when youwant it and not when the search engine gets around to it. WithPPC's popularity growing day by day, the market is also gettingcompetitive. You will find that CPC's (costs per clicks) aresteadily rising, and for a common man it is getting tough toinvest much. As with most auctions, the more people bidding onPPC, the higher



the prices get.

SEO

The main benefit of SEO is that it does not cost per click. Thedisadvantages are that the traffic to your website is moreunpredictable and requires a lot of work. With SEO, you have toadapt and constantly change strategies as search engines changetheir algorithms. SEO is also slower than PPC, as many searchengines don't list new sites. So what should you choose? Well,it depends on how much money you are willing to spend, what yourtime line is, and what your return on investment is. If you havecash then should be your first choice, as it produces fastresults. can also be used for testing the effectiveness ofweb sites. If you have time and money to invest in long-termresults, SEO is an excellent option as well.

All and all, the best marketing strategy is typically to go withPPC in the short term to get immediate traffic and analyzeconversions. SEO should then be taken with a long term view inmind, so you can reap the benefits of free traffic later on.

About the author:Halstatt Pires is an internet marketing consultant withhttp://www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego internet marketingfirm. Get total ecommerce solutions athttp://www.businesscreatorpro.com - a fully automated businessweb site solution.